Sermon:(Re)CreatingChurch: the Way of Love
May 17th, 2020 Rev. Betsy Perkins
Scripture passage: 1 Corinthians 13:1-13,1 John 4:7-12 First Baptist Church, Delavan WI
It seems odd, hearing this passage of scripture in a time when we have been separated and pulled apart. We’re used to hearing it at weddings, in times when two people and two families are being joined together. The words have been romanticized, made into a poem to be printed on paper napkins, a celebration of everyone getting along beautifully. But the truth is that was not at all the situation which occasioned Paul’s writing these words – there was no wedding, no celebration. The situation was quite the opposite, in fact. The church in Corinth that Paul is writing to was focused on factions, focused on comparing who was more gifted or less gifted, focused on self-promotion. The Corinthian church was a very diverse group and Paul offers these words about love at a time when they are being pulled apart.
In this time of pandemic response, the church has been pulled apart physically in not being able to meet together, not being able to express our love and concern in person with the usual hugs and handshakes, not able to share in a meal together. There’s that saying about food being the way to a man’s heart – but that’s true about all of us, especially in the church. Sandi Verrill has shared the advice her mother gave when she learned that her daughter was leaving the Catholic church to marry a Baptist. She said, “You better learn how to cook – those Baptists like to eat!” I believeit’s one of the ways we show love.
The way to God is love! The Bible teaches us that the way to God is love. When the disciple John, the one who identified himself as the disciple Jesus loved (not that Jesus didn’t love all the disciples, but for John the fact that Jesus loved him was the most important thing anyone should know about him, more important than his name); when John wrote his letters of instruction to young churches, he said, “Dear friends, let us love one another. Everyone who loves has been born of God and experiences a relationship with God. The person who refuses to love doesn’t know the first thing about God, because God is love—so you can’t know him if you don’t love. This is how God showed His love for us: God sent His only Son into the world so we might live through him. This is the kind of love we are talking about: not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son as a sacrifice to clear away our sins and the damage they’ve done to our relationship with God. Dear friends, if God loved us like this, we certainly ought to love each other. No one has ever seen God, but if we love one another, God lives in us and His love is made complete in us.”(1 John 4:7-12).
When Paul prayed for the church in Ephesus, he prayed that they might “grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ.” (Eph.3:18) We come to know what real love is by coming to know the story of Jesus. We come to know that love and to truly know God’s heart, as we love others. When we love in the way Paul describes: being patient and kind, letting go of envy and pride; seeking the honor for others rather than honor for ourselves; forgiving; seeking truth; protecting, trusting, hoping, persevering – then we have found the way to God.
The way to be the church is the way of love! In the chapter just before his song of love, Paul offers an image of what the church should be – it should be like a body, with many parts, but all the parts joined in the one body – the body of Christ in the world. As we seek to reaffirm the most important characteristics the church in these pandemic days when so much is stripped away, the most essential qualities and tasks that must be preserved and promoted during these days when our building is closed and we have to redefine and recreate who we are and what we do as the church, perhaps the most important characteristic… no, not perhaps, certainly the most important characteristic is that the way to be the church is the way of love!
The story goes that a man was rescued from a desert island where he had been stranded all alone for nearly a year. His rescuers noticed three structures on the island and ask the man about them. This one is my house, he says. He points and says, that one is the church I go to. Over there is the church I used to go to till I felt unloved because I couldn’t get along with the guy who went there.That has been the unfortunate story of the church when it forgets its primary call to the way of love.
We need to love God, love one another, and love ourselves. How do we show that when we can’t hug? How do we show care without potlucks or pots of coffee? In a webinar I attended this week, the leader, who has recently published books titled Belonging: Reconnecting to America’s Loneliest Generation and Church Refugees, spoke about the epidemic of loneliness, depression, stress and suicide that has only been increasing during this pandemic, and then said that the most powerful tool to combat that is simply to check-in with one another. He said that building the church really boils down to building relationships! And it should start at the margins, those at the edges of our tight church circles! That is something we can all do, anytime; that is the way of love. I hope you feel loved by the phone calls, the texts and emails and deliveries you are receiving from the church – for you are indeed loved and you are an important part of our church.
The way to proclaim Christ to the world is love! The way to God is love. The way to be the church is love. And I would like to end by saying that the way to proclaim Christ to the world is love.
American Baptist missionary Annie Dieselberg, founded an organization called Nightlight in Bangkok. It reaches out to prostitutes and sex-workers, many trafficked from poor, desperate countries.Nightlight has a beauty shop, a coffee shop and a jewelry-making business to offer safe spaces and work to those who would like to escape the streets and the tyranny of those who exploit them. The pandemic shut-down bars and nightclubs and left many of these workers without income. So Nightlight turned the coffee shop into a soup kitchen. At the beginning of May, Annie wrote: “Numbers are increasing. Numbers of COVID cases in Thailand are going down rapidly but the numbers of the hungry and desperate are going up. This week we gave out over 342 packs of food, 110 hygiene packs and when we ran out of food packs we gave out Mama noodles. The word has spread on the street and now the women and men are waiting at the door. We do our best to have them stand six feet apart and use hand sanitizer. The requests for masks is also increasing…. Usually at night we walk the streets looking for the women in the shadows who are hungry and desperately hoping to make some money for food and rent. Last night when we opened the door we were ambushed by about 30-40 people hungry and waiting for our food. It was unexpected and we were not quite ready for a sudden mob. Once they dispersed we walked the streets until we ran out of bags. We see breakthroughs each time. Some who normally say no or ignore us are starting to open up and graciously receive…. This morning as I walked through the neighborhood I ordered 25 pounds of oranges from the fruit vendor. He said thank you and I thought he was going to thank me for buying his oranges. Instead he said, “Thank you for giving out the food!” The neighborhood is watching and we feel the impact of God’s love flowing down the street and change has begun for transformation in our neighborhood.”Annie then thanked those who have contributed, for they love to share the generosity of others with their neighbors in the red light district.
Annie posted again the other day, writing: Pon overheard the motorcycle taxi drivers as we were setting up for distribution today. “God’s love is coming down!” they said. They sit across the street and watch each time. We often share with them as well. Today people lined up way down the street and we gave out 86 packs of food. We got to pray with some today. But it’s the comment that excites me. God’s love is being seen and Godis being recognized for this love in action!! Yes! May His love flood these streets with hope and new life!
The way to proclaim Christ to the world is love! The way to be the church is love! The way to God is love! Paul’s words in 1 Corinthians 13 are not an ode to love, rather they are a call to action – for today, and every day.
Closing Song: “They’ll Know We Are Christians By Our Love” led by Lisa Reshkus
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