Calvary Presbyterian Church
The Rev. Debra May Cerra
January 31, 2010

1 Corinthians 13:1-13 (NRSV)If I speak in the tongues of mortals and of angels, but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. 3 If I give away all my possessions, and if I hand over my body so that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing. 4 Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant 5 or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; 6 it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. 7 It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. 8 Love never ends. But as for prophecies, they will come to an end; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will come to an end. 9 For we know only in part, and we prophesy only in part; 10 but when the complete comes, the partial will come to an end. 11 When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child; when I became an adult, I put an end to childish ways. 12 For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then we will see face to face. Now I know only in part; then I will know fully, even as I have been fully known. 13 And now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; and the greatest of these is love.

Luke 4:21-30 (NRSV) Then he began to say to them, "Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing." 22 All spoke well of him and were amazed at the gracious words that came from his mouth. They said, "Is not this Joseph's son?" 23 He said to them, "Doubtless you will quote to me this proverb, 'Doctor, cure yourself!' And you will say, 'Do here also in your hometown the things that we have heard you did at Capernaum.'" 24 And he said, "Truly I tell you, no prophet is accepted in the prophet's hometown. 25 But the truth is, there were many widows in Israel in the time of Elijah, when the heaven was shut up three years and six months, and there was a severe famine over all the land; 26 yet Elijah was sent to none of them except to a widow at Zarephath in Sidon. 27 There were also many lepers in Israel in the time of the prophet Elisha, and none of them was cleansed except Naaman the Syrian." 28 When they heard this, all in the synagogue were filled with rage. 29 They got up, drove him out of the town, and led him to the brow of the hill on which their town was built, so that they might hurl him off the cliff. 30 But he passed through the midst of them and went on his way.

Love

What is love – from a kid’s point of view? Here are just a few well crafted definitions of love gleaned from the innocence of children: “When my grandmother got arthritis, she couldn’t bend over and paint her toenails anymore. So my grandfather does it for her all the time, even when his hands got arthritis too. That’s love.” “When someone loves you, the way they say your name is different. You know that your name is safe in their mouth.” “Love is when someone hurts you, and you get so mad, but you don’t yell at them because you know it would hurt their feelings.” “Love is when my mommy makes coffee for my daddy and she takes a sip before giving it to him, to make sure it tastes okay.” “Love is what’s in the room with you at Christmas if you stop opening presents and listen.”
This morning, when you heard the reading from 1 Corinthians 13, did you have a flashback to a wedding that you attended…maybe even your own wedding? This letter to the church in Corinth is known as the “love chapter.” It is  Paul’s teaching on the ways of love.
Most people think of love simply as a feeling you have for someone. For them, it’s a good, warm, romantic, sentimental feeling. I’m in favor of good feelings, but there is a problem: feelings are uncontrollable and undependable. You can’t decide how you’re going to feel – you just feel. Consequently, many of the people who think of love in such terms fall out of love as quickly as they fall into it. Their love is uncontrollable. Their love is undependable.
The Apostle Paul doesn’t think of love in such terms at all. The word that Paul uses for “love” is agape. It is love for others, a love that “builds up.”  It is love in the community. Agape is inspired by the love of God found in Christ Jesus through the Holy Spirit. Paul is writing about a tough, durable kind of love, a love that keeps on loving no matter what. His words have an earthy, practical force to them. In his letter to the Corinthians, Paul gives a step-by-step description of what love entails.
Paul had a purpose for his description of Christian love. The church in Corinth was a conflicted congregation engaged in intense power struggles. Through his eloquent expressions about love, Paul was pronouncing a behavioral example for the church. Not an easy undertaking!
            At a fundraising dinner for a school that serves learning-disabled children, the father of one of the students delivered a speech that would never be forgotten by any who attended. After extolling the school and its dedicated staff, he poised this question: "When not interfered with by outside influences, everything nature does is done with perfection. Yet my son, Shay, cannot learn things as other children do. He cannot understand things as other children do. Where is the natural order of things in my son?"
The audience was stilled by the query. The father continued. "I believe that when a child like Shay, physically and mentally handicapped, comes into the world, an opportunity to realize true human nature presents itself, and it comes in the way other people treat that child."
Then he told the following story: He and his son, Shay, were walking past a park where some boys Shay knew were playing baseball. Shay asked, "Do you think they’ll let me play?" Shay’s father knew that most of the boys would not want someone like Shay on their team. But the father also understood that if his son was allowed to play, it would give him a much-needed sense of belonging and some confidence in his acceptance by others in spite of his handicaps.
Shay’s father approached one of the boys on the field and asked (though not expecting much) if Shay could play. The boy looked around for guidance and said, "We’re losing by six runs and the game is in the eighth inning. I guess he can be on our team and we’ll try to put him in to bat in the ninth inning."
With a small tear in his eye and warmth in his heart, the father watched as  Shay struggled over to the team’s bench and, with a broad smile, put on a team shirt. In the bottom of the eighth inning, Shay’s team scored a few runs but was still behind by three.
In the top of the ninth inning, Shay put on a glove and played in the right field. Even though no hits came his way, he was obviously ecstatic just being in the game, grinning from ear to ear as his father waved to him from the stands. In the bottom of the ninth inning, Shay’s team scored again. Now, with two outs and the bases loaded, the potential winning run was on base and Shay was scheduled to be next at bat. Surprisingly, Shay was given the bat.
Everyone knew that a hit was all but impossible because Shay didn’t even know how to hold the bat properly, much less connect with the ball.
However, as Shay stepped up to the plate, the pitcher, recognizing that the other team was putting winning aside for this moment in Shay’s life, moved in a few steps to lob the ball so Shay could at least make contact. The first pitch came and Shay swung clumsily and missed. The pitcher again took a few steps forward to toss the ball softly towards Shay. As the pitch came in, Shay swung at the ball and hit a slow ground ball right back to the pitcher.
The pitcher, picking up the soft grounder, could have easily thrown the ball to the first baseman. Shay would have been out and that would have been the end of the game. Instead, the pitcher threw the ball right over the first baseman’s head, out of reach of all of his teammates.
Everyone from the stands and both teams started yelling, "Shay, run to first! Run to first!" Never in his life had Shay ever run that far but he scampered down the baseline, wide-eyed and startled. Shay made it to first base.
"Run to second, run to second!" the crowd yelled. Catching his breath, Shay awkwardly ran towards second, gleaming but struggling to make it to the base. By that time the right fielder, the smallest guy on the other team, had the ball. He could have thrown the ball to the second-baseman for the tag and been the hero of the day, but he understood the pitcher’s intentions so he, too, intentionally threw the ball high, sending it over the third-baseman’s head.
All were screaming, "Shay, Shay, all the way, Shay!" Shay reached third base because the opposing shortstop ran and turned him in the right direction and pointed, "Run to third! Shay, run to third!"
As Shay rounded third, the boys from both teams and the spectators were on their feet screaming, "Shay, run home! Run home!" Shay ran to home base, stepped on the plate, and was cheered as the hero who hit the grand slam and won the game for his team.
"That day," said the father softly with tears now rolling down his face, "the boys from both teams brought a piece of true love and humanity into this world."
Shay didn’t make it to another summer. He died that winter, having never forgotten the day he was the hero. In putting aside the need to win and instead embracing the desire to care, two teams of young baseball players gave the unimaginable. They gave undeserved and unmerited love to a physically and mentally handicapped boy. This story exemplifies the way “agape” love works.
You may ask: “How can I love that way?” Paul gives a clue on how we are able to love as God loves. It is found in verse 12: “Now I know only in part; then I will know fully, even as I have been fully known.” God is the One who knows us fully. God claims us and God gives us the ability to love. In Paul’s mind, love is not an abstract idea. He believes that love is expressed in down-to-earth ways. Remember the young baseball players and their gift of unconditional love to Shay. That love forever changed Shay’s short life.
In Paul concluding sentence we find the essence of his love chapter: “And now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; and the greatest of these is love.” (13) Faith, hope, and love: Friends, faith in the Lord begins in this life and continues for all of eternity. Hope in the Lord begins now and carries us to the promise of God’s perfect plan of salvation. Love is the greatest of the three because, through faith and hope, love unites us with God.
What is love? God is love! God is love that never wavers; love that is unconditional. Friends, when we know God’s love as expressed in Jesus Christ, we will know how to love for God’s love is a love that changes lives; God’s love is a love that never dies. Embrace God’s love and share it with one another!
Amen and amen.