The Gift of Love

Zephyr United Methodist Church

Early First United Methodist Church

Mother’s Day

May 14, 2006

Rev. Eddie Smart

1 Cor. 13:1-13 (NRSV)

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. ²And 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. ³If 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.

⁴Love 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.

⁸Love 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. ⁹For we know only in part, and we prophesy only in part; ¹⁰but when the complete comes, the partial will come to an end. ¹¹When 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. ¹²For 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. ¹³And now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; and the greatest of these is love.

  Leonard Turner gave us a riddle in something called "The Union Express." It goes like this:

  It costs nothing but creates much. ● It enriches those who receive, without impoverishing those who give. ● It happens in a flash and the memory of it sometimes lasts forever. ● None are so rich that they can get along without it and none are so poor but are richer for a smile. ● It creates happiness in the home, fosters good will in a business and is the countersign of friends. ● It is rest to the weary, uplifting to the discouraged, sunshine to the sad and nature's best antidote for trouble. ●Yet it cannot be bought, begged, borrowed or stolen for it is something that is no earthly good to anybody till it is given away! What is it? -- It is love!

                                Read 1 Corinthians 13 at this point.

  Paul has written about LOVE in this 13th Chapter of I Corinthians. The chapter is so poetic, it has been called the "Hymn of Love." It is so poetic, some have questioned its location in this epistle. In the 12th Chapter Paul is writing about the gifts of the Spirit. He is addressing misunderstandings about the gifts of the Spirit. In the 14th Chapter Paul picks up on the gifts of prophesy and tongues. In the middle of all the discussion of gifts, comes this poetic Love Chapter. Does it fit?

  Do words about love belong in this place in Paul's letter? What kind of love is Paul writing about? You would have to say it is a NECESSARY kind of love. He tells me that if I can speak like an angel, but do not have this love, I am just making a bunch of racket. What I say and how I say it means nothing IF I do not have this love.

  I can know everything there is to know. I can understand all the mysteries of the universe. I can know right from wrong and be able to communicate it. I can know exactly what the church must do. I can have a faith that would heal every illness in this congregation. BUT if I do not have this love, I am nothing.

  Love is patient.

  Love is kind.

  Love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude.

  Love does not insist on its own way.

  Love is not irritable or resentful.

  Paul is saying in a very poetic way that love means being selfless. It means thinking first of the other person. That is love. It means putting others before yourself. That is love. It means not fighting to get your way, but doing all you can for another. That is love. It means thinking of others rather than yourself.

This week we went to a buffet. They were serving fried fish, and we were told it would be about 5 minutes before fresh fish would be ready. We waited. They brought out a freshly fried batch of fish. As we walked up to the buffet there was a man just ahead of us. When we got to the pan of fish, there were just a few pieces left. I looked over at that man’s plate. I never dreamed you could get that much fish on one plate. He certainly was thinking only of himself.

On the other hand, Tenneva Jordan reminds us that a mother is a person who seeing there are only four pieces of pie for five people, promptly announces she never did care for pie. The kind of love that comes out of thinking first of others, being selfless.

Lauren wrote in Christianity Today, “And watching my mother hold her head high, even as she battles psoriatic arthritis, is a lesson to me everyday. There are days when she can hardly get out of bed, and barely make it to the kitchen, but she overcomes in order to get me and my family up and running. She is always there for support and love.”

Holly Ruddy wrote, “My grandmother was the one who took me to church at a young age and introduced me to Jesus...To me, she was the epitome of Jesus in the earth. She truly expressed his love for me through her life.”

Sharla Stephens says, “My mother is a godly mother. She has prayed for me every day since I was born. I can’t begin to tell you how much she means to me.”

Today we celebrate Mother’s Day because of that kind of love shown by mothers everywhere. Mother’s who love with the kind of love described by Paul in the passage we read this morning.

  We are speaking of a love that bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, and endures all things. Today we celebrate mothers who can love in this way and pray for those mothers who miss the mark... Jesus calls us to love even them.

Then there is the grandmother who is the guardian of her granddaughter and has her in therapy because at a very early age she was abused by family members, and her mother forced her to sell drugs. This same mother did not care about her daughter. She wanted no part of her. The grandmother would continue putting down her granddaughter and everything she did. Even with all that the granddaughter longs to have a relationship with her grandmother. When the grandmother is confronted and asked to work on their relationship all this grandmother can do is scream that she feels like she is being attacked and walk out. Yes, there are mothers and grandmothers who fail to love with the love that Paul describes. They can think only of themselves and how everything impacts them.

Have you ever tried to be selfless? Have you ever tried thinking only of the other person? Only to find yourself resentful and irritable. Being patient and kind does not come automatically.

  It is a love that never ends! What kind of love is this anyway? This is some kind of super human love? How can anyone love like that? It is impossible!

  This is not a love that you or I can create. This is not a love that comes to us naturally. This is not a love that we can work toward. This love is a GIFT from God. A gift of the Holy Spirit.

  This is a gift of the Holy Spirit available to all. It is not a love limited to a select few. You can love in this way. God expects you to love in this way, BUT you can only do it by God's grace.

  Oswald Chambers says: "The springs of love are in God, not in us. It is absurd to look for the love of God in our hearts naturally, it is only there when it has been shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit." 

  Chambers says this love that comes to us from God is not premeditated, it is spontaneous -- it burst up in extraordinary ways. We can love in the way described in this "Love Chapter" when the Holy Spirit is having His way with us. We can love in this way only because of the life of God in us.

  Agnes Hall was a member of the Wesley Memorial church I served in Cleburne. While we were there Agnes had a stroke which left her paralyzed and speechless. One day Nancy, her daughter, asked Agnes if she could move her right arm. Agnes demonstrated that she could not. Within minutes, a Red bird landed on her window sill. Agnes raised her right arm, pointing to the bird. She could not intentionally raise that arm, but she was able to spontaneously do it.

  We can love in this kind of spontaneous way when the Holy Spirit has placed that love in our hearts. The love that is God. For God is Love.

  The story has many variations. It seems that one day C. H. Spurgeon, the well-known evangelist, was walking through the English countryside with a friend. As they strolled along, the evangelist noticed a barn with a weather vane on its roof. At the top of the vane were these words: GOD IS LOVE.

  Spurgeon remarked to his companion that he thought this was a rather inappropriate place for such a message. "Weather vanes are changeable," he said, "but God's love is constant."

  "I don't agree with you about those words, Charles," replied his friend. "You misunderstood the meaning. That sign is indicating a truth: Regardless of which way the wind blows, God is love."

  God is LOVE. God gives us the gift of LOVE. So just maybe a discussion of love in the middle of Paul's discussion on the gifts of the Spirit is not all that far out of place.

  Paul ends the twelfth chapter with these words, "Strive for the greater gifts. And I will show you a still more excellent way." He then talks about this extraordinary way of loving followed by: "And now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; and the greatest of these is love."