The Gift of Love

Just the sound of it places me in a packed sanctuary where two people are making a covenant with each other. Yes, a wedding is normally the event were we are most likely to hear, sing, or both about Love. I Corinthians 13 is one of the most used scriptures to share with couples everywhere. Because of this usage we may think of the text as sappy, sentimental, and romantic. Yet it was not meant to be used exclusively in that way.

I Corinthians 13 is about the love that a community shares with each other. Interestingly enough, it is not about conjugal love (eros) or about familial love (philio) but about the love that mirrors divine love (agape) for us. Self-giving love is the nature of chapter 13.

Love is difficult. Communal love is difficult. It is easy to love when the bells are playing and you are wearing a beautiful dress or a tuxedo. It is difficult to love when things are not going well (a.k.a. like you want them to, or like you dreamed they would) and you have to engage another. It is for these times that I Corinthians 13 was written.

The church needs to love in this way. Baptized people need to love each other in this way.

At first glance this seems like an impossibility. Our humanness gets in the way of us loving. Yet the promise of God trough Jesus is that we are people empowered by the Spirit. So it is the Spirit that helps us and allows us to love in these ways.

The ways can be summed up like this: Love is not about us, its about the way that we relate to each other through God's grace.

This is why "faith, hope, and love abide, these three; and the greatest of these is love." (I Corinthians 13:13, NRSV)

I look forward to see you on Sunday! Peace, Juan