Sunday
02/03/19 - Sidney UMC
Sermon Title: “Without love we have nothing”
Old Testament
Scripture: Psalm 71:1-6
New Testament
Scripture: 1 Corinthians 13:1-13
Gospel Lesson:
Luke 4:21-30
Welcome again my
friends, my brothers and sisters, on this the Fourth Sunday after the Epiphany.
Four Sundays after the three Wisemen or Magi came to see the savior of the
world that was born in Bethlehem. They came with gifts of gold, frankincense,
and myrrh, and they left different. They came searching and hoping, and they
left changed and filled.
With this said, today I want to speak to you about one of
the core teachings of the Christian faith. This core teaching is love. At the
end of our scripture reading from 1 Corinthians 13 from this morning, the Apostle
Paul says in 13:13:
“And now faith, hope, and love
abide, these three; and the greatest of these is love” (1
Cor. 13:13, NRSV).
So love is a core teaching of our
historic two-thousand year Christian faith. It is interesting and sometimes
even sad for me to meet people then, who tell me that they believe in God, but
have no part in the Christian Church. They have said things to me like, “Well
Pastor Paul, I believe in God, but I don’t need to go to church to believe in
God”. Has anyone here ever heard anything like this before?
It is indeed true that you can believe
in God and not go to church, but the question I have is, what is so bad about
the church? You see, I have found that people that have faith that don’t go to
church, aren’t part of the church often for a common set of reasons. These
reasons are that they are too busy, that they feel unworthy to be part of the church,
or that the churches that they have visited or have been a part of, have been a
complete let down. These people love Jesus, but they don’t seem to love the
church as much. Part of the reason for this, is that the church in their minds
has failed to love them as Jesus does.
About ten years ago I was going
through a challenging time in my life. I was working as a youth caseworker, and
I had been avoiding my call to pastoral ministry for about 3-years. During this
time, a former District Superintendent and a good friend of mine drove about
3-hours to sit with me for an hour. So six hours in his car, to sit with me for
1-hour. During this time he listened to me, loved me, and affirmed my calling.
As I was about to complete my second
year of Seminary in 2012, wouldn’t you know that I got a call from this person.
After discussing the normal “catching up” sorts of things, this former District
Superintendent then said he had an opportunity for me. I have found that when a
District Superintendent calls you to offer you a pastoral appointment that they
often call it an “opportunity”. I immediately said, “Yes!” Yet, this former
District Superintendent said, “But Paul I haven’t told you where the
appointment is, how big it is, or even how many churches it is”. I then told
him, “but after the love, the caring, and what you have done for me, there is
nothing that I wouldn’t do for you”. Melissa and I soon found ourselves serving
two small church in the Adirondack District of this Upper New York United
Methodist Church Conference. I drove about three and a half to four hours every
Friday, and came back either on Sundays or Mondays, to be able to serve these
churches. I was in school fulltime, serving two churches, and working fulltime.
It was a big sacrifice for both Melissa and myself. Yet those church grew and
flourished, until I was moved a little over a year later.
Friends, people come to church, people
join and get involved in the church, when it looks like Jesus Christ. Since
Jesus is the very essence of love, light, and life, when the church looks like
him it grows and it flourishes. Why is this? This is the case because people
want to be in church that looks like Jesus Christ. People are excited about
going to church and being part of a church, because they feel so loved, so cared
for, and so valued. Many churches are shrinking not just because some people
don’t have faith anymore, but because sometimes the church fails to be all that
Jesus Christ has called it to be.
I hope that you all know that you are
loved, that you are valued, and that we are glad that you are here. I hope that
you know we love everyone in Sidney and this world. I hope you all know that
you are prayed for and that you are important to us all.
This morning once again, the Apostle
Paul gives us a discourse on the love of Jesus Christ. Let’s look once again at
what the Apostle Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 13:1-13. He says:
“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”
(1 Cor. 13:1-3, NRSV).
At
the end of this sermon, I am going to show a video that further conveys what I
am trying to get across this morning about God’s love.
In
looking at what I just re-read from 1 Corinthians 13:1-3, the Apostle Paul is
saying that if he does amazing things, but does not have love then he gains
nothing. A few times since I have been serving here at Sidney UMC people have
said, “Wow Pastor Paul the church is really growing because of you”. Yet the
church is not growing because of me, it’s growing because the love, the power,
and the joy of God is flowing powerfully through us and the church. Further,
without God, with love, I have nothing. Anything that I do or say as your
pastor means nothing if I don’t have love. If I were just showing up, if I were
just going through the motions of being a pastor, but didn’t have love, sure I
have done a job. Yet, the Apostle Paul says, I have gained nothing.
Friends,
brothers and sisters, love, hope, joy, and the Holy Spirit is and will continue
to grow this church. It is growing, I believe because people are finding a
church that is trying to look more and more like Jesus Christ. Instead of a
church where people don’t go to church, “because you don’t have to go to church
to believe in God,” I believe that people are coming to this church, because
this church is looking more and more like God, like Jesus Christ.
As
the Apostle Paul moves on in the scripture for this morning, he begins to
explain just what love looks like. He continues on saying:
“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; it does not
rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes
all things, hopes all things, endures all things” (1 Cor. 13:4-7, NRSV).
These versus are often read at
weddings, as an example of how to treat your wife or to treat your husband. I
am sure that all of us husbands here can say that we have these verses on love
mastered! I know that Melissa would tell you that I do! Or maybe not really!
The Apostle Paul ends this reading for
this morning by telling us once again:
“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” (1
Cor. 13:8-13, NRSV).
God’s
love never ends. The love of Christ never ever ends, as we live on in eternity
with Him forever. The Apostle Paul tells us that prophecies will come to an end,
as many have already come true in Jesus Christ. Ultimately all the prophecies
of old will come to be reality through Jesus Christ. The Apostle Paul tells us
that he doesn’t have a childish understanding of this, but that he is seeing
this as grown and a mature man. He then tell us that faith, hope, and love are
important, but of them, love is the greatest of all.
Last
week in our gospel of Luke reading, Jesus is worshipping in the Jewish Synagogue
in Galilee (Lk. 4:14-21, NRSV). I saw the ruins of this Jewish Synagogue when I
was in Israel 5-years ago. In this service of worship that Jesus is in, Jesus
is given and reads from the Book of Isaiah, or the Isaiah scroll, as most Jews
put their books of scriptures on scrolls. Jesus reads a prophecy from the great
Old Testament prophet Isaiah about the coming of the Messiah, the savior. He
then says that this prophecy has come true in him.
The
gospel lesson last week once again ended like this, but today we hear what
happened next. Jesus tells them that the prophecy or the scripture from Isaiah
has come true, and many were amazed by this (Lk. 4:21-22, NRSV). The people
though began to question Jesus, as he came from a lower class family, where his
father Joseph was a carpenter (Lk. 4:22, NRSV). “How could this be the Messiah?”
they might have asked.
Jesus
then tells them that no prophet is welcomed in his home town, and provides some
other biblical examples (Lk. 4:23-27, NRSV). In Jesus elaborating upon the fact
that he was and is the Messiah, God in the flesh, the folks in the Synagogue
grew angry with him (Lk. 4:28, NRSV). Not only this, they then tried to throw
Jesus off a cliff, but Jesus was able to pass through them and escape (Lk.
4:29-30, NRSV).
Now
as some of you are listening to how our gospel reading ends for this morning,
you might be thinking, “Yeah I have been to a couple churches like that before!”
You know at first that they love you, but then towards the end they try to
throw you off a cliff!
Friends,
one the reasons that many of our churches are shrinking is because some people
believe that Jesus and the church should look similar. When the church fails to
look like Jesus, this is when the church begins to decline and die.
I
would like to close this message this morning with another story. When I was in
college the first time at SUNY Potsdam, where Melissa and I met, I visited a
church one weekend. I was visiting a friend, and I wanted to go to church. I
can’t even remember if it was a Methodist Church or not though.
So
this is what happened. I pulled into the church parking lot, and I parked, as
it was the fall. I saw a few people on their way in, but no one said hello. I
wandered into the church a little nervous, as I knew no one there. I certainly
didn’t know where I was going, as there were no greeters. I didn’t know where
to find a bulletin. So I just followed the few other people and I ended up in
the church sanctuary. Luckily I saw a table with bulletins, so I grabbed one
quickly and sat down. I sat in the back half of the church sanctuary, as I knew
no one.
As
I sat down, one woman turned half-way around in her pew and gave me a sort of
scolding look. The pastor sat in the Celebrant’s Chair behind the pulpit, as it
was about 15-minutes before the service. One person walked by and said, “hello”
as they made their way to their seats.
The
church service started, and I followed the order of service, as a good
Methodist does. To be honest though, I just felt through the whole church
service like I was intruding, and that I shouldn’t have been there at all. If I
remember correctly, the sermon was ok, and at the end of the church service, the
pastor invited everyone for coffee hour.
Well
this was not a friendly church, but you know what, I’m getting my coffee! So I
get a cup of coffee, and then I sit at a table all by myself. The pastor walked
by at one point and just said “hello,” but that was it. After finishing my
coffee, I then put my cup in the plastic bin that they had, and headed out. Now
I waited until I rounded the corner in my Pontiac Sunbird, and then I shouted
at my steering wheel, “I am never going to that church again!” Not to mention that
the people in car next to me were looking at me strangely, as I was shouting
into my Pontiac Sunbird steering wheel!
If
I had not been a practicing Christian, and if that was my first time in a
church, then I would have been devastated. If this was my first time being
exposed to the Christian faith, well I would go home and not come back. If
someone asked me why I didn’t go to church, I would likely say to them, “You don’t
have to go to church to believe in God”.
For
this and many other reasons brothers and sisters we must continue to strive to
love, to show love, and to be love with each other. For if we do amazing things
and we don’t have love, well then we have nothing. Amen.
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