LOVE IS SOMETHING YOU DO

I Corinthians 13:1-13

INTRODUCTION

The Scottish Bible commentator William Barclay once described it “for many as the most wonderful chapter in the whole New Testament.” We, just about all of us, have heard the words read so often at wedding ceremonies that we can quote them by memory. And my hunch is that together with Psalm 23 and John 3:16, these lines about love from I Corinthians 13 are more familiar than any other passage in scripture:

If I speak in the tongues of mortals and of angels, but have not love, I am like a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal … so faith, hope, love abide – these three. But the greatest of these is love

(I Corinthians 13:1, 13)

Now if those phrases sound somewhat soft and sentimental, then let me remind you that the apostle Paul wrote this letter in the first century A.D. to the Christian Church at Corinth in Greece which was caught in the crossfire of interpersonal conflicts and theological controversies. Those early believers were fussing and fighting amongst themselves, and Paul was writing to tell them, whether they liked it or not, that they were joined together as the body of Christ (chapter 12), and had been called to love one another as sisters and brothers in the family of faith.

All these years later, I believe those ancient words from I Corinthians continue to speak directly to us today, and God knows, we need to listen. For our culture seems determined, as the popular song once put it, to be “looking for love in all the wrong places.”

In our movies, television programs, theatrical plays, novels and music, love is portrayed as sentimental, sensual and more often than not, sexual, which takes us on a roller coaster ride of emotions, ranging from the height of ecstasy to the depths of despair. In summary, our culture has declared that love is something we feel.

And while that is partly true, the overwhelming perspective of the Bible, especially I Corinthians 13, conveys that love is something we do. Notice please the action verbs and strong nouns we read a few minutes ago: Love is patient and kind, love is not jealous or boastful, it is not arrogant or rude. Love does not insist on its own way, it is not irritable or resentful; love does not rejoice in the wrong, but rejoices in the right. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things … and love (that is Christ-centered, unconditional, sacrificial, in the Greek “agape” kind of love) never ends.

Do you see the difference? Maybe this story will help. A Presbyterian pastor and her family lived next door to a psychology professor from a nearby university. The professor was single and had no children, while the pastor was married and with her husband had two boys and two girls.

Well the psychology professor would sometimes say over the backyard fence, “You know, you should love your children, not punish them.” He said it over and over again until one hot summer day when the professor had just finished repairing his concrete driveway.

After several hours of hard labor in the 90 degree sunshine, the professor laid down the trowel, wiped his brow and started toward the house … when suddenly, out of the corner of his eye, he saw the youngest next door child – a mischievous little boy – putting his hands and feet into the fresh wet cement. The professor rushed over and was about to deal with that 8-year-old trespasser, but then he heard a voice coming from his neighbor’s second story window through which the pastor had observed the entire scene. “Watch it professor!” she said. “Remember – you must love the child. Don’t forget!” To which the frustrated professor replied, “I do love him in the abstract, but not in the concrete.”

And here is the point: our culture has bought hook, line and sinker into some images of love that look attractive and sound appealing, based almost entirely on the hot or cold or lukewarm feelings we have toward each other. If that sounds somewhat abstract to you, then compare it with the Christian perspective which gets down on its knees in the concrete and proclaims “Love Is Something You Do.”

The Christian author Earnest Larsen described it with this little vignette entitled “Love and Ajax.” Listen:

“Dear Mom,

I have decided that you and I need to make peace in our ‘battle of the bedroom.’ Yes, the room is a mess. And yes, it’s true that you don’t ask me to do very much. But will wars end because I make my bed? Will all hunger in the world cease if I hang up my clothes? With all the wonderful and terrible things happening on this planet today, what does the condition of one bedroom really matter?

Yes, I know that before the world can be put in order, each person must put their own little world in order. But dust doesn’t bother my world. To put my world in order, I need love, not Ajax cleanser. So Mom, let’s make a deal. You use a little more love and I’ll use a little more Ajax.”

Love,

Cathy (13)

Well, they worked things out, that mother and daughter, and discovered between them that love is something you do.

And so it was for a wife and husband one evening at the dinner table. He had told her early that morning about his decision to ask the manager at the office for a raise, which he felt he deserved. Late in the afternoon, he mustered his courage, made the request and to his pleasant surprise, the employer readily agreed and gave him more than he had hoped for.

Coming home that night, the husband noticed that the dining room table was set with the finest china and candlelight. He surmised that someone at the office had called to tell his wife the good news. So as they sat down, he found beside his plate a beautifully lettered note which said, “Congratulations dear! I knew you would get the raise. These things will tell you how much I love you!”

After dessert, as they cleared the dishes and headed to the kitchen, he saw something drop her skirt pocket. It was another note, so he bent over, picked it up and this is what it said: “Don’t worry about not getting the raise. You deserved it anyway! These things will tell you how much I love you.” And as they embraced, that couple felt the grace of God between them, and they knew, beyond the shadow of a doubt, that love is something you do.

II.

And just as that happens in our families, so it can be, so it ought to be, so it needs to be happening in this family of faith we call the church. From the moment when we are baptized, most of us as little children, on through until the day that we die and cross over to the other side and join the Church Triumphant, throughout our life’s journey, God gives us the opportunity in this Christian community to learn that love is something you do.

Over this past weekend, on Friday evening and Saturday morning, the Session and Staff who have been called to lead this congregation met together for our spring retreat here at the corner of 16^th and Peachtree Streets. As we listened to each of the new elders share their stories about how they came into the faith and describe those mountaintop moments, mixed together with the dark and difficult days on their lives, I felt a powerful presence in this place and it was and is the Spirit of Jesus Christ.

Most amazing of all was the recurring theme I heard put into words over and over and over again – the wonderful experience of being welcomed and embraced here by the grace of God and the love of other Christians. It reminded me of the sign that stood on the front lawn of a church up in New Jersey which said: “We Reserve The Right To Accept Everybody!”

The late theologian Paul Tillich preached a well-known sermon on that same theme, in which he said, “Sometimes … a wave of light breaks into our darkness, and it is as though a voice says to us, ‘You are accepted. You are accepted by the name of One whom you may not even know as yet … so simply accept the fact that you are accepted! And as that happens to us, we experience the grace of God.” (From “You Are Accepted” by Dr. Paul Tillich, in a book of sermons entitled “The Shaking of the Foundations,” Charles Scribner’s & Sons, 1948).

I have felt that myself in this church, and so it has been throughout my own journey of faith going all the way back to the congregations my father first served in Long Island, New Jersey and Pennsylvania. And last weekend, I was surrounded by that acceptance and love all over again as we gathered together at Heinz Hall in Pittsburgh to celebrate the life and great legacy of Fred McFeely Rogers, whose friendship I was fortunate to share and who came here to worship with us in Atlanta several times as he led us in prayer.

There were 3000 people in Pittsburgh’s Symphony Hall, including the Rogers family, and those of us on the stage represented and reflected all the different facets and remarkable diversity of Mister Rogers’ life and ministry.

As the service was nearly over and I went forward to offer the closing prayer, I was overwhelmed by the spirit of love in that room. And then I remembered something Fred Rogers had sent to me twenty years ago, as we were just becoming friends. It was a quote from C.S. Lewis, written on yellow paper, and this is what it said:

“To love … is to be vulnerable. Love anything and your heart will certainly be wrung and possibly broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact, you must give it to no one … wrap it carefully around hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements, lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness. But in that casket … safe, dark, motionless, airless … it will change. Your heart will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable.”

I have thought about and sought to live into those words for the past twenty years, and I share them with you today as they were given to me by a dear friend long ago – who told us and our children that we are special, and that God loves us just the way we are – and whose life and witness helped to show so many of us, more than we will ever know, that through the grave and forgiveness of Jesus Christ, these words will always be true:

LOVE IS SOMETHING YOU DO!

In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.

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