Lord, we pray, speak in this place, in the calming of our minds and the longing of our hearts, by the words of my lips and in the thoughts that we form. Speak, O Lord, for your servants listen. Amen.
When I was a kid I remember a time when my aunt decided to make up some chocolate nut fudge or something very tasty like that.
She had all these wonderful ingredients assembled on her kitchen counter and all these lovely smells wafted around the room, and she was busy whipping something up on the stove.
I checked it out - and discovered that it was a pan half full of this lovely chocolate sauce and so I did what all normal children would have done - I asked for a taste. My aunt told me that I could have some when it was ready - but I of course put on a sad little face and said, just a little taste please. She then told me I wouldn't like it but I didn't believe her - I mean what was there not to like - lovely chocolate sauce - just a little spoonful - and so, relenting, she gave me a taste.
It was awful. It was bitter. It wasn't like chocolate at all. Yet it looked like chocolate and my aunt assured me, as she laughed at my puckered up face - that it was all chocolate and nothing but chocolate.
And that was the problem with it, it was nothing but chocolate. It lacked something very essential to make it taste really good - it lacked sugar.
You ever had that happen to you? Have you ever taken a nice big bite out of a chunk of chocolate - and discovered - phhhh it really is nothing but chocolate?
Well - if you have - you know something about the church in the wild and wacky city of Corinth was like over 2000 years ago when Paul wrote the letter to them that we have been reading from over the last couple of weeks.
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, and there were those who had the ministry of help, and others who could prophecy and the word of God was proclaimed every day and people prayed, and 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 internally 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 in it.
It didn't have enough love in it.
The thirteenth chapter of Corinthians is probably the favourite wedding text of all time. I think every wedding couple in the Christian world has it read during the wedding ceremony - and with good reason - it is a wonderful chapter.
But when Paul wrote it - he wasn't thinking a whole lot about weddings nor was he even really trying to describe what love is like - though he does do that - 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 - the kind of love that God has for us - is the yardstick, measure, and norm, of our faith.
And the people in Corinth seemed a little lacking in something in the love department, - despite all the wonderful things that were going 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.
There were 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 of the people 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, and others went hungry - and then too - and this was very 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 people 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.
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 - 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 hard 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 know all mysteries - and can heal all diseases - and do so - if have not love - it avails you not.
You have heard it before my friends - probably from every preacher, pastor, or priest you've ever listened to but hear it again - and hopefully - hear it fresh.
Love is the test of our faith. People will know we are Christians by our love and they know that we are something less than fully Christian - by our lack of it.
What is love besides the being the touchstone of our attitudes and actions?
Well, love involves seeking the highest good for God's creation. God first - neighbour second, and self last. Love is being more interested in the well being of others than our own. It is seeing everyone through the lens of Christ and treating them as Christ has treated us.
Bill Clinton is now a part of History. But I recall how so many people failed the love test over the matter of his alleged affair or affairs.
Even the local media indulged in week after week of extremely tasteless jokes - rejoicing in wrong, and encouraging us to do so as well. But then the media in Hong Kong doesn't pretend to a faith in Christ.
On the Internet however, in those forums where Priests and Pastors 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 focussed on how Bill Clinton had not lived up to his profession of faith - others simply focussed on his alleged immorality and suggested he should not be in politics.
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 and priests and pastors most surely bring 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.
That behaviour, no matter how well intended it may have been was not Christ guided - or Christ centred, and brought shame and division to the body of Christ - because it lacked love.
This failure of the love test in this matter was not universal of course, and not even those believers who failed that particular love test, fail 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 - should we?
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 focussed on Christ our 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.
As I have been saying often enough, saying to you - and to the children - we, each one of us here like the Corinthians are incredibly gifted by God, we have talents and abilities and spiritual gifts that can and do build up this community.
We have those who sing praise to God and lift all our hearts. We have those who create art from fabric that make us consider the truth and beauty of God. We have those who learn the Word of God and share it with others - gifts of teaching and those who are able to administer - and those who bring comfort and create joy with food - and well timed phone calls. We have those with the gifts of healing - and of prayer - and of evangelism - and of service; even those with tongues - and those with the gift of special faith.
We are gifted - and too - I think our love quotient is pretty high - we hug and we bless one another with a smile when we gather together, we pray for one another - both in this place and outside we are concerned - we do care - we do use the gifts we have to build up the body and not simply to bring glory to ourselves - or so I believe.
But 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 test!
- 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 people 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 people here are better than we are - and some worse?
- Do we call down some of our neighbours and praise up others?
- Do we treat those who are slower than we are with impatience and less reverence?
- and those who are quicker than us or more well connected than us - with more reverence?
There is always more growing to do my friends, more growing in faith and love is the test of just how much growing there is for us to do.
Listen - I want you to put your name into today's passage from I Corinthians 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 travelling along the road of spiritual growth and understanding you need to do...
Listen - this is about you - close your eyes as I read the passage about what love is like to you.
Love is patient. Love is kind..... 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.
That is quite something isn't it? Trying to say all that about yourself once in a while. And in saying it - trying to avoid the words - "most of the time" or "almost always" - as in most of the time I am patient and kind or - almost always I not rude or resentful.
Now consider Jesus -and how he fits into that picture of what love is like.
He can help us be like him.
He abides in us that is what our faith is about - how he 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.
And the way we do that - is to be focussed on him and on his example - to ask ourselves as we open our mouths or move our hands - is this what Jesus would say? Is this what Jesus would do.
Your salvation does not depend on how well you do this - it does not depend on your having become perfect that is the exact opposite of the message of love we proclaim.
But the degree to which we try is critical to the integrity of all that we believe - it is the essential component of being the church, of truly being the people of God , of being a people who show his light to the world and who bring his healing power to the nations.
In the wonderful little book called "Pocketful of Miracles", which is a daily devotional and spiritual growth guide, the author (Joan Borysenko) once wrote:
Shakespeare said, "Pretend a virtue if you have it not". Most of us are still locked up in the petty, self-centred concerns of our egos. Nonetheless we feel the ancient longing of our soul to move beyond ego to union with the divine. It doesn't matter if our motivation for Divine Union falters, or if selfish concerns predominate. If we just pretend the virtue of longing for God and being of service to others, eventually those virtues will arise spontaneously. As a friend puts it, "Fake it till you make it."
Don't feel loving, do the caring thing anyway. Don't Feel like being kind, say something nice about the person who is being rude to us anyway; Don't think that someone else's plan will work and that your idea is better, let them do it regardless. Don't think you can possibly do what God is calling you to do start doing it anyway.
Fake it till you make it; or as Paul puts it: Earnestly strive for the greater gifts - the greatest of which is love.
Strive for it - and live as if you have it - for in truth you do - Christ died to bring it to you and to show you what it is like and he rose from the dead on the third day to show that it's power is greater than the power of sin.
When you confess Christ as your Lord, God comes and abides in you and gives you the ability to abide in Him, to abide in his love - one minute, one hour, one day at time.
Turn to God - ask his help to pass the love test - each minute of each day - ask his help to abide in him as He abides in you. Amen.
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