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February 24, 2008
Scripture: 1 Corinthians 13: 1-13
Title: "WELCOME - Love"

We continue our sermon series of Welcome using our mission statement as our guide. Today, we will be talking about Welcome: Love. As I sat down to write this sermon, I had to ask myself: What do you say about “Love that has not already been said? What new word can I bring forward today about love.

Love: a word that is such a part of our vocabulary that it has lost its power and impact. Love a word that we use each and every day to describe feelings of like. Love a word that we use to describe our faith. Love a word that we use to describe God. We say “God is Love and Love is God” and believe that says it all.

So why I am preaching on love? Is it only because it is the next word in our mission statement and the next sermon in the series. Or have we been given an opportunity to reclaim and empower the word of Love once more in our lives?

We know about love. So why am I preaching on love when we know what love is, and we have experienced love in our lives? And why did I choose a scripture that has been used at weddings for years to talk about love? Everyone knows this scripture. We can all probably recite part or all of it.

So why another sermon on love?

Our TV screens are filled with stories about people killing each other. And we say we know love?

Our newspaper tells us about families torn apart by neglect and abuse. And we say we know love?

Our lives are touched by stories of violence, of hate, of hurt. And we say we know love?

So why another sermon on love?

So I invite us to take another look at this scripture once more as we ask ourselves once again why another sermon on love? We are taught God is love but what do we mean by that? What do we mean when we say God is love and love is God.

And we find the answer to these questions in our Scripture today. Paul is writing to the community at Corinth who has clearly forgotten what it means to say God is love and Love is God. It has gotten back to Paul that things are not going so well in Corinth. There is some fighting going on…and not just any fighting. This is knock out, drag out fighting that is dividing and destroying the community. Reports are getting back to Paul that things are not going so well in Corinth. He has heard that the richer members of the community are eating the communion meal before the poorer members could arrive. So much for breaking bread together…

And the reports keep coming… he hears that people are bragging about who baptized whom and saying that they are better than the others if they were baptized by a particular person. And then he hears that people are instigating jealous rivalries among the church, just for the fun of it. And then he hears that some people are boasting about certain behavior and explaining it away by saying “Well, I can just ask for forgiveness and everything will be okay.”

And then if that is not enough, Paul hears that this community is dividing based on spiritual gifts. This community is saying that certain spiritual gifts are more important and therefore makes these people better than others. And their favorites are speaking in tongues, prophecy, and knowledge. If you have any combination of those three, you had to be the most spiritual and that means that you were the best.

And Paul responds by saying…You say that you know God’s love, that you don’t need another sermon on love. I don’t think so.. You don’t know God’s love at all. Because if you did, you would be building up the community of God rather than tearing it down. You say that God is love and love is God but your actions tell a different story! You missed the point of God’s love.

God didn’t give you these gifts to tear down each other. God gave you these gifts to help you bring about the Kingdom of God. Take me for example…If I spoke in the tongue of angels, but didn’t love, then what is the purpose? What’s the point? If I had all the knowledge about God and could move mountains with my faith, but didn’t have love, then I am nothing! If I did not have the love of God in my heart, guiding me, inspiring me, than I would be nothing!

Paul continues with his letter by describing this love that guides and inspires him as a person of God. This love that has transformed him and has invited all of them to come together as people of faith. This love that has welcomed them just as they are into this community . This love that heals, and builds up the people of God.

This is not a romantic love between a husband and wife. It is not a have to love between families. This love is life-changing. This love transforming. It is patient. It is kind. It is not envious or rude. This love does not insist on its own way. This love bears all things. It believes all things. It hopes all things. It endures all things. This love is a radically self-transforming form of love patterned after God’s love for each and every one of us.

It is God’s love for all of us! That is what we are talking about when we say God is love and love is God. We are talking about God’s deep, passionate transforming love that has claimed us, that has named us, that has given us purpose, that binds us together as brothers and sisters in faith.
And this love is not like anything else that this world has experienced before. This world that we live in does not understand this love because we live in a limited world. All of our gifts are for this world, are to be used in this world to bring about the Kingdom of God, and will come to an end when this world ceases.

And we hold to the promise that God’s love for us does not cease, even with this world falls away, even when it seems like we are all alone, even when our wisdom, and our gifts of the Spirit have reached the end, God’s love for us does not cease. Because we are God’s very own. God knew us from the very beginning, even as we were being formed in our mothers’ wombs, God know us and God loved us.

God has seen us. God has known us. God knows our shortcomings. God knows our faults. God knows our failures. And Still God loves us!!

And that is why Paul is writing another letter about love. And that is why we are hearing another sermon about love. And that is why we have included the word love in our mission statement. Because God first knew us. Because God first welcomed us. Because God first loved us and God continues to love us as God’s own children.

And that is what gives us purpose and meaning. God loves us. That is what shapes our character as people of faith. God loves us. That is what inspires us to go out into the world and share our word of Welcome. God loves us and God’s love for us does not end.

That is the love that we claim when we say God is love. That is the love that we name when we say love is God. That is the love that we gladly say we know when we say that we have known and have experienced love. God loves us.

And it is that love that came to life through the person of Jesus Christ. And that is the love that was shown on the cross. And that is the love that even death cannot destroy.

Yes, we know love! Yes, we know love! God first loved us and that love is never ending…

And because God sees us, and knows us, and still loves us, we can dare to see ourselves, know ourselves, and accept ourselves as we are known, and forgiven and loved. And it is out of this life transforming love that we are called to love each other, to bear each other, to build each other up, to stay with each other. It is this life changing love that forms the basis of our lives as Christians.

Our lives are changed by God’s love. And this love cannot stay only between two people or behind these doors of Midway Christian Church. This love drives us, urges us, inspires us to go out into our community and share God’s love with all that we meet.

That is why we have heard another sermon on love. That is why we have included the word love in our mission statement.

God loves us! God welcomes us!

Yes, we know love! Let this love inspire you. Let this love beckon you. Let this love call you to go out into the world as the people of God.

Yes, we know love. And The world will know we are Christians by our love.

May we always welcome all of God’s children through our love inspired by and taught to us by Jesus Christ.

Amen.

Rev. Heather McColl
Midway Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)

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