LOVE, LOVE, LOVE
1 Corinthians 13
Here we are in church on Valentine’s
Day! Hmmm, what shall we talk about? Of course I have changed our regularly
scheduled program of Bible texts to move to the one that describes love. It is
used in countless weddings, and is a Biblical zenith of both Christian love and
valentine love. Today we talk about love.
Years ago, before the film called
“Fame,” before “Glee” and “American Idol,” and “So You Think You Can Dance,”
there was the Broadway “singular sensation” called “A Chorus Line,” when the
audience gets to be a fly on the wall while auditions are held for a chorus
line. We hear the director’s probing questions and hear the answers of young
hopeful men and women on the stage in an otherwise empty theatre. Their answers
contain the heart of the show; with some exuding confidence, others putting on
a strong front to hide their fear, and others, when coaxed, would answer from a
deep corner of their soul. A Chorus Line is made up of a cross-section of human
beings, each with different feelings, putting themselves out there for a chance
at fame. In what has become one of the most well-known scenes, the director
Zack, asks Morales—one of the chorus line hopefuls—“What if this were your last
day to perform, what would you do?” Morales answers that even if she couldn’t
dance tomorrow, she’d dance all the way up until tomorrow because she loves it
so much. The heart of her message is captured in her song “What I did for
love.” Although Morales was auditioning as a professional, she had the attitude
and heart of an amateur, in the
truest and original sense of the word. You see, the definition of an amateur is
“someone who does something for the love of doing it.” That is one of the
healthiest reasons for doing anything: doing it for the love of it.
Morales told Zack what she did for
love. It was uniquely her story, not mine, or yours. What’s your story? What
are the things you have done for
love? Just this week the daughter and son-in-law of Carmine and Charlotte
DeSantolo met with me to plan her mother’s funeral. Her father has Alzheimer’s Disease, and more than three years ago both of
her parents needed care; they could not live on their own. The daughter Cara
immediately wanted to take them in to their own modest home and care for them.
She loves her parents. But what would her husband Ron say? Ron said:
“Definitely we should take them in.” He has cared for them both too, over these
years, at times staying home while his wife worked. I noted no resentment with
him. “Why would you do this?” I asked. He said: “I have been married before and
got hurt; but in this marriage I have found love. I will do whatever it takes
to show my love in return.” “And the two shall be as one” the Bible says. Some people really mean it. Long after youthful
beauty fades and human frailty takes its place, I have seen more than one
husband lovingly care for his wife, and I’ve seen more than one wife lovingly
care for her husband. This is not to say it is easy; it is to say it can be
taxing, trying, frustrating, and exhausting. I’ve seen mothers and fathers do
that for their children too, and also best friends do that for each other. Most
of the time people can’t stay with it; they can’t hold on to that tedious life
of care. Perhaps Paul’s words are guidance not only for lovers, but also for
Christians as they deal with others.
Some people who supposedly love
others perhaps misread Paul’s words. They say that they love someone, and yet
they act as if the Bible says: “Love is impatient and hurtful; love is jealous
and boastful, it is arrogant and rude. Love insists on its own way; love
celebrates wrongs. Love says ‘I’m outta here!’ ‘No way!’ or ‘I can’t take it!’
Even television has offered such examples of harsh language to loved ones,
couched in humor, from Ralph Cramden in “The Honeymooners,” to Archie Bunker in
“All in the Family,” to Roseanne in “Roseanne” and to Homer Simpson in “The
Simpsons.” There are plenty of bad examples of love all around us. I hear it
spewing from the mouths of parents in sporting events. I see it in the gigantic
list of court docket divorces that appear almost daily in newspapers. And we
have seen it sometimes being said by people who say they are Christians.
Sometimes a betrayal by a friend or lover can certainly make your heart become
hurtful or hateful. But Paul says in 1Corinthians,
The more excellent way is the way of
Jesus; it is the way of loving others the way Christ has loved you. It is doing
unto others as you would have them do unto you. It is knowing
that no matter what you do, God will not leave you; God will be disappointed or
angry, but God will not divorce you. You are God’s beloved. It is knowing that God loves you so much that “neither death
nor life nor angels nor principalities, nor things present nor things to come,
nor powers, nor height nor depth nor anything else in all creation will be able
to separate you from the love of God, in Christ Jesus our Lord.” [Romans 8:
37-39] We know that God can absorb the hurt we often create; God can absorb it
in ways that few others can. We know what God did for love: God came to earth
in the person of Jesus and died for you and for me. No price was too high to
show us that love. Love poems show the extent of love as well. “How do I love
thee?” wrote Elizabeth Barrett Browning in her Sonnet 43 to her lover. “Let me
count the ways.” What are the ways you show love? What are the adjectives and
adverbs you would put in your testimonial of love? Even in the most trying
hours of human beings, there are records of some trying, in some small measure,
to offer back to God the infinite love that they have received from their
Creator. Some curse God or say there is no God when they go through hardships.
Others love God more deeply. The Spanish mystic
Today we have the reminder of what
love is—from the words of Paul—and we have examples of what love should not be
from poor examples in our world. We know this through God’s example: deep,
devoted love is sacrificial, and rarely does it work with out love or gratitude
in return. Since God is love, love has been around since the world began. On
this Valentine’s Day, we can remember what real love is: it is unconditional,
and it is wonderful. Thanks be to God, and Paul, and
our Lord Jesus Christ, for showing our world even today, a more excellent way
of living.
Jeffrey A. Sumner