This Month's Newsletter Article

If I speak in the tongues of mortals and of angels, but do not have 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 do not have love, I am nothing. If I give away all my possessions, and if I hand over my body so that I may boast,* but do not have love, I gain nothing.

Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant 5or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; 6it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. 7It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. 

Love never ends. But as for prophecies, they will come to an end; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will come to an end. For we know only in part, and we prophesy only in part; but when the complete comes, the partial will come to an end. When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child; when I became an adult, I put an end to childish ways. For now we see in a mirror, dimly,* but then we will see face to face. Now I know only in part; then I will know fully, even as I have been fully known. 

And now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; and the greatest of these is love

I Corinthians 13

We live in a time of transition, turmoil and anxiety.  There is conflict, division and incivility, not just in politics but in our churches.  People lament the lack of respect while at the same time refusing to respect those with whom they differ.  Stands are taken.  Lines are drawn.

And yet even in the certainty of the rightness of our stand, the security of our boundaries drawn, there is a sense that something is not right.    Despite how right we know we are, we sense that all this stand taking and line drawing is in fact, not pleasing to God.

We can cite scripture chapter and verse to prove our point but 

“If I speak in the tongues of mortals and of angels, but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal”

We know with all certainty that our stand is correct and true, our faith does not waver and yet 

 “if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing.”

Perhaps we have made great sacrifices for our beliefs but still

“If I give away all my possessions, and if I hand over my body so that I may boast,* but do not have love, I gain nothing.”

“But as for prophecies, they will come to an end; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will come to an end.” 

All the things we argue about and which divide and cause us such anxiety will come to an end.  It is only love which is eternal.

We yearn for clear answers and certainty in this world but 

“for now we see in a mirror, dimly,* but then we will see face to face. Now I know only in part; then I will know fully, even as I have been fully known”

Why does the world scorn the church?  We can point fingers and come up with all the faults and sins unbelievers, but we still must answer the question, what does world see when it looks a the church?  Does it see love?  Is there an unbeliever such as the pagans in the time of the early church who can point to us and say “See how they love each other?”

God came into the world because of love.  God loves the world, sinful, confused and divided as it is.  God loves us, sinful, confused and divided as we are.  It sounds so simple and trite to simply say “Love one another” and yet if we are looking for commandments to save us – this is the one which will save us.  Love one another.  Love will save us.  Love already has saved us.

May God’s love continue to heal and transform us and empower us to love each other and the world in a way that heals and transforms.