Call to Worship:  
God is love,
And his word is his valentine.
As Jesus delivers his Word to his people,
May we deliver his love to others.

Unison Prayer:  
In a world full of sorrow,
Let us form a community of joy.
In a world full of hatred,
Let us form a community of love.
In a world full of rivalry,
Let us form a community of peace.

Words of Assurance: 1 John 4:19, Good News Bible
We love because God first loved us.

The Lord’s Prayer
Our Father,
who art in heaven,
hallowed be thy name.
Thy kingdom come,
thy will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread;
and forgive us our trespasses,
as we forgive those who trespass against us.
And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil;
for thine is the kingdom,
and the power,
and the glory forever.
Amen.

Opening Song: Cory Asbury, “Your Love Is Strong”

Scripture Reading: 1 Corinthians 13:1-7, Good News Bible

I may be able to speak the languages of human beings and even of angels, but if I have no love, my speech is no more than a noisy gong or a clanging bell.  I may have the gift of inspired preaching; I may have all knowledge and understand all secrets; I may have all the faith needed to move mountains—but if I have no love, I am nothing.  I may give away everything I have, and even give up my body to be burned—but if I have no love, this does me no good.

Love is patient and kind; it is not jealous or conceited or proud;  love is not ill-mannered or selfish or irritable; love does not keep a record of wrongs;  love is not happy with evil, but is happy with the truth.  Love never gives up; and its faith, hope, and patience never fail.

Sunday Sermon

We’ve heard this Scripture our whole lives, in church, at weddings and in conversation. We’ve heard it so often that many people can recite it without thinking. It’s a beautiful passage, but so familiar that its power has been blunted. Today I want to look at the passage in a new way, and hopefully restore some of its impact.

The first thing to point out is that Paul isn’t writing about romantic love. The passage can be applied to romantic love, but Paul is writing about Christian love. And the first component is patience.

Love is patient with other people. Love is patient when it is standing on a supermarket line and the person in front of us is buying a lot of stuff and doesn’t have bags and can’t find their wallet and when they do, they don’t have enough money. Love is patient when it is stuck in traffic and the person in front of us keeps braking for no reason and the person in back of us is too close to our bumper and the person next to us wants to get in front of us for no apparent reason because it’s clear none of us is going anywhere anytime soon. Love is patient when a spouse just doesn’t get it and the reason they don’t get it is because they weren’t listening, and if you’ve told them once, you’ve told them a hundred times, to which they respond, “sorry, what was that?” Love is patient when a child isn’t picking up their stuff as fast as we’d like or is taking too long in the bathroom or forgot their homework again or just told you at 8 p.m. that they need something for school tomorrow.

Love is patient and if this doesn’t describe you, that’s fine, but Paul is saying, then it’s not love.

In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus asks, “Why should you get any credit if you only love people who love you, or say hi to people who say hi to you? Everybody does that!” It’s a fair question. If we choose to love some people and not others, love becomes easy. But love is not easy.

Love is kind to all people. Love, for no other reason than it’s love, holds the doors for others, makes polite conversation, looks for the best in everyone, compliments them, does unexpected favors. Love says yes when it can. Love drops off the food, collects the clothes, stops by the hospital, starts the GoFundMe page, offers a ride. Love is gentle even when it disagrees with an opinion. Love tries to understand that everyone has bad days and that many people have bad lives. Love shows mercy. Love says, “There but for the grace of God go I.” And love has a soft spot for those to whom others have not been kind. Love is especially kind to those who have been hurt or abused, those who have lost their jobs, those who are battling addiction, those who are on the streets. Love goes out of its way to be kind to victims of hate: immigrants, people of color, the LGBTQI+ community.

And if this doesn’t sound like you, Paul is saying, I guess that’s to be expected, but it’s not love.

Love sees that other people are happier, or that their love lives are better, or that they have more money, or that their children are better behaved, or that they get to go on more vacations, or that they are better looking or younger or healthier. And love somehow finds a way to be happy for them, because love is not jealous or bitter or envious. Love applies its energy to itself, to having a healthy attitude and a sense of perspective, because there will always be someone richer, someone younger and someone better looking, and so what?

But on the flip side, love doesn’t lord it over other people. Love doesn’t say, “I’m a good person” or “I’m a good Christian,” because the implication is that someone else isn’t. Love wonders if it is good, because love is aware of its own faults, its own failures, its own sins, but love always tries to be good, always tries to do the right thing, and when it isn’t sure what the right thing is, love looks for help. Sometimes, despite its best intentions, love ends up doing the wrong thing, or making things worse, which is why love keeps returning to God and to other people and saying, “I’ll take responsibility. I’m sorry. I’ll try not to do it again.” Love knows that it doesn’t know everything, so love is always seeking, always learning, always growing.

Love is not ill-mannered or selfish or irritable, even when love has gotten up on the wrong side of the bed, hasn’t had its coffee, is late for work, is feeling under the weather, is overwhelmed by life, can’t remember its password, gets charged for something it didn’t buy, receives the wrong order, hasn’t heard back from someone, has just seen something on the news, and can’t find its cellphone, glasses or keys. These things happen to everyone. They are unavoidable, and maybe our moods are too. But when these things get to us, and we’re short with other people, or snap at them, or say something sarcastic, or start having negative thoughts such as “I hate people” or “Why do I even try”, or wondering if maybe it’s time for God to end the world, we have to realize that we’re not thinking in love, and when we’re not thinking in love, we’re not likely to act in love.

And most of us – and I hate to admit it, because it includes me – do keep a record of wrongs, but it’s not love. We remember everyone who has even hurt us. But what we do with this is crucial. We can dwell on it and replay it over and over in our minds and think about elaborate revenge schemes and look people up on the internet to see if they’re dead yet, but this is definitely not love. We can let hate and hurt rule our lives, and be resentful, and say we don’t deserve to be treated this way, and we can blame evil spouses and mean bosses and bad doctors, and even blame God, and define our lives by how unfair our circumstances have been, and travel further and further from love, so far that we may fail to recognize it when it is right in front of our faces.

Or – OR ~ we can try our best to forgive and move on. And maybe the other person isn’t sorry, or still thinks they’re right, or didn’t think they did anything wrong, or didn’t care, but it doesn’t matter. Instead of keeping a record of wrongs, we might start keeping a record of rights. What blessings have brought us this far, and what blessings do we have today? What beauty still remains in the world? What did Jesus see when he looked down from the cross at those who had put him there and prayed, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do?” And if we’re still keeping a record of wrongs, we might ask ourselves, “Am I in someone else’s book, and do I deserve it, and if so, what would I do to be forgiven, and how would I feel if they forgave me?”

Here’s where it gets tricky. Love is not happy with a lie, but love is happy with the truth, which means love sometimes has to confront evil. We live in an age that some call “post-truth,” presented with “alternative facts,” but this doesn’t mean that all truth is relative. When we’re told that climate change isn’t real, even though 97% of scientists say it is, we should ask, “Who benefits from this statement?” When we’re told that vaccines are bad, and then kids start dying of measles, we need to see the hard science, not the conjecture. And here’s one conservatives should like: when an official implies that carrying a gun makes a person a domestic terrorist, we should ask, “does this mean that 40% of Americans are terrorists?” Because this can’t be true. The hardest part is to speak truth in love ~ to confront evil while keeping a handle on our emotions.

Jesus tells us to love our enemies and even to pray for them, and models this behavior himself. Paul tells the Romans, “Do not overcome evil with evil, but overcome evil with good.” And to the Galatians he writes, “if someone is caught in any kind of wrongdoing, those of you who are spiritual should set him right; but you must do it in a gentle way. And keep an eye on yourselves, so that you will not be tempted, too.” In other words, we cannot become what we hate. We cannot let our anger lead us into sin, because then love goes out the door.

Love is hard work. Fortunately, there is reassurance: “Love never gives up; and its faith, hope and patience never fail.” We cannot conquer hate with more hate. Love is always the right choice. In the end, love will redeem the entire world. Jesus says that the greatest love is to give one’s life for someone else. When we choose love, we come a little closer to seeing through Jesus’ eyes, and to understanding the reason for the cross. Amen.

Closing Song: Bethel Music, “Stand In Your Love”

Benediction
Know that God’s love is eternal.
Go forth to love and be loved in return. Amen.