February 11, 2009 + Take the Love SAT (I Corinthians 13) +Hayward Fong

More chocolate candy, red roses and greeting cards are sold for Valentines Day than any other celebration in this country. Valentines Day is this coming Saturday so it’s not too late to remember that special person or persons in your life with your expression of love.

When my daughter was hospitalized many years ago for a severe illness, her two daughters came to live with us. The girls were pre-school and kindergarten age. One day I decided to make some chocolate nut fudge for them.

I had all the ingredients assembled on the kitchen counter. The sweet aroma of the melted chocolate filled the kitchen and drifted out into the family room where the girls were playing. They smelled the aroma and followed it out to the kitchen to check out its source and discovered that it was a pan half full of chocolate sauce. They did what all normal children would have done - they asked for a taste. I told them me that they could have some when it was ready, but they of course put on their little eager faces and said, “Grandpa, just a little taste ‘pleeese’.” I told them, You won’t like it,” but they didn't believe me; what was there not to like, lovely chocolate sauce? “Just a little spoonful please,” they pleaded. and so, relenting, I gave them a taste.

One said, “This tastes awful.” The other said, “It tastes ‘Yucky’; It’s not like chocolate at all.” I assured them, as I smiled at their puckered up faces, that it was all chocolate and nothing but chocolate. And that was the problem…it was nothing but chocolate, bakers chocolate. It lacked something very essential to make it taste really good; it lacked sugar.

Have you ever have that happen to you? Have you ever taken a nice big bite out of a chunk of chocolate and discovered, ‘phhhh,’ it really is chocolate, but bakers chocolate?

Well, if you have, you know something about what the church in the ‘wacky’ city of Corinth was like some 2000 years ago when Paul wrote his letter to them. Do you remember the ‘tongue in cheek song’ in the movie “Music Man,” “You’ve got trouble in River City”? Well, I think Paul was telling them in Corinth, you’ve got trouble but you don’t know it.

Most of the believers in Corinth were extremely excited about their
faith. There were people with tremendous gifts in the community. There were teachers and healers and those who could speak in tongues. There were those who could lead in worship and there were preachers. There were those who had the ministry of service and others who had prophetic powers.

The word of God was proclaimed every day and the people prayed. The gospel message itself was wonderful - the word that said that Jesus had Risen from the Dead and that all who believed in him would receive forgiveness for their sins and live eternally in his heavenly kingdom with him.

Everything you needed for a vital church was happening in their midst, but for one thing! The church failed the taste test. It didn't have enough sugar; it didn't have enough love.

The thirteenth chapter of I Corinthians is probably the favorite wedding text of all time. I think every wedding couple in the Christian world has heard it read to them during the wedding ceremony, and with good reason; it’s a wonderful chapter.

But when Paul wrote it, he probably wasn't thinking a whole lot about weddings nor was he even really trying to describe what love is like, though he does in fact. Rather he was trying to show the Corinthians that, in the end, nothing matters more than the answer to the question, “Are you living out the love of Christ?” Love, agape love, the kind of love that God has for us is the yardstick, the measure and norm of our faith. And the folks in Corinth seemed a little lacking in the love department,
- despite all the wonderful things that were going on in their midst,
- despite all the spiritual wisdom that seemed to be around the place,
- despite all the faith that the people claimed to have.

However, there were also some strange things going on -
- like the man who was sleeping with his step-mother and the two elders who had dragged each other off to court instead of making peace with one another;
- and some folks really didn't behave all that well at the meals that they held in memory of Jesus: some ate too much, some drank too much, while others went hungry;
- and here was something really troubling - there were public disagreements about which of the apostles and teachers who had come to Corinth were the best and which were worst;
- and there were some folks who believed that their contribution to the community of faith was more significant than the contributions being made by others and that their views on things should be considered first because of that,
- while others felt like they weren't important to God or the church
at all because they didn't have the gifts, or the talents, or the
wealth to offer that they thought they should have.

Like “There’s Trouble in River City, there’s “Trouble in Corinth City.” In short people in Corinth were, at times rude to one another, impatient, arrogant, greedy, selfish, egotistical, and unkind,
- this even though they had otherwise displayed some very wonderful spiritual gifts,
- this even though people were healed at their meetings, and the word of God was proclaimed, and people were clothed and fed and prayed for.

It is a tough word to hear at times, this word from I Corinthians
concerning love. Think of what it says -

It doesn't matter if you have faith enough to say to a mountain, “Move!” and it moves, if you have not love, you are nothing.

It doesn't matter if you can speak out for God, if you understand all mysteries, and can heal all diseases, and do so, if have not love, it avails you not.

You have heard it before, probably from every preacher, pastor or priest you've ever listened to, but let me say it again, and perhaps it will have a fresh sound.

Love is the test of our faith. Folks will know we are Christians by our love and they will know that we are something less than fully Christian by our lack of it.

What is love besides being the touchstone of our attitudes and
actions? Well, love involves seeking the highest good for God's creation. A colleague gave me a sign from the YMCA many years ago which I kept on my desk wherever I was employed. The sign read “I’M THIRD.” It was a motto, reminding me daily, “God is first, others are second, and I’m third.”

Love is being more interested in the well being of others than our own. It is seeing everyone through the eyes of Christ and treating them as Christ has treated us.

Bill Clinton is now a part of American History. But so many people failed the love test over the matter of his alleged affairs. Talk show hosts indulged in week after week of extremely tasteless jokes, rejoicing in wrong, and encouraging us to do so as well. On the Internet, in those forums where religious leaders and those interested in building up the body of Christ gather, there were numerous notes exchanged that also condemned Bill Clinton for what he may or may not have done. Some of those notes focused on how the President had not lived up to his profession of faith; others simply focused on his alleged immorality and suggested he should not be in politics.

As I understand Paul, in all those exchanges there was a failure of love, a failure that undermined the value of all the wonderful gifts that those lay persons, priests and pastors most surely brought to their churches and congregations....

Quite simply they were "not rejoicing in the right" but rejoicing or at the very least REVELLING in the wrong, a wagging of tongues that did not fulfill any of the Biblical commands to pray for those in authority, or to remove the log in our own eyes before commenting on the speck in someone else's.

I feel that type of behavior, no matter how well intended it may have been was not Christ guided or Christ centered, and brought shame and division to the body of Christ because it lacked love.

The failure of the love test in this matter was not universal of course, and not even those believers who failed that particular love test, failed the love test in other matters.

But some of the time is still significant, for them and for us.

We do fail the test of love some of the time don't we? - as individuals and as a church?

And we should be concerned about that; we shouldn't take our lapses lightly. Notice I say "our lapses", because it is about us that the love test is all about. It is not for me to judge you or for you to judge me; rather it is for us to look at ourselves and ask “Am I focused on Christ or on myself? Am I showing the love of God to others, doing what Jesus would do here and allowing Jesus to work through me? Or am I allowing my feelings, my frustrations, my needs, my pride, my talent, to dominate my interactions with others?”

LOVE IS THE TEST OF OUR FAITH -
IT IS THE TEST OF OUR COMMUNITY
AND IT IS THE TEST OF EACH ONE OF OUR LIVES!

Are we there yet? Have we really reached the zenith of what our
faith says we should be about? Have we managed to fulfill all that Christ asks of us when we follow him? Are we fully made over in the image of Christ and love like he loves?

Let us take the SAT!

- Do we compare what we do for the church to what others are or are not doing?
- Do we ever speak out about how some folks just seem to take up space as if somehow the value of what we are doing is greater than what they are doing?
- Do we ever think some folks here are better than we are and some worse?
- Do we demean some of our neighbors and praise up others?
- Do we treat those who are slower than we are with impatience and with less reverence, and those who are quicker than us or better connected than us with more reverence?

There is always more growing to do, more growing in faith. We are all in the process. Love is the test of just how much growing there is for us to do.

I want you to take part in a little test; put your name into today's passage from I Corinthians 13 where love is described. I want you to think about yourself and see just how much you agree with it and just how much more traveling along the road of spiritual growth and understanding you need to do...

Turn to Scripture Reading 59 on Page 531 in the Hymnbook. Starting in the third paragraph that begins, “Love is patient and kind …,” silently substitute your name or the word “I" in place of the word “love”.

“I am patient. I am kind. I am not envious or boastful, arrogant or rude. I do not insist on my own way. I am not irritable or resentful. I do not rejoice in wrongdoing but rejoice in the truth.
I bear all things, I believe all things. I hope all things. I endure all things.”

God is love. Jesus personifies that love. He can help us be like him. He abides in us; that is what our faith is about - how Jesus is here - in this world- in this church - in us who believe in him - in my heart and in yours. He abides in us and calls us to abide in him.

“Ye are the salt of the earth. Ye are the light of the world.” We are called to be the peacemakers and bring his love to all the nations.

Amen