A year-end confirmation homily.

We have forgotten love.

That’s the conclusion pastor and author J. Barrie Shepherd comes to. Shepherd’s book Aspects of Love is a 125 page analysis that breaks down the meaning of 1st Corinthians chapter 13 into multiple, bite-sized pieces. If anyone can take what amounts to a few paragraphs of scripture and turn it into an entire book, well, a pastor can. No worries, I won’t do that here ?

Yet turning less than 300 words of scripture into a book of this length does suggest the topic, love, is not as widely understood and embraced in our culture as perhaps it should be.

Perhaps it needs to be talked about a little more.
Perhaps it needs to be explained a little more
Perhaps it needs to be practiced a little more.

I’d suggest that a good capstone conversation, for a year-end confirmation celebration, could well just focus on that one word: love. So while your confirmation learnings to date certainly haven’t forgotten love – God’s love is the central theme for all of scripture – specifically remembering love seems like a fitting way to conclude.

Context of Love
This particular chapter, 1 Corinthians 13, is widely used in all sorts of settings.  A member of our congregation, Helen,  selected this text for her final earthly church service; her funeral was held earlier this year. For Helen, who was 95, the love chapter represents a life fully lived, a life lived in love toward others. And a life transitioning from seeing in a mirror dimly to an existence of seeing fully. Seeing the divine, face to face.

During Helen’s funeral I found myself thinking back to my wedding; we used this scripture the day my wife and I said our vows, many couples do. Wondering how many others share this memory I asked those gathered for the funeral to raise their hand if they had used this passage for their weddings. A full 2/3 of the crowd either nodded or raised a hand.

While the love chapter is found much more often in the context of a wedding than a funeral I’d suggest the author’s original intent is a better reflection of the latter. Weddings celebrate the love of two people, a romantic kind of love. But Paul wrote this text to a congregation in turmoil; there were gifts aplenty in the church he wrote to. But for some reason the members of the church of Corinth just couldn’t get along.

And while we could certainly talk about the importance of love in how we treat each other, at church, I think the application is much broader than that. Just as a funeral is a celebration of what was, a celebration of how a person lived into the world, and a celebration of what is to come, completing confirmation represents a transition of sorts. And that transition is all about how you live, every day. And it’s all about how you express your faith in the world around you, every day. This text is a great way to do just that.

Consider this your confirmation life hack: the tricks to the trade that will serve you well for decades to come. So what are these tricks to the trade of life? Using the language of the love chapter let’s dive in.

1 Corinthians 13
If you speak eloquently, using the crispest of language, the finest of literary tools, and the rhetoric of a highly trained linguist, if you do all that, but do not have love, all those words are just idle, unwanted noise. As a pastor who loves to put together a well-crafted message, egad that is convicting. We must start with love; or none of the rest matters.

If you can see into the future clearly, have the highest of IQs, and can re-imagine the world, and can then re-make the world with what you imagine, but do not have love, guess what, it all means nothing. This set of traits, as lofty as it is, reminds me of Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg. Brainy, a technological prophet, and a doer, he has changed the world. But even the likes of Mr. Zuckerberg needs to show love to those around him for any of it to mean a thing.

And if you give away all you have – that’s the best of philanthropists – yet do not have love, much is missing. If you somehow find yourself a martyr, God forbid, yet do not have love, much is lacking. For if you give away your money, or give away your life, and do not have love? In that giving you gain zero, zilch, nada.

So what is love? Paul continues.

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(Not envious or boastful)
(Or arrogant or rude)

(It doesn’t insist on its own way)
(It isn’t irritable or resentful)
(It doesn’t rejoice in wrong)
Love rejoices in truth.

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

Bear, believe, hope, endure. Don’t settle for the darkness that may appear before you. Look behind it, through it, within it, within yourself, within others, always searching for the light.

Jesus did that with every waking moment during his time here on earth. He recognized the darkness, but then forgave, then showed love, to all. As a result he drew others to himself. He drew others to the light of God. Model that.

Faith, hope, and love are the big three, Paul writes. But the greatest of these? Love.

Close
To our 8th graders, as you move from middle to high school, as you continue to grow from adolescence to adulthood, don’t repeat the mistakes of prior generations. Don’t wait until marriage to begin trying it out.  No, I’m not talking about *that.*  And don’t wait until old age to reflect back on what could have been.

Our parents desire it.
Our friendships flourish with it.
Our churches crave it.
Our schools often lack it.
Our careers could sure use it.
Our families fail without it.
Our politicians seem devoid of it.
Our world aches for it.

Don’t forget love.  Amen.