+Points to ponder

1. What first comes to mind when someone mentions or speaks about ‘love’?
2. How does St. Paul’s description of ‘love’ to the Corinthians speak to us today?
3. In the face of our failures, what does the idea that “love never fails” convey to you?
4. How does Paul’s description of ‘love’ affect our view of our various vocations?

+Sermon Transcript

Grace, mercy, and peace be unto each of you from God our Father and our Lord and King, Jesus the Christ. Amen.

Let us pray: God of heaven, You send the Gospel to the ends of the earth and Your messengers to every nation: send Your Holy Spirit to transform us by the good news of everlasting life in Jesus Christ our Lord Amen.

Just picture it: The bride and the groom standing there at the altar, holding hands, gazing into each other’s eyes. They are so young and eager for the future. Then the pastor reads, “Love is patient, love is kind ...” It’s such a familiar scene, isn’t it? Perhaps today’s Epistle from 1st Corinthians was even read at your own wedding. If so, you may have thought at the time that these words were specifically intended for married couples. You probably hoped that you would always have such a perfect love as St. Paul described. However, if you’ve been married for some time or know people who have been married for a while, you surely know that such perfect love is incredibly difficult to maintain.

Marriage, however, wasn’t exactly what Paul was talking about when he wrote this text. The truth is this text was really intended for perhaps the most dysfunctional and loveless congregation in the New Testament: the Corinthian congregation. They were a congregation full of sexual immorality, division, lawsuits. Their division was made most clear at the table, where they could not even eat with one another. Not even the Lord’s Supper. They truly were a congregation that had forgotten what it meant to be loved by Christ and to love others. But this must not be the case for you and me. For St. Paul in our text has shown us a more excellent way:

CHRIST’S CROSS IS THE SOURCE AND NORM OF CHRISTIAN LOVE AND LIFE.

Now it’s true that Paul’s words set an exceptionally high standard – and I would dare to say a standard that none of us keeps. Would any here boast he or she has perfect love? Would any here say you’ve never let your anger get the best of you or held a grudge? Would any here say you never lose your patience? Would any suggest that you’ve never spoken a lie to a loved one? Would any here say you’re completely selfless and not self-seeking? No, to say such things would be nothing but nonsense and prevarications. The truth is that there is but one who keeps such love: Christ. And when we compare our love to His, we find that Christ’s cross shows us how sinful, self-centered, and imperfect our love truly is.

Indeed, it was on that cross where He, who is love incarnate, ‘bore all things, and endured all things.’ It was He who did not insist on His own way, and it was He who refused to resent those who sinned against him so greatly, but prayed, “Father, forgive them.” It was He who had suffered long while disobedient and sinful people failed Him again and again. It was He who now on the cross chose to suffer for those very same people that they might be forgiven of their sins. It was He who was without sin but full of love. And, surely, we can never measure up to such love. We are ever only but a poor reflection of Christ, if not a distortion.

Yet that is all the better, for Christ came to love a loveless people that they may lovely be, to paraphrase the hymn, ‘My Song Is Love Unknown.’ He did not love us because we were lovely but rather because He is the God who is merciful. And this is seen no better than on the cross. For Christ’s cross does not only reveal our sinful lack of love but much more His forgiving, perfect, and complete love. After all, did not Christ say, “Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.” ? And is this not what He did? He laid down His life for His friends, indeed for you and for me. And in doing so, He, the Son of God Incarnate, showed once and for all that “God is love.” He showed His love by allowing his blood to be poured out as a sacrifice for all mankind, even those who hated Him. He was crucified that we might be forgiven. Indeed, “God shows His love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, He does not love His Church because you are spotless and clean or without sin; He loves you so that He might make you perfect, without any spot or blemish, that you might be holy and blameless. And you must never forget this, for it is both the beginning and end of your love.

“Sodium is an extremely active element found naturally only in combined form; it always links itself to another element. Chlorine, on the other hand, is the poisonous gas that gives bleach its offensive odor. When sodium and chlorine are combined, the result is sodium chloride – common table salt – the substance we use to preserve meat and bring out its flavor. Love and truth can be like sodium and chlorine. Love without truth is flighty, sometimes blind, willing to combine with various doctrines [- regardless of their veracity]. On the other hand, truth by itself can be offensive, sometimes even poisonous. Spoken without love, it can turn people away from the Gospel. When truth and love are combined in an individual or a church, however, then we have what Jesus called “the salt of the earth,” and we’re able to preserve and bring out the beauty of our faith [and show forth the Love of Christ].”

You see, the Corinthians were more concerned with external appearances than with their need for His forgiveness. Some boasted of their gifts, others of their tongues, and others of their knowledge; yet all these things will pass away. Certainly, every external gift you have in this life will pass away. But love will not. Because the love God has for you and for your brothers and sisters in Christ will always endure, even into eternity. Yes, and Amen! – as the psalmist puts it: “For great is His steadfast love toward us, and the faithfulness of the Lord endures forever.”

Therefore, Beloved, you must hold this cross of Christ before your eyes, both to know that you are forgiven and loved as well as to know how to love. For it is Christ’s cross that reveals the shape of perfect Christian love. Beloved, remember what Christ said: “Take up [your] cross and follow me.” Now when Christ said this, He did not mean for you to atone for the sins of others – past, present, or future. That duty was Christ’s alone. No, what Christ meant is to bear His love both in Word and deed in all you say and do, even to the point of death, even to the point of the cross, even as He showed His love for you. Indeed, was this not Christ’s command, that we ‘love one another even as He has loved us’ ? This is the very same love Paul describes in our text.

In this sense, this passage really does speak of the love between spouses, because it speaks of the love that all Christians ought to have for one another and for those outside the Church. It is the love given and shown to us that we might live it out in our daily vocations. It is a love which forgives, even as it has been forgiven by Christ. It is a love that endures forever, for we will be with Him forever, even as He is risen from the grave to eternal life. Indeed, our faith and hope will pass away and will finally become sight. But the love we show now is greater because it causes us to look beyond ourselves to our neighbors, and the relationships that we form now with one another as Christians will last into eternity.

This love is a love which does not seek itself but seeks the benefit of others. It is a love that is without fear because those who have this love know they have already died with Christ in Baptism and will be raised with him on the Last Day. It is a cross-shaped love which has been formed by Christ’s cross and so forgives others. It is the love of Christ, poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us in Baptism. It is Christ’s love, and it is our love. May God grant that we always keep this love for God and for one another. Amen.

“May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope.”

Background and Study notes from Concordia Pulpit Resources Vol 32 Pt 1 YrC. (Electronic version) Rev. Alexander J. Blanken, pastor, St. Paul Lutheran Churches, Winside and Carroll, Nebraska