But strive for the greater gifts. And I will show you a still more excellent way.
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 or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; love does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
Thank God this past week and weekend is behind us. What a painful time last week was. We witnessed a terrible spectacle with Pastor Jones and his wanting to burn the Quran and all the media frenzy that went on. As I wrote in yesterday's blog, Jesus got a bad name last week. I got that idea from Dean Spenser Simrill's sermon at St. Mark's Episcopal Cathedral in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
There was one very important lesson that many learned and others forgot last week. Given all that goes on in our daily lives with jobs, family, health issues, issues of accepting ourselves and others, we tend to forget that love is still a better and "more excellent way". That is why I love the first and second verses of chapter 13 of Paul's first letter to the Corinthians. "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."
We can explain every thing that is written in the Book of Common Prayer, or the Catechism of the Catholic Church, or the Lutheran Book of Worship, or the United Methodist Book of Discipline, or the Manuel of the Church of the Nazarene if we want to. But explaining and knowing all that is in those books do not make us Christians, nor do they help others want to know what we know. We can know all about John Crysostom whom we commemorate today. John Crysostom was a brilliant bishop of Constantinople and theologian, who could tell about the Trinity, the Eucharist and the early Apostles. We can tell all those stories, about all of the people who are dear to us in the Church. But, as long as we do not know the love of God deep in our own hearts, and demonstrate that love by reaching out to everyone and showing God's love and our love to every person regardless of their gender, gender identity/expression, sexual orientation, race, religion, challenge, cultural background, ability to write and/or speak in English, the story of God's love remains a legendary fable. God's love is not real when we place barriers in front of people that even God has not placed upon humankind.
When we decide to interpret the Bible literally and suggest that God hates everyone who does not worship God as a Christian, or that only Christianity has a monopoly on truth, the love of God is a lofty idea by people with some fake and idealistic notion. The love that Paul talks about in today's reading from 1 Corinthians is suppose to be a real, abiding, unselfish and wholesome love. It will challenge us in our comfort zones. Love will tell us that our doctrines, dogmas and altar calls are not enough. Love tells us to put God's love into the actions of our lives. To struggle with accepting others who are different than ourselves, and to keep working on ways to reach out and love people, defend the weak, love the Islamic people, pray and welcome LGBTQ people to the altars to receive Holy Communion, and be allowed to be ordained as Bishops, Priests and Deacons. Love tells us to welcome the love that is shared by loving and committed homosexual partners and allow them to share in all the rights, privileges and responsibilities of marriage in the Church and society. Love tells us to reject and condemn all acts of violence and cruelty that results from attitudes of fear that gives way to attitudes and behaviors supported by prejudice.
A wonderful story appeared in Think Progress over this past weekend.
As news that Rev. Terry Jones of the Dove Outreach Center planned to publicly burn a Qur’an — an operation which appears to have been called off, for now — raced around the world, many in the Muslim world reacted with angry protests, feeling that Jones’ actions were indicative of an America that was indifferent to the sensitivities of the Islamic faith.
Yet on Saturday, the day that Jones had dubbed “International Burn a Qur’an Day,” one American stepped forward to fight back against the rising tide of Islamophobia among the far-right.
In Amarillo, Texas, David Grisham, director of Repent Amarillo, “which aims to deter promiscuity, homosexuality and non-Christian worship practices through confrontation and prayer,” planned to burn the Islamic holy text at a public gathering. But before he could set the book ablaze, a 23 year-old skateboarder named Jacob Isom swooped in and grabbed it.
An individual who may or may not have even believed in Jesus did the right thing, while conservative Christians were ready to do something so very uncharitable and unloving. Who was the greater witness to the love of God? If the 23 year old skateboarder does not believe in Jesus, is there anyone reading this blog think that maybe, just maybe, God was working in the mind and actions of the young hero?
God's love is not limited to us or our understandings of Jesus, the Bible or any books of theology or philosophy. God's love is not limited by Christian Values being used as "Weapons of Mass Destruction" (Rev. Susan Russell). God's love is not conditional on us being white, heterosexual, wealthy, male, healthy, capable of hearing, seeing, thinking, behaving in certain ways, able to write or speak in one language, being employed, or on even being Christian. God's love is always inclusive. God's love was never meant to be exclusive.
God wants so much to infuse our world with a love that is shown through those of us who believe in God. The world that is so turned off by Christians because of sexism, racism, heterosexism, islamophobia, religious discrimination, and discrimination of people with challenges, wants to see God's love shown through Christians so as to turn this world of hate upside down, and inside out as Diana Ross used to sing. God wants God's heart of love for all of God's children to be show by and to all of God's children by those who have freely received it, that they may also freely give.
The great hymn writers Fredrick H. Lehman with Meir Ben Isaac Nehoral wrote the words:
The love of God is greater far
Than tongue or pen can every tell,
It goes beyond the highest star,
And reaches to the lowest hell!
The guilty pair, bowed down with care,
God gave God's Son to win;
God's erring child God reconciled,
And pardoned from their sin.
Oh love of God, how rich and pure!
How measureless and strong!
It shall forever more endure,
The saints and angel's song.
Could we with ink the ocean fill,
And were the skies of parchment made,
Were every stalk on earth a quill
And every person a scribe by trade;
To write the love of God above
Would drain the ocean dry;
Nor could the scroll contain the whole,
Tho' stretched from sky to sky.
God's love is so great, so immense, so powerful that it can be found in the hearts, minds and bodies of everyone who truly loves God and their neighbor. It is as much found between two people of the same sex sharing God's love and their love for one another in the great mystery of sexual love that God has given to opposite sex couples, and transgendered people. If we could all stop for just a few moments to celebrate all of the diverse ways that God's love is so great in our world, all the hate, evil and violence just might stop.
O God, because without you we are not able to please you, mercifully grant that your Holy Spirit may in all things direct and rule our hearts; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen. (Proper 19, Book of Common Prayer, page 233).
O God, you gave to your servant John Chrysostom grace eloquently to proclaim your righteousness in the great congregation, and fearlessly to bear reproach for the honor of your Name: Mercifully grant to all bishops and pastors such excellency in preaching, and fidelity in ministering your Word, that your people may be partakers with them of the glory that shall be revealed; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen. (Collect for John Chrysostom, Holy Women, Holy Men, Celebrating the Saints, page 579).
Gracious Father, we pray for your holy Catholic Church. Fill it with all truth, in all truth with all peace. Where it is corrupt, purify it; where it is in error, direct it; where in any thing it is amiss, reform it. Where it is right, strengthen it; where it is in want, provide for it; where it is divided, reunite it; for the sake of Jesus Christ your Son our Savior. Amen. (Prayer for the Church, Book of Common Prayer, page 816).
O God, you have made of one blood all the peoples of the earth, and sent your blessed Son to preach peace to those who are far off and to those who are near: Grant that people everywhere may seek after you and find you; bring the nations into your fold; pour out your Spirit upon all flesh, and hasten the coming of your kingdom; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. (Prayer for Mission, Book of Common Prayer, page 100).
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