I have never been much of a poetry aficionado. Every once in a while, however, a poem captures my interest,
and one of those rare poems is by the poet ee cummings. I don’t know what there is about the
poem, but I really like it. I like
it enough that I carry a copy of it in my Bible. The poem is titled I
Carry Your Heart With Me, and here it is (please note that the
capitalization and spacing is according to the way it was originally published
by cummings) –
i carry your heart with me(i
carry it in
my heart)i am never without it(anywhere
i go you go,my dear; and
whatever is done
by only me is your doing,my
darling)
i fear
no fate(for you are my fate,my
sweet)i want
no world(for beautiful you are
my world,my true)
and it’s you are whatever a
moon has always meant
and whatever a sun will always
sing is you
here is the deepest secret
nobody knows
(here is the root of the root
and the bud of the bud
and the sky of the sky of a
tree called life;which grows
higher than the soul can hope
or mind can hide)
and this is the wonder that’s
keeping the stars apart
i carry your heart(i carry it
in my heart)
There is something about that line i carry your heart(i carry it in my heart)
that I find very moving. I guess
it’s the way it touches on love, and who doesn’t like the idea of love, right? Love is so powerful and so overwhelming
that we struggle to find language to express that love, and that is why poetry
and music are such powerful tools when it comes to speaking about love, because
normal language will not suffice.
We need language that is poetic and metaphorical, and that is the kind
of language that allows us to take normal, every day phrases and imbue them
with much deeper meaning.
This morning we begin a new series
of messages based on I Corinthians 13, which we often refer to as the love chapter. I Corinthians 13 is one of the most
beloved passages in all of Scripture, and it is easy to see why. Written in beautiful, soaring, poetic,
metaphorical language, those words of Paul call us to the highest of ideals –
love. The words are so beautiful
that they have become embedded in our larger culture, to the point that even
people who have never picked up a Bible know about this passage and can even
quote bits and pieces of it.
I’m not sure how long I am going to go with
this series; it will probably take four to six weeks to work through it, but
we’ll take whatever amount of time is necessary. This morning we will take the first few verses as we talk
about Making Love Visible. We will also use different translations
each week, as different translations help us to gain insights we might not
otherwise find. This week I will
read from the New International Translation. Next week I will use the King James Version. Follow along with me as I read those
immortal words of I Corinthians 13:1-13 –
1 If
I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a
resounding gong or a clanging cymbal.
2 If
I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and
all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have
love, I am nothing.
3 If
I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may
boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.
4 Love
is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.
5 It
does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it
keeps no record of wrongs.
6 Love
does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.
7 It
always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
8 Love
never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are
tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away.
9 For
we know in part and we prophesy in part,
10 but
when completeness comes, what is in part disappears. 11 When I was a child, I talked like a
child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I
put the ways of childhood behind me.
12 For
now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face.
Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.
13 And now these three remain: faith, hope
and love. But the greatest of these is love.
I have to admit that there is some
irony in my preaching about love this morning. As I was driving to church today my mind, for some reason,
went back some years to thinking about a very difficult, painful time, a time
made difficult and painful because of a person who very consciously had decided
to make my life difficult, and by the time I got to church I was not in a
loving mood. Perhaps that is all
the more reason why I needed to present this message this morning. All of us struggle with love, certainly
with the call to love others whether or not they love us in return.
There’s a couple of points I want
to make about love this morning in relation to the topic of Making Love Visible, the first of which
is –
1. Love is the pre-eminent value for those who follow Jesus,
and as such, it must be seen.
Wow, that seems like a no-brainer, doesn’t
it? Not exactly a profound statement you’re making there, Dave, you
might be thinking.
Love is the pre-eminent value for those who
follow Jesus, and if any other value rises above love, things are out of whack,
pure and simple. Some people want
to make right belief the primary value, and while beliefs are important, the
reality is that you can believe all the right things and still treat people horribly. We can line up perfectly in terms of
theology, checking every line of every creed ever written, but be a really big jerk. We can write textbooks on belief and
theology without ever expressing love to anyone.
It is always a good thing to tell people that
we love them, but is that enough?
No. It’s nice to say it,
but words can never amount to the full expression of love, so while love is the
pre-eminent value it is also important to note that it is a verb, not a
noun. Love is a word of
action. And it is such a word of
action that Christian love does not place limits on love, even when it comes to
our enemies. Too often, there are
limits that one bumps into when talking about love. There might be a limit according to what the person looks
like, or what they believe or don’t believe in terms of faith or politics, or
something else about the person.
There are all manner of objections people can find that can create a
line across which they will not cross when it comes to love. I understand this can be true within
the Christian faith, but here’s an important qualification when that happens –
when there is a limit placed – it is not in keeping with the example and the
teaching of Jesus. It’s just not.
Paul says that love is not only the ultimate value, he says it is a
value that must be seen. Paul uses some really picturesque language in
the first few verses to make this point.
In verse one he says if
I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a
resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. Now with all due respect to my friends and family members
who are drummers, a clanging cymbal is not the most pleasant of sounds, is it? Don’t believe me? Listen as I strike a cymbal on the drum
set here in our sanctuary. That’s
not exactly a lovely sound, is it?
To paraphrase Paul, if your love for people is not visible then the
words you are uttering are about as pleasant as that crashing cymbal. Should I strike it again to emphasize
the point?
Can love be love if it is not made visible? I think, on a technical basis, it might
be possible to say, yes, but on a
practical level I think it’s accurate to say that if love is not made visible
then, no, it’s not really love. At
least it’s not a love that is of any value. So I’m going to
paraphrase Paul a bit here, and paraphrase those first few verses that Paul was
saying to the church at Corinth in this way – Hey church – actions speak louder than words! Stop talking and start doing! If it isn’t seen, it isn’t real!
2. Love is very, very difficult.
What I find really fascinating
about this passage is that, while it is so beloved, it is also among the
toughest and most difficult of all Scripture passages. Reading verses 4 – 7, which list some
of the characteristics of love, we receive a blunt reminder of how tough it is to
truly follow the ideal of love, especially when it adds in the word always – love always protects, always
trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. I can say that I sometimes
protect, sometimes trust, sometimes, hope, or sometimes
persevere, but I can’t say that I always do.
Love is not easy, obviously. At least, if it’s the love of which
Paul speaks, it is not easy. Paul
is speaking of what we call agape
love. Agape, as you might know, is one of the four Greek words for love,
and agape is the deepest and greatest
form of love. Agape love is the love that sees its fullest expression in God, and
when we understand that this is the love of which Paul speaks, we instantly
understand that it is not an easy love to express. One of the reasons why this love is so difficult is because
it asks us to put the interests of someone else ahead of our own. That’s a definition Paul gives to love
in Philippians 2:4, where he writes each
of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of
others. That doesn’t really
sound all that appealing, does it?
And that’s just one of the reasons why love is tough. Another, certainly, is because agape love is a type of love that asks
us to love even our enemies. As
Jesus says in the sermon on the mount you
have heard that it was said “Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.” But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those
who persecute you…If you love those who love you, what reward will you
get? Are not even the tax
collectors doing that? (Matthew 5:43-44, 46).
But for all the difficulty of love,
we are still very much drawn to the ideal of love, and not just a partial
ideal, but the full blown ideal of love as described here by Paul. We instinctively know that for all the
difficulty, for all the seeming impossibility of fully loving others, it is the
one true answer for humanity.
3. Love stands up for others.
This is really, really important. Romantic love is great. Family love is great.
Friendship love is great.
But there is a deeper love that is required. Love cannot be all flowers, rainbows, music, puppies, and
kittens, because we live in a world that is tough and mean and it is a place
where people are hurt and taken advantage of and abused and victimized and
simply saying can’t we all get along
will not cut it. Love cannot only
be reserved for our spouses, our families, and our friends, love must also be
given to those who need someone to stand up for them, and we must do this for
one reason beyond all others, and that is because it is what Jesus did. Jesus stood up for others. Think about Jesus standing up, for
instance, for the woman taken in adultery (John 8:1-11 – 1 but
Jesus went to the Mount of Olives.
2 At dawn
he appeared again in the temple courts, where all the people gathered around
him, and he sat down to teach them.
3 The
teachers of the law and the Pharisees brought in a woman caught in adultery.
They made her stand before the group
4 and
said to Jesus, “Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery. 5 In the
Law Moses commanded us to stone such women.
Now what do you say?” 6 They
were using this question as a trap,
in order to have a basis for accusing
him. But Jesus bent down and started
to write on the ground with his finger.
7 When
they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, “Let any one
of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at
her.” 8 Again
he stooped down and wrote on the ground. 9 At
this, those who heard began to go away one at a time, the older ones first,
until only Jesus was left, with the woman still standing there. 10 Jesus
straightened up and asked her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned
you?” 11 “No
one, sir,” she said. “Then neither do I condemn you,” Jesus declared. “Go now and leave your life
of sin.”). The world was not kind to women in the
time of Jesus, and it still isn’t, but Jesus stood up for this woman who was so
ill-treated, a woman of whom many people would have said, well she deserves it,
that’s what “those kind” of women deserve. Well, thank goodness God doesn’t give us what we
deserve. That’s called grace. Grace gives to us God’s love, which is not
what we deserve, and yet, so often, we think people ought to get what we think
they “deserve,” when in reality what they should get from us is grace, just as
God gives to them.
Love does not overlook what should not be overlooked, and what I
mean by that is this – love does not turn its head or look away from injustice
because Jesus did not. Jesus
taught about love, he demonstrated love, he called us to love, he commanded us
to love our enemies; and in doing so Jesus never turned a blind eye to
injustice and the way in which it victimized people. Jesus never said we should accept injustice as a part of
life. He never said we should
accept abuses in the name of “getting along.” Jesus was very critical of those who perpetrated injustices
upon others. In fact, take a few
minutes today or sometime this week and read through Matthew chapter 23. In that chapter, Jesus gives a blistering
critique of the religious leaders.
He criticized them for the legalistic burdens they place upon people, he
said the good they did was mostly for show and not genuine, he called them
hypocrites, he said they were full of greed and self-indulgence, he compared
them to whitewashed tombs that were full of dead men’s bones, he called them a
brood of vipers. I mean it is an
absolutely blistering critique (here it is for your convenience – Matthew
23:1-39 – 1 Then
Jesus said to the crowds and to his disciples: 2 “The teachers of the law and the
Pharisees sit in Moses’ seat. 3 So
you must be careful to do everything they tell you. But do not do what they do,
for they do not practice what they preach. 4 They tie up heavy, cumbersome loads and
put them on other people’s shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to
lift a finger to move them. 5 “Everything
they do is done for people to see: They make their phylacteries wide and the
tassels on their garments long; 6 they love the place of honor at banquets
and the most important seats in the synagogues; 7 they love to be greeted with respect in
the marketplaces and to be called ‘Rabbi’ by others. 8 “But you are not to be called ‘Rabbi,’
for you have one Teacher, and you are all brothers. 9 And do not call anyone on earth
‘father,’ for you have one Father, and he is in heaven. 10 Nor are you to be called instructors,
for you have one Instructor, the Messiah. 11 The greatest among you will be your
servant. 12 For
those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves
will be exalted. 13 “Woe
to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You shut the door of
the kingdom of heaven in people’s faces. You yourselves do not enter, nor will
you let those enter who are trying to.
14 Woe to you,
teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You devour widows’ houses and for a show make lengthy
prayers. Therefore you will be
punished more severely. 15 “Woe
to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You travel over land
and sea to win a single convert, and when you have succeeded, you make them
twice as much a child of hell as you are. 16 “Woe to you, blind guides! You say, ‘If
anyone swears by the temple, it means nothing; but anyone who swears by the
gold of the temple is bound by that oath.’ 17 You blind fools! Which is greater: the
gold, or the temple that makes the gold sacred? 18 You also say, ‘If anyone swears by the
altar, it means nothing; but anyone who swears by the gift on the altar is
bound by that oath.’ 19 You
blind men! Which is greater: the gift, or the altar that makes the gift sacred?
20 Therefore,
anyone who swears by the altar swears by it and by everything on it. 21 And anyone who swears by the temple
swears by it and by the one who dwells in it. 22 And anyone who swears by heaven swears
by God’s throne and by the one who sits on it. 23 “Woe to you, teachers of the law and
Pharisees, you hypocrites! You give a tenth of your spices—mint, dill and
cumin. But you have neglected the more important matters of the law—justice,
mercy and faithfulness. You should have practiced the latter, without
neglecting the former. 24 You
blind guides! You strain out a gnat but swallow a camel. 25 “Woe to you, teachers of the law and
Pharisees, you hypocrites! You clean the outside of the cup and dish, but
inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. 26 Blind Pharisee! First clean the inside
of the cup and dish, and then the outside also will be clean. 27 “Woe to you, teachers of the law and
Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful
on the outside but on the inside are full of the bones of the dead and
everything unclean. 28 In
the same way, on the outside you appear to people as righteous but on the
inside you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness. 29 “Woe to you, teachers of the law and
Pharisees, you hypocrites! You build tombs for the prophets and decorate the
graves of the righteous. 30 And
you say, ‘If we had lived in the days of our ancestors, we would not have taken
part with them in shedding the blood of the prophets.’ 31 So you testify against yourselves that
you are the descendants of those who murdered the prophets. 32 Go ahead, then, and complete what your
ancestors started! 33 “You
snakes! You brood of vipers! How will you escape being condemned to hell? 34 Therefore I am sending you prophets and
sages and teachers. Some of them you will kill and crucify; others you will
flog in your synagogues and pursue from town to town. 35 And so upon you will come all the righteous
blood that has been shed on earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the
blood of Zechariah son of Berekiah, whom you murdered between the temple and
the altar. 36 Truly
I tell you, all this will come on this generation. 37 “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the
prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your
children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were
not willing. 38 Look,
your house is left to you desolate. 39 For I tell you, you will not see me
again until you say, ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.’”)
It would have been easy for one of those
religious leaders to say well now, that’s
not very loving Jesus! If you love
us, you would be nice to us!
Sometimes, however, the most loving act a person can do is to stand up
for someone who is being treated unjustly, to champion those who are taken
advantage of by those in power, to protest against the wrongs that people are
forced to suffer. Jesus was angry
about injustice precisely because of love – because he loved those who were
victims of injustice and loved those who were abused, and loved those who were
oppressed and because he loved them he was angry about what they suffered and
he spoke out against it.
I would say, without hesitation,
that love is the answer to the ills of the world. After just completing a 4-message series about living in a
divided world, I can say that love is the answer to that division. I would also say, however, that there
is some irony in the reality that love is not only the answer to our divisions,
it is also a cause of division. I
know that sounds contradictory, but it is true. It is true because love requires us to do things that can
cause division, such as standing up against the injustice and unfairness that
so many people must suffer. Jesus
said, in Matthew 10:34 do not suppose
that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. What Jesus meant by that, I believe, is
that his love compelled him to stand up for others, and when we stand up for
others we will upset some people, because some people profit from the
unfairness and injustices of the world.
When we act in love to stand up for others, we will upset what Paul
calls the principalities and powers (Ephesians
6:12 – For we wrestle not
against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against
the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high
places) of
the world, that is, those systems that profit from injustice and the
exploitation of others, and when that profit is threatened, they will not
respond in a positive way. In
fact, they will respond in a very harsh and even violent manner. We must, however, stand up for people,
even when we face a harsh response.
How many of you ever wish you could
go back in time and change things in your life? I sure do. I
don’t understand people who say they would never change anything. Either they have led a really
outstanding life or they are very lacking in self-awareness. I would change so much, and at the top
of my list would be standing up and speaking up more. There were times, especially when I was
younger, when I was far, far too silent.
There were too many times when I stood quietly by while others were bullied
and mistreated, and I very much regret that now. When I enter eternity, there are some people I want to make
a beeline to in order to tell them how sorry I am that I did not stand up for
them. When I had the opportunity
to make love visible, I failed to do so.
I’m not saying I never fail to make love visible in the ways I should,
but I try, and I want to continue to try harder, because I don’t want to be a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal.
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