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Love is patient. Love is kind. Love … never fails. There was a bride who adamantly declared, “I will not have that 1 Corinthians text read at my wedding. Love does fail and to say otherwise is perpetuating a fairytale.”

Her passionate comment, or declaration, has stayed with me. It has reverberated through my ministry extending pastoral care and it has challenged me in my own personal relationships. Love is patient. Love is kind. Love never fails.

This text is familiar to most of us. It is familiar to many who are not familiar with Paul, with a church in Corinth, or even the Christian scriptures. This text is eloquent prose giving language and illumination to humankind’s quest to define love. Not romantic, infatuation kind of love. Not really wedding day love (tho it is inspiring and its message cuts effectively to the chase). This is love for the long haul. This is love that, in my opinion, God does best and we can only hope to emulate.

The UCC sermon helps web page has a very good commentary on today’s text. Rather than try to say it in my own words, let me read a portion of it to you.

Most of us have attempted to preach this text, usually at a wedding, but we mostly fail to do it justice. Its overuse (in the eyes of some) may be a sign of its power, because little else in the Bible can be seen as more important to the Christian life than striving to love, and people in every age and in every place always long to hear about love. God is love, we are taught from early childhood, right from the Bible, of course, and we know that Jesus loves us and all the other little children, too, because the Bible tells us so. And here, again in the Bible, in a letter from Paul to the church in Corinth, love is held up as “the still more excellent way,” the gift greater than any of the things we think the church and the world, need so much: our eloquence, our intelligence, our generosity and our faith.

It is well known that many people have been hurt by the church. Not just by their parents and their families, their playmates and friends, but by the Church, the Body of Christ that is supposed to be one, to be a community “better together,” not “more hurtful together.” Sometimes this hurt is institutional and other times it’s the work of individuals who fail to live up to Paul’s ideal or Jesus’ example. In addition to the many people who are “un-churched,” never having been raised in a religious tradition, there are countless thousands who have left their childhood faith not because of intellectual doubt but because they were not loved there.

Perhaps they felt judged, excluded, or insulted. Perhaps their gifts were not recognized, or perhaps they felt misunderstood. In any case, the church ought to be the beginning place of love, … and the love we offer should be a spiritual gift in itself, a gift of healing and hope, a promise of what could yet be in their lives, and in the life of the church because they[we] are now there [here], too.

Visitors, new members, long time friends and long time members – we are the church and we are charged to live differently than the dominant culture. The attitude and behavior Paul outlines to the church in Corinth is impractical and alien to our way of doing things. (and most likely in those times too) In your face or on your blog put downs are standard fare. Youth group sarcasm is a norm. Just kidding. Oh really? It didn’t feel like it. Look at all we do or will one day do. We deserve priority. Love is patient. Love is kind. Love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude. Love does not insist on its own way. It is not irritable or resentful. Neither is love a doormat or wimp. It’s a dance, a prayer filled dance knowing when love means letting go or holding on.

Love never fails. This kind of love is the love God embodies and sometimes we do too. God’s love has a bulldog tenacity that refuses to give up, no matter what. We fail. Plans fail. Relationships fail. But God’s love, present to us and in us before we were yet born, does not fail. This life giving and guiding reality make way for hope, faith and the courage to love again.

There is a Christian based ministry in the United Kingdom called, Love Never Fails. Its purpose is to support Israel and the Jewish people. Wouldn’t it be amazing and prophetic if this ministry worked toward the reconciliation of Israel and Palestine?

There is a blog with the heading, Love Never Fails. It is a site focused on individuals and families who have loved ones on the run or away for assorted reasons. Hear an entry, December 12, 2002:
You have a child, number three, right on the heels of number two, a surprise and you ponder… then you watch and pray and begin to realize that the life of this child is kissed with wonder and has the touch of the profound… An introvert that is never satisfied with his connections. An idealist that is never satisfied with the status quo. A poet that strikes deep chords that cause you to quake and shudder. An intense and fierce competitor that seems seldom to actually win. A child with deep anger that is subtle, unreachable, unexpressable and causes him to implode as often as explode.

A child whose faith corrodes and deteriorates into condemnation and alienation. A youth that everyone likes and longs to befriend; but he perpetually feels lonely, left out and friendless. A runaway teen. A man without a home, a vagabond, a drifter. A loving genius who creates websites to bring like minds and spirits together for life and health and peace and a glimpse of respite…Morgan ‘Sal’man, a mother’s dream come true…
The lesson I’ve learned is love never fails! We don’t have to love perfectly or even consistently, or just the way we or everyone thinks we must – sometimes it’s just loving desperately and with a violent determination that will break through all obstacles – if often loving silently, in question and in pain; in wait.

This is God-like love. Living life with the tenacity of a bulldog and the compassion of a parent.

Yesterday a number of people from this church joined thousands from across the country to march for peace. The protest against current Iraq policy was an outward sign of an inward conviction. One way of speaking about the nature of sacrament is that it is an outward sign of an inward action. Life is filled with sacrament and sacramental moments. God is still speaking and her people are still striving to be faithful.

Last night a dozen of us attended a concert. The Lesbian and Gay Chorus of Washington, D.C. presented a program “Peace by Piece.” Again, sacramental would be the descriptor. The evening moved us in its music through moods of lament, hope, determination and action. In its final set the chorus was joined by a multi-age string and percussion ensemble comprised of persons of Western and Iranian heritage. They performed an awesome piece that blended together Western and Persian instruments, chorus and song leaders. The sound and spirit not only filled the Capital Hill Presbyterian Church sanctuary, it raced and flowed within each one present. The program notes were all we had for clues to the song’s text, for it was sung in a language familiar to few Westerners. What was not necessary to explain was the power of these contrasting cultures coming together through music. Ovations of gratitude. The lyrics were a call to peace, to not sit quietly if one sees injustice or a lack of harmony. Iranians and Americans and artists that were both, invited us to see the possibilities for peace. Powerful. I hope one day this sanctuary will host such a witness.

Peace is right up there with prayers and wishes for love. Peace on earth. Love one another. Naïve sentiments. Impractical. Only if we buy into the status quo.

The status quo of intolerance, revenge and self righteousness are well entrenched. That’s why God sent Jesus. There is a more excellent way. It begins here, in this church, with each one of us. Every day is a new beginning.

Amen.

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