{"id":3377,"date":"2013-02-03T19:12:02","date_gmt":"2013-02-04T00:12:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/chilmarkchurch.org\/service\/?p=3377"},"modified":"2013-10-01T08:54:06","modified_gmt":"2013-10-01T13:54:06","slug":"love-the-best-gift-020313-sermon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chilmarkchurch.org\/service\/index.php\/2013\/02\/love-the-best-gift-020313-sermon\/","title":{"rendered":"Love, the Best Gift (020313 Sermon)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Love, the Best Gift<\/strong><\/p>\n

1 Corinthians 13:1-13<\/p>\n

Five year old Johnny Quinn loved his big brother, Tommy.
\nThe doctor told Johnny that his brother was very sick and needed a blood
\ntransfusion, and the doctor asked: \u201cJohnny, would you be willing to give some
\nof your blood to your brother?\u201d Johnny gulped hard, his eyes got big, but after
\nonly a moment\u2019s hesitation he said, \u201cSure, Doctor.\u201d The doctor took the blood
\nand Johnny was resting quietly on the table. A few minutes later, Johnny looked
\nup at the doctor and said, \u201cWhen do I die, Doctor? Am I dying now?\u201d It was only
\nthen that the doctor fully appreciated the extent of this little boy\u2019s love for
\nhis brother.<\/p>\n

Love is a word used too lightly and loosely today.
\nSometimes, it is so used and abused that it has lost clear meaning. We love our
\ncat, our car, chocolate cake, money, and almost anything else you can name.<\/p>\n

And yet the whole of the Christian life rests on
\nlove. Jesus said, \u201cAs God has loved me, so I also have loved you. As I have
\nloved you, so also you must love one another.\u201d I believe that Johnny probably
\nhad a grasp of what love means.<\/p>\n

Today, we read one of the most beautiful chapters of
\nliterature the world has ever known. \u201cThough I speak in the tongues of men and
\nof angels and have not love, I am as a sounding brass or a clanging cymbal\u2026. Love
\nbears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, and endures all
\nthings\u2026. Love never ends.\u201d<\/p>\n

This chapter is the heart of Paul’s teaching on spiritual
\ngifts and Christian life. In this chapter, the apostle shows that divine love
\nis the greatest of all gifts. Divine love is supreme, and is the “more excellent
\nway” to a Christian life.<\/p>\n

Paul wrote to the congregation at Corinth in
\nresponse to reports of sharp dissension among the believers. Situated in one of
\nthe most important cities of Greece in the time of the early Roman Empire, the
\nyoung congregation was undoubtedly made up of persons from a variety of
\nsub-cultures- Jews and Greeks, slaves, freedmen, and a few of noble birth, the
\npowerful as well as the weak, the wise as well as the simple. The surrounding
\nculture was certain to have been reflected in the conflicts troubling the
\ncongregation. Sources of disruption had to include sociological, political, and
\nreligious factors, as well as personal and theological differences. Paul
\ndetected the conflicts from these differences and wrote to evoke and build up
\nthe sense of community as the body of Christ. What he first did was to present
\nthe various Spiritual gifts the Corinthians had and pointed out that all the
\nspiritual gifts are grounded in love. Love is the power which holds the gifts
\nand their recipients to the common good of the community. The flow of love is
\nlike the blood which sustains the human body, which is absolutely necessary for
\nthe life it feeds. Love is the power of this world. To be a member of Christ\u2019s
\nbody is to be bound up in this love.<\/p>\n

However, love very often makes us face challenges or
\neven unhappiness. As a baptismal community, we confess that we love God as God
\nloves us. Today, I would like to invite you to reexamine your love for God.
\nHave you kept loving God without any doubts or criticism? For me, No! I have
\nnot!<\/p>\n

In the relationship with God, sometimes I question, \u201cWhy
\ndid you do this to me? I don\u2019t understand why.\u201d Whenever I get into trouble, I
\nask God, \u201cIs it true that you love me?\u201d I have many questions and criticism
\nabout the course of my life.<\/p>\n

I know a person who did the same as I have done. He
\nwrote a poem to express his feelings about the relationship with God. I heard
\nthis poem a few years ago and it has resonated in my mind.<\/p>\n

Here is the poem and its title is \u201cOde to the Church.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/em><\/p>\n

[How much I must criticize you, my church, and yet how much I love you!<\/em><\/p>\n

You have made me suffer more than anyone and yet I owe more to you than to
\nanyone.\u00a0 I should like to see you destroyed and yet I need your presence.<\/em><\/p>\n

You have given me much scandal and yet you alone have made me understand
\nholiness.\u00a0 Never in this world have I seen anything more compromised, more false, and yet I have never touched
\nanything more pure, more generous or more beautiful.<\/em><\/p>\n

Countless times I have felt like slamming the door of my soul in your face and yet, every
\nnight, I have prayed that I might die in your sure arms!\u00a0\u00a0 No, I cannot be free of you, for I am one
\nwith you, even if not completely you.<\/em><\/p>\n

Then to where would I go?\u00a0 To build another church?<\/em><\/p>\n

But I could not build one without the same defects, for they are my defects.\u00a0 And again, if I were to build another church,
\nit would be my church, not Christ’s church.
\nNo, I am old enough.\u00a0 I know better!]<\/em><\/p>\n

The poem was written by Carlo Carretto. He is an
\nItalian spiritual writer in his old age. It really states how he feels about
\nand how he struggles with his faith in God. It is almost a love-hate
\nrelationship. Sometimes, he criticized and blamed God and doubted God\u2019s love
\nfor him. However, at the same time, he found how much he loves God, how much he
\nneeds God\u2019s presence. His spiritual journey was not straight. His faith was up
\nand down. However, when he was getting old, he came to know better and better
\nthe love of God. He came to feel God\u2019s presence in his life. He came to realize
\nhow precious and important the loving relationship with God has been in his
\nlife.<\/p>\n

I believe that you share these feelings that Carlo
\nCarretto had in his spiritual journey. For 2013, I pray that we can go through
\nthis spiritual journey together. I pray that we can come to a deeper
\nunderstanding of God\u2019s love and presence in our lives. And I pray that through
\nthis journey, we will grow in the incredible love of God and share it with the
\npeople living around us.<\/p>\n

Let us look at Jesus\u2019 life beloved by God. Even
\nthough God loved Jesus, God did not save him from suffering, temptation, and
\nhuman limitation. He was not even saved from the experience of feeling
\nabandoned by God, or the experience of death. However, he believed that he was
\nbeloved of God and this truth freed him up to be Jesus. The faith that Jesus
\nhad freed him up to eat with sinners, touch lepers and befriend women.
\nMoreover, the faith made Jesus face the challenges, such as suffering and
\ndeath. The faith about God\u2019s love made him courageous and powerful.<\/p>\n

Love empowers all Christians to struggle for
\nself-affirmation in relationship with God and with the world. Also, to love God
\nand the people around us means to be patient, believe all things, hope all
\nthings, and endure all things.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s wrap up today\u2019s sermon. There are three most
\nimportant spiritual gifts given to us; faith, hope, and love. These three gifts
\nabide in us due to the Spirit. Paul clearly says, of the three, the greatest is
\nlove.<\/p>\n

Let us try to build our community believing that we
\nhave the most important gift, love. Let us love ourselves and our neighbors.
\nThen, we will see God working within our community and our daily lives.
\nLet us pray,<\/p>\n

Loving God, we give thanks to you for your
\nnever-ending love. You gave us the best gift, love. Bless us to use this gift
\nand bless us to be a community sharing the gift with the people around us. In
\nyour name, we pray. Amen.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Love, the Best Gift 1 Corinthians 13:1-13 Five year old Johnny Quinn loved his big brother, Tommy. The doctor told Johnny that his brother was very sick and needed a blood transfusion, and the doctor asked: \u201cJohnny, would you be willing to give some of your blood to your brother?\u201d Johnny gulped hard, his eyes […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3377","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-worship-and-teaching"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chilmarkchurch.org\/service\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3377","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chilmarkchurch.org\/service\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chilmarkchurch.org\/service\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chilmarkchurch.org\/service\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chilmarkchurch.org\/service\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3377"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/chilmarkchurch.org\/service\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3377\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4016,"href":"https:\/\/chilmarkchurch.org\/service\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3377\/revisions\/4016"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chilmarkchurch.org\/service\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3377"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chilmarkchurch.org\/service\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3377"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chilmarkchurch.org\/service\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3377"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}