A Time to Grow

Lectionary • Sermon • Submitted a year ago

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As Christians, LOVE is a the core of who we are supposed to be because we worship God who is LOVE. With Jesus Christ, God’s ultimate expression of love, we can surmount any situation we find ourselves in and we can ultimately love others as God loves them

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Scripture

1 Corinthians 13:1–9 (NLT)

1 If I could speak all the languages of earth and of angels, but didn’t love others, I would only be a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 If I had the gift of prophecy, and if I understood all of God’s secret plans and possessed all knowledge, and if I had such faith that I could move mountains, but didn’t love others, I would be nothing. 3 If I gave everything I have to the poor and even sacrificed my body, I could boast about it; but if I didn’t love others, I would have gained nothing. 4 Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud 5 or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged. 6 It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. 7 Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance. 8 Prophecy and speaking in unknown languages and special knowledge will become useless. But love will last forever! 9 Now our knowledge is partial and incomplete, and even the gift of prophecy reveals only part of the whole picture!

Focus Statement

As Christians, LOVE is at the core of who we are supposed to be because we worship God who is LOVE.

With Jesus Christ, God’s ultimate expression of love, we can surmount any situation we find ourselves in and we can ultimately love others as God loves them.

Point of Relation

??? Do I need this segment this week???

Things to Consider

Ah…so today’s Scripture passage is one of the most famous “WEDDING” passages ever...

Which bothers me a bit..

In fact, though I have and will continue to, I heistate using 1 Corinthians 13 as a passage for a wedding…

This may sound odd coming from a pastor,

but I hesitate because I think we cheapen what Paul is writing about when we look at it as merely addressing marital love…

as it is totally nog addressing that at all.

In actuality, Paul is writing his letter to the church in Corinth, a church he founded…

A church that had become embroiled in deep division.

What Scripture Says

So, let’s take a look at Paul’s community.

In Paul’s time, Corinth had been rebuilt as a major city by the Romans, and it was an epicenter of the The Roman Imperial Cult.

This cult, in essence, worshiped the emperors and some of their family members as divine…as gods.

There was much benefit to a city for being deeply and religiously devoted to the current and past emperors.

Thus, Corinth was a thriving and important city in Greece that became well-known for being an epicenter of Emperor worship.

As such, the church in Corinth, which Paul established, was in a really tight spot in terms of how they were viewed by the surrounding community.

The Roman Imperial Cult put pressure on everyone to worship the Roman Emperor as a god...

Most, perhaps not all, Christians would have no doubt resisted any form of idol worship and would have stood out like a sore thumb in public.

Add to that the fact that there were divisions within the church that were eating it up from within.

The biggest of these divisions was centered on a member of the church having a sexual affair with his mother-in-law.

Just for one moment imagine if that was someone from this church…someone you know...

And imagine, as is often the case, there people on both sides of this issue.

So here is where the division centered:

Do we kick this guy out of our church community...

Or do we not.

For Paul, as well as for many of us, we would say that kind of behavior is not cool…not Christian…

and if this member doesn’t cut it off...

He should be asked to leave because he is giving a VERY bad witness to that community, let alone to JESUS CHRIST.

For others, how could they kick this guy out...

It seems so harsh and not cool…not to mention awkward and uncomfortable.

It is amazing how such a scandal can really rock the foundation of a community…church or otherwise.

So, Paul not only suggests that this man, after having been warned to stop multiple times, be removed from membership…

until such a time where he can see the error of his ways...

He also begins to address the division that is splintering this community.

Much of those divisions, aside from philandering son-in-law,

were over pressures from the surrounding community...

And how to approach living devoutly as a Christian in a community that is anything but Christian.

This is where Paul’s LOVE-language comes in:

In verses 4-7, Paul writes,

4 Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud 5 or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged. 6 It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. 7 Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance.

Paul teaches us that all things are worthless, meaningless outside of God’s LOVE.

That is AGAPE…not EROS (which weddings would have us think)...

This is the highest, most pure form of love. A LOVE WE HUMANS HAVE A HARD TIME COMPREHENDING, let alone replicating.

When we look at this passage we see the Character of God.

In fact, replace LOVE with GOD:

4 God is patient and kind. God is not jealous or boastful or proud 5 or rude. God does not demand his own way. God is not irritable, and God keeps no record of being wronged. 6 God does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. 7 God never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance.

When we think about how God is quick to forgive and slow to anger. God displays humility, especially through his son Jesus Christ,

even though God need not be “humble” as God is God.

It may seem odd to say that God does not demand his own way, as God has commandments that we are supposed to follow...

But how often does God strike us down when we sin? NEVER…he never leaves us or abandons us, but allows us to use our free will.

God is not quick to anger, again, and keeps no record of being wronged.

God is not happy with injustice…but rather God is JUST and rejoices when the truth wins out.

And, thankfully, we know that God never fails nor forsakes us, but is with us always, helping us to endure through every circumstance.

This is the God we worship. A God who is LOVE and a God who call us to love:

As it says in 1 John 4:8 “Anyone who does not love does not know God, for God is love.”

And that is just it…right there…isn’t it? If God is Love…and God lives within us via the Holy Spirit…then God’s love ought to be pouring out of us no matter our circumstances, amen?

We may not be perfect, but God is perfecting us in LOVE.

Though Jesus Christ, we are able to embrace the LOVE OF GOD in our lives and share it in the world around us.

What This Means for You

How does this news about AGAPE,

and the real meaning behind The Chapter of love as 1 Corinthians 13 is known,

change your view of God and of LOVE?

How does it change the way you view the people you LOVE around you?

Also, how does it change your view of what LOVE looks like when it comes to loving our enemies or those we feel are unloveable?

Remember,

Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud 5 or rude. Love does not demand its own way. Love is not irritable, and Love keeps no record of being wronged. 6 Love does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. 7 Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance

What This Means for Us

As a congregation, this is a TIME TO GROW for us.

To grow in our ability to LOVE all people who walk through our doors.

To grow in how we show hospitality to all people,

and to grow toward better investing in our church and its mission to outreach to those in our community,

beyond the walls we worship within.

Friends, this is about sowing seeds.

When I first started here back in 2017, I preached a sermon called,

Sing: “We Are Farmers…

If you recall, for those of you who were here, I preached about how it is all about sowing seeds and knowing which seeds…or WHOSE seeds…we are sowing.

Seeds of LOVE…which is evident in acts of hospitality, generosity, faithfulness, compassion, mercy and forgiveness, among others...

will GROW into GOD-SIZED miracles that will transform not only our congregation, but the very community within we exist.

Seeds of SATAN…on the other hand…which are evident cliquishness, stinginess, complacency, judgmental ruthlessness, divisiveness, and apathy, which a complete lack of care...

will GROW into a worldly wasteland.

So, what kind of seeds are we going to sow?

It is a time to grow into the farmers God has called us to be.

Let us pick up the right seeds and begin sowing them here in our house of worship as well as in our community. Amen? Amen!

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