Prayer:

Weddings and the occasional funeral are the times when we hear this particular scripture reading most frequently. Verses four through the first part of eight seem ideally suited to those times when brides and grooms exchange their vows and promise to love as long as they live.

When now statistics tell us that the vows and promises are being broken and rescinded in more than one of three marriages, then we might well wonder about the reality and power of these words. Are they just pleasant poetry, vacuous sentimentality, empty dreams?//

Make no mistake.

These words were not written by a Shakespeare caught up in romantic fervour.

St. Paul penned these words to a bunch of warring Greek Christians in the Corinthian church.

A tough town Corinth – harbor, sailors, clever merchants, tough thugs, prostitution, an assortment of gods from all over the world.

Corinth was a cauldron of diversity and pluralism. …

Sounds a little like Vancouver!

Gathered in the congregation, an eclectic mix ruled by a host of divergent norms and standards.

Without a long tradition of being Christians, the little congregation battled for identity and norms. This way or that.

"My way or the highway" could function both as a threat as well as a promise.

Parties stake their positions and can’t tolerate others.

Like squabbling terrible twos,

what counts is my opinion, my gift, my style, my stake and I’ll fight you for it.

We’ve been there.

We don’t have hundreds of Protestant denominations for no reason. Accept my take on the truth or I’ll start my own church.

Protestantism’s curse is opinionated individualists, who have too much head-stuff and not enough heart to embrace the other.

But maybe that is better than staying together to chew each other up every time you see each other.

There are marriages, which really are not.

If they aren’t fighting they are not happy.

Only in the familiar dance of mutual destruction do they seem at ease.

There are congregations whose "angel" is conflict.

They thrive on tearing each other apart. They enjoy roasting their ministers. They delight in battle.

They tear open the heart of God.

So where does love come in?

It doesn’t at all, in many of those relationships where the main sport is to diminish each other, to put each other down, to try to taint and quarantine the other.

Even when people give up fighting, things are not much better.

Progress into studied avoidance is no less blasphemous.

The opposite of love is not hate. It is indifference.

"I couldn’t care less," is the ultimate rejection.

Neither St. Paul nor we can ever be satisfied with that.

Better, I would say, to separate than to kill each other with empty glances and vacant words.

Better yet, grow up, discover the mature way.

Learn the lessons of love.

For love is an infinite lesson – there is no beginning or end to love.

That’s why love is the greatest gift of all.

Knowledge is lesser, because there comes a time ultimately when all will be known.

And faith – you don’t need faith when you meet God face to face.

Hope – it is completed when what is hoped for comes to fruition.

Prophetic activity, charitable giving, wonderful speaking – they all become as nothing when we live fully in the presence of God.

But love, now there’s a huge difference.

Clifford Elliott tells of visiting a woman in hospital – lying in the "bed, curled up, and motionless. She seemed totally unaware of anything." Her sister discouraged a visit. It seemed to make no sense.

Elliott recounts:

a week later the patient was alone and I went in, stooped over her bed, told her who I was, offered a brief prayer and repeated the twenty-third psalm:

The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want…"

There was no response.

Elliott returned a third time to visit the dying woman in the hospital.

He writes: "Her sister greeted me with great excitement. "Come in! Come in!" she exclaimed.

"My sister woke up and told me you were here, that you had offered a prayer and repeated the twenty-third psalm!"

"Love is patient, kind, not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude; Love does not insist on its own way, not irritable or resentful, does not rejoice in wrongdoing, rejoices in truth.

Love bears all, believes all, hopes all, endures all.

Love never ends" Never gives up.

This clearly does not describe our love, which all too easily stops.

It describes a reality where knowledge and faith and hope are transcended.

It describes ultimate reality – God’s reality – continuing to love us even when we are not able to be conscious of the divine embrace.

The words in 1 Corinthians 13 are a picture of God’s persistent and steadfast love for us and for all the world.

They describe God’s persistent longing;

yearning for us to become lovers of God, lovers of each other, and lovers of God’s dear world.

May God’s self-giving love in bread and cup transform us all into faithful lovers.

AMEN! So let it be!