The text this morning is from Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians, the twelfth and thirteenth chapters:
And I will show you a still more excellent way. If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing. Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways. For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known. So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.Thus far the text.
My dear friends in Christ,
There is a language that supersedes all other languages; that language is love. There was a movie that came out a few years ago called “Arrival.” In it, an alien race descended on the earth, not with any ill intentions, as far as anyone knew, but no one knew what they wanted. It was a professional linguist, someone trained in language interpretation, who finally figured out major parts of it. The surprise in the film, and sorry for the spoilers but it’s been out a few years, is that anyone who knew this language would have the ability to go back and forth in time. Knowing the language made it possible to see events in their own life in the future and the past. It actually was a pretty decent movie.
But, to know the language of love, this is a more powerful tool. We’re not talking the love languages here. You might have head of that book, “the Five Love Languages.” That book teaches you how you prefer to receive affection and how you prefer to show it. Somewhat helpful, but not what Paul is talking about. Instead, if you know how to speak the language of love, you can affect people, not just now, not just in the future, but for all eternity.
You can be super smart. You can know everything there is to know. You can speak every language on earth. But, if you cannot love a person, you’re no better than a three year old on a drum set. You can know all the doctrines of God. You can be intimately familiar with the Lutheran Confessions. You can memorize Scripture like the back of your hand. You can even call down fire from heaven. But if you don’t love, you’re like the ink in a whiteboard marker. You can be generous. You can lay down your life for others. You can do every good thing under heaven. But if you don’t know love, you are trying to reap the wind.
This is the thing: without love, none of these things mean anything. But what is love? It’s the worst thing in our culture today, that we think love is an emotion, a feeling. We think love is the butterflies in our stomach, the drop in our gut, the goo-goo eyes over another. We think love looks like flowers or Valentines or romantic gestures. These things aren’t bad, but they’re not love. Love isn’t necessarily romantic. Love isn’t even necessarily showy. Let me tell you a more excellent way.
Jesus calls Pharisees snakes. He calls a woman a dog. He refuses to heal in His own hometown. He preaches the Gospel. These things are love. I know, it doesn’t seem like it, does it? But that’s because we’ve been influenced into thinking love is something we feel and not something we do. Love, actually, is a verb, and it is most plainly shown in how we serve one another.
Jesus often does things that surprise us. As I said, He doesn’t really often have nice words for those in charge of Israel. But, good, sweet Jesus? Doesn’t He just seem warm and cuddly? Actually, remember, our Jesus had sharp words for those who would lead His children astray. Jesus calls a Syrophoenician woman a dog, saying it’s not right for Him to give to her what was meant for the children of Israel. This was meant to insult her, to make sure she knew her place and wasn’t trying to usurp her way into the kingdom. But, by her response, one which took no offense to the supposed insult but admitting it, demonstrated her faith, that she may not have been of the bloodline of David, but she was a child of Abraham.
Even last week, we heard how Jesus went into His own hometown synagogue, read from the prophet Isaiah, gave a sermon, and, when asked to do the miracles He had been doing elsewhere, He refused to work a one among for lack of faith. Their response should have been repentance, yet they instead went to kill Him. Of course, that didn’t work. But, how is this all love? It’s because Jesus was doing and saying exactly what needed to be said. Jesus didn’t cut corners and He didn’t mince words.
We look at this and think, boy, if I tried that, people would rip me limb from limb. And you’re probably right. Although, think of where Jesus ended up; the cross wasn’t exactly a pleasure cruise, was it? The point is, we do need to consider how we speak to others, how we rebuke them in their sin, repent with them in their repentance, rejoice in their absolution, encourage them in their good works. We need to consider how we stand beside them when times are tough, push them along when they lack courage, support them when they can bear no more. Ultimately, this is what Jesus is doing in all of these things.
But, most importantly, He preaches the Good News to those who are sinners. And that’s good news for you and for me, because I know that I often lack love when I speak, when I act, when I think. And, if it were up to me, I would have damned myself long ago in all of this. But, because our Lord comes to preach Good News to sinners, He preaches to me, and He preaches to you. He still preaches in Milwaukee. Though He is not here bodily, He sends His Word and His preachers to bring to you the very Good News that He took to all the other towns. He preaches that He has lived, He has died, and He has resurrected to forgive you all your sins.
He may speak to you sharply. He might call you a dog. He might call you a snake. He might even refuse to do what you beg Him to do. But these are also loving to you. They are for His purposes. They are to bring you to your knees in repentance before Him, because, until we are convicted by the Law, we want to stand in our own glory, of which we have none. But that’s hard to see, it’s hard to understand. You may not understand the purpose at the time, but, by faith, now you can trust that they are good indeed for you.
This is the difference between being an adult and a child. You can understand that the hard things, the difficult things, the unbearable things are for your good. You don’t have to feel slighted at an offense, you don’t have to throw a fit when you don’t get your way. Instead, because you know that your Savior has nothing but love for you, you can trust that all that He does is in service to that love, in service to bringing you with Him unto everlasting life.
The Savior’s love never ends. Strength, reason, knowledge, wisdom, all these things will come to an end. Many will grow old and die. Others of us will just keel over when its unexpected. When that happens, anything you could bring to the table is gone. But the love of the Savior remains. His love for you remains. That is why it is so important that we must make our lives ones that imitate His, for you may be the means by which someone is preached the Good News. And if you have no love, you will not win them over. But, to know the language of love, to know how to serve your neighbor, to show them that they are valuable, to demonstrate that they are made in the image of God and bear His likeness and should be with you forever and with Jesus forever in eternity, is to have the power of life itself. This is a more excellent way, that by faith in Christ, in the hope of the resurrection, the love of Christ endures forever. In Jesus’ name, amen.
Now may the peace of God which passes all human understanding guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, our Lord! Amen.
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