faith hope and love abide...
I don’t know whether any of you watch the reality TV show ‘Popstar to operastar’. Helen has a rather strange liking of Jimmy Osmond so I have had to watch it, but one of the judges on there made an interesting point. Each of the popstars has to learn and sing an operatic aria, and most of those tend to be in another language. However one person was asked to sing the song ‘Summertime’ – obviously very well known and obviously sung in English.
As one judge commented that it was easy because of that, another said actually it was the most difficult because it was so well known and any errors in words would be easily picked up as people didn’t need to understand a foreign language to judge it.
Familiarity can indeed lead to contempt – people can actually know things too well, and when they do, they can often ignore the true meaning of what is being said or heard.
Today we heard one of the most well known passages in the whole Bible from Paul’s 1st letter to the Corinthians (13:1-13), and it’s one that we’ve all heard many times before and all heard sermons about many times before ! But, here’s another one !
Love is the most powerful positive emotion a person can ever have… And in this passage Paul writes of it as the greatest, but also the most necessary gift of God. And it’s a subject which we can never think enough about as Christians, but even more importantly it is something that we can never give enough of !
Today I want to think of the last verse we heard – ‘Faith, hope and love abide, these three; and the greatest of these is love’.
Without going through the whole reading, although it’s worth reading over and over again, it’s worth just reminding ourselves of the context in which Paul wrote. Corinth was a big and important trading city, a centre for trade for a huge region, and there were many different groups of people who met there.
The Church had grown well and most of the believers in Corinth were extremely excited about their faith. We understand that 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 worship and there were preachers and there were those who helped others, and still others who could prophecy, and the word of God was proclaimed every day and 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 really active church was happening in Corinth.
It was the Church we would perhaps all like to be a part of, except it lacked one thing - it didn't have enough love in it. The thirteenth chapter of 1 Corinthians is probably the favourite wedding text of all time, but when Paul wrote it - he wasn't thinking about weddings, nor was he even really trying to describe what love is like - though he does do that rather well. What he was doing 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 for ourselves, for other people and for God - the kind of love that God has for us - is the measure of our faith.
A coach load from the Parish recently went to see Les Miserables in Cardiff, and I know lots of others have seen it as well – it’s an incredible story about conflict in France, about a fight for justice, about a search for freedom and a search for retribution, but ultimately it is a story of love.
Love is the undercurrent through the whole show – there is the love shown by the Bishop who, when a desperate Valjean steals some silver, offers him some more. There is the love of Valjean for the young child Cosette, who he takes into his care. There is the love of Eponine for Marius, the love of Marius for Cosette…. There is what could easily be called the love of Valjean for his persecutor Javert as he spurns the chance to kill him, knowing that Javert may come back to get him at another time.
But there are 2 attitudes to love from the musical which are quite interesting – the first comes from Javert. Javert is a bitter policeman, a man who has lived his life searching for justice – regardless of the consequences – his pursuit of Valjean, whose initial crime was to steal some bread for his starving sister, was almost obsessive.
He wants Valjean arrested, something that would almost certainly spell the end of Valjean’s life – yet when later Valjean is handed Javert to do what he wants with, Valjean sends him away… Javert is incapable of understanding the compassion. He is incapable of recognising mercy or grace, and unable to live with himself, he commits suicide.
There are many people who seem unable to understand love – who would prefer to hide in a bitter corner, than experience love. And yet love is the one emotion that can really transform life – yes, people in need might benefit greatly from food or shelter or money, but the most precious gift of all is the gift of knowing that they are loved.
Like Javert, many are hardened against it, but the love of Christ, when people know it, can break down the hardest of hearts.
And the second attitude to love that I wanted to think of was the sacrificial love of Valjean – Cosette has met and fallen in love with Marius, a young fighter in the campaign, and Valjean, wanting more than anything for Cosette to be happy, powerfully sings as part of one of the songs, ‘If I die, let me die, but let him live…’
Sacrificial love is the test of love – what we are prepared to do and what we are prepared to give for another person. And that is the love of Jesus – a non discriminating, non judgemental love with no limits.
And much as we might make excuses not to practice such love, it is the clearest command of Jesus… to love extravagantly, to love life and to love everyone. Mother Theresa said, ‘we can do no great things, but we can do small things with love’.
But it’s so easy to talk about love in theory – and we do it throughout our services every week, just as the Corinthians probably did, but we must live out this love every day, and nobody needs reminding that this is not easy !
But Paul ends this passage with a pointer towards doing it. Faith, hope and love abide. In faith we are challenged to remember the sacrifices of Jesus. In faith we are called to live out those sacrifices knowing that God is alongside us every moment of every day.
Our faith is a response to the love of God, but our faith is also the reminder that whatever problems or worries we face, whatever challenges we may comes across, whatever difficulties with other people we might have to meet, God is there and he will never leave us.
There’s a story about a man who proposed to his girl friend. He said, ‘Darling I want you to know that I love you more than anything else. I want you to marry me. I may not be the wealthiest man in the world – I’m not rich, I haven’t got a big house or a yacht or a rolls Royce like Johnny Brown but I do love you with all my heart’.
She thought for a moment and then replied, ‘And darling I really love you with all my heart too, but tell me a bit more about this Johnny Brown !’
Seriously, our love can never be conditional, our love can never be based on the theory that they don’t like us so we don’t have to love them – faith will help us to know that Jesus understands painful and difficult choices made partly for those who seem to hate him.
And then there is hope – every person needs some hope. Whether that person lives in terrible conditions or in the greatest of luxury, they need hope. When hope is gone, then life itself seems pointless. But again for hope we can look to Jesus, who promises that things will be better – we sometimes don’t know when, and we often wish it was sooner, but lived in fellowship with Jesus, things will always get better.
But it is love that is described as the greatest of the three things – and that is because love is that one thing that has the power to transform anything for good. Disease and illness can destroy, bombs and injustice and lack of food and water can destroy, but love can rebuild anything….
As we continue to receive the love of Jesus in our own lives, may we be extravagant in sharing that love everywhere. AMEN
As one judge commented that it was easy because of that, another said actually it was the most difficult because it was so well known and any errors in words would be easily picked up as people didn’t need to understand a foreign language to judge it.
Familiarity can indeed lead to contempt – people can actually know things too well, and when they do, they can often ignore the true meaning of what is being said or heard.
Today we heard one of the most well known passages in the whole Bible from Paul’s 1st letter to the Corinthians (13:1-13), and it’s one that we’ve all heard many times before and all heard sermons about many times before ! But, here’s another one !
Love is the most powerful positive emotion a person can ever have… And in this passage Paul writes of it as the greatest, but also the most necessary gift of God. And it’s a subject which we can never think enough about as Christians, but even more importantly it is something that we can never give enough of !
Today I want to think of the last verse we heard – ‘Faith, hope and love abide, these three; and the greatest of these is love’.
Without going through the whole reading, although it’s worth reading over and over again, it’s worth just reminding ourselves of the context in which Paul wrote. Corinth was a big and important trading city, a centre for trade for a huge region, and there were many different groups of people who met there.
The Church had grown well and most of the believers in Corinth were extremely excited about their faith. We understand that 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 worship and there were preachers and there were those who helped others, and still others who could prophecy, and the word of God was proclaimed every day and 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 really active church was happening in Corinth.
It was the Church we would perhaps all like to be a part of, except it lacked one thing - it didn't have enough love in it. The thirteenth chapter of 1 Corinthians is probably the favourite wedding text of all time, but when Paul wrote it - he wasn't thinking about weddings, nor was he even really trying to describe what love is like - though he does do that rather well. What he was doing 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 for ourselves, for other people and for God - the kind of love that God has for us - is the measure of our faith.
A coach load from the Parish recently went to see Les Miserables in Cardiff, and I know lots of others have seen it as well – it’s an incredible story about conflict in France, about a fight for justice, about a search for freedom and a search for retribution, but ultimately it is a story of love.
Love is the undercurrent through the whole show – there is the love shown by the Bishop who, when a desperate Valjean steals some silver, offers him some more. There is the love of Valjean for the young child Cosette, who he takes into his care. There is the love of Eponine for Marius, the love of Marius for Cosette…. There is what could easily be called the love of Valjean for his persecutor Javert as he spurns the chance to kill him, knowing that Javert may come back to get him at another time.
But there are 2 attitudes to love from the musical which are quite interesting – the first comes from Javert. Javert is a bitter policeman, a man who has lived his life searching for justice – regardless of the consequences – his pursuit of Valjean, whose initial crime was to steal some bread for his starving sister, was almost obsessive.
He wants Valjean arrested, something that would almost certainly spell the end of Valjean’s life – yet when later Valjean is handed Javert to do what he wants with, Valjean sends him away… Javert is incapable of understanding the compassion. He is incapable of recognising mercy or grace, and unable to live with himself, he commits suicide.
There are many people who seem unable to understand love – who would prefer to hide in a bitter corner, than experience love. And yet love is the one emotion that can really transform life – yes, people in need might benefit greatly from food or shelter or money, but the most precious gift of all is the gift of knowing that they are loved.
Like Javert, many are hardened against it, but the love of Christ, when people know it, can break down the hardest of hearts.
And the second attitude to love that I wanted to think of was the sacrificial love of Valjean – Cosette has met and fallen in love with Marius, a young fighter in the campaign, and Valjean, wanting more than anything for Cosette to be happy, powerfully sings as part of one of the songs, ‘If I die, let me die, but let him live…’
Sacrificial love is the test of love – what we are prepared to do and what we are prepared to give for another person. And that is the love of Jesus – a non discriminating, non judgemental love with no limits.
And much as we might make excuses not to practice such love, it is the clearest command of Jesus… to love extravagantly, to love life and to love everyone. Mother Theresa said, ‘we can do no great things, but we can do small things with love’.
But it’s so easy to talk about love in theory – and we do it throughout our services every week, just as the Corinthians probably did, but we must live out this love every day, and nobody needs reminding that this is not easy !
But Paul ends this passage with a pointer towards doing it. Faith, hope and love abide. In faith we are challenged to remember the sacrifices of Jesus. In faith we are called to live out those sacrifices knowing that God is alongside us every moment of every day.
Our faith is a response to the love of God, but our faith is also the reminder that whatever problems or worries we face, whatever challenges we may comes across, whatever difficulties with other people we might have to meet, God is there and he will never leave us.
There’s a story about a man who proposed to his girl friend. He said, ‘Darling I want you to know that I love you more than anything else. I want you to marry me. I may not be the wealthiest man in the world – I’m not rich, I haven’t got a big house or a yacht or a rolls Royce like Johnny Brown but I do love you with all my heart’.
She thought for a moment and then replied, ‘And darling I really love you with all my heart too, but tell me a bit more about this Johnny Brown !’
Seriously, our love can never be conditional, our love can never be based on the theory that they don’t like us so we don’t have to love them – faith will help us to know that Jesus understands painful and difficult choices made partly for those who seem to hate him.
And then there is hope – every person needs some hope. Whether that person lives in terrible conditions or in the greatest of luxury, they need hope. When hope is gone, then life itself seems pointless. But again for hope we can look to Jesus, who promises that things will be better – we sometimes don’t know when, and we often wish it was sooner, but lived in fellowship with Jesus, things will always get better.
But it is love that is described as the greatest of the three things – and that is because love is that one thing that has the power to transform anything for good. Disease and illness can destroy, bombs and injustice and lack of food and water can destroy, but love can rebuild anything….
As we continue to receive the love of Jesus in our own lives, may we be extravagant in sharing that love everywhere. AMEN
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