A little story comes out of Hollywood
that pits against each other two brothers
who ran a movie studio in the 1940’s.

One was the president …
the other was in charge of production …
and they fought tooth and nail as only brothers sometimes can.

It happened one day in one of their offices that the president said,
“I think we should make a Bible picture.”
His brother, in charge of production replied,
“A Bible picture!  There’s no market for a Bible picture.”

“Listen,” said the brother,
“there are a lot of good stories in the Bible …
I’m sure we could get a picture out of one!”

“No chance,” the other replied.
“You run the company.  I’ll make the pictures
Besides, I’ll bet you don’t know a Bible story.
In fact, I’ll bet you don’t even know the Lord’s Prayer.
Fifty dollars says you don’t know the Lord’s Prayer.”

“Fifty dollars says I do.  You’re on,” the brother replied.

And the brother who had been challenged to recite the Lord’s Prayer started,

“Now I lay me down to sleep, I pray the Lord my soul to keep …”

“That’s enough,” said his brother, “that’s enough. 
Here’s your fifty dollars.”                 

Well, there are bets … and there are bets.
Let me ask some questions before I wager something.

1. What is the greatest need in the world?
What is the greatest need in your life?

With all that you have
or even with all that you don’t have,
what is life’s most valuable possession?
If everything that was ever yours,
if everything that makes your life a wonderful thing
was taken away from you save one thing,
what one thing would you want to keep?

I’m sure I would get as many answers to those questions
as there are people who could give answer.

But I would bet my life
that there would be a recurring theme …
a melody with a thousand variations.

It is an answer that would be given by the millionaire
with a Forest Hill address …
and it is an answer that would be given by the transient, the down-and-outer,
who goes from storefront or park bench or mission for refuge.

It is an answer that would be given by an elderly soul
experienced in living …
and it is an answer that would be given by a child
just beginning to learn what life is all about.

It is an answer that would be given by a person
with a brilliant IQ …
and it is an answer that would be given by some unfortunate soul
who just couldn’t make sense of anything.

It is an answer that would be in the hearts and on the lips of the world’s millions.

It would be the world’s most beautiful word:  LOVE.

St. Paul wrote that there are three things that abide: faith, hope and love.
They survive.  They endure.  They last.
When everything else is long gone and forgotten.
But the greatest of the three …
that which is at the heart and soul of everything that matters … is love.

What is life without love?
And what are we without love?
Those three words  ~  “I love you”  ~
that may be spoken to you or that you may speak, are transforming.

The glorious thing about our faith,
        and it is this which makes our faith a glorious thing,
is not just that God is …
but that God is love …
              and that God loves us.
                
What an incredible thing:
to think that the great God of the universe loves us.
We affirmed it at the beginning of today’s service.
In speaking of that love we said:

Our faith proclaims that “God is love.”
We rejoice in God’s love for us and for all people.

In love, God came to us in His Son, Jesus.
For love’s sake, Jesus died for us.
By love’s power, He was raised from death to life.
All of this for us and our salvation.

And the difference that this love makes in our lives?
We affirmed that, too.

We believe in love’s power:
it can make bad people good and good people better;
it can bring hope to the despairing,
courage to the fearful,
comfort to the sorrowing,
and peace to the troubled;
it can bring light where there was only darkness
and faith where there was only doubt;
God’s love changes everything.

We have all experienced that love in one way or another.
Where would we be without it?  We wouldn’t be here!

2.    But that’s only half the story.
If we are to truly be God’s people in Christ …
if we are to truly be all that God would have us be …
we, too, are to love as God loves.

Jesus put it so simply.  He said “Love each another.” 

It isn’t just the love we get that makes life a wonderful thing …

it’s the love we give.

St. Paul wrote these words which were read earlier.

“If I speak with human eloquence and angelic ecstasy but don’t love,
I’m nothing but the creaking of a rusty gate.

 “If I speak God‘s word with power
revealing all mysteries and making everything plain as day,
and if I have faith that says to a mountain, ‘Jump,’ and it jumps,
but don’t love, I’m nothing.

“If I give everything I own to the poor
and even go to the stake to be burned as a martyr, but I don’t love,
I’ve gotten nowhere.

“So no matter what I say, what I believe, what I do,
I’m bankrupt without love.

Just what did Paul mean by that …
that without love I am nothing?

Without love, my spirit is bankrupt:
Love is at the heart of that which values me
just as it is at the heart of that, which in me, values others.

Without love,
my eloquence
my knowledge
my faith
my charity
won’t have a heart.

It is love that makes life not only tolerable …
it is love that makes life wonderful …
the love given to you …
and the love you give.

For in it there is power.
Love’s power can mend the broken heart.
Love’s power can bind up the wounded spirit.
Love’s power can free the troubled soul.
Love’s power can inspire someone to begin again, because of forgiveness.
Love’s power can enable someone to try, because of hope.
Love’s power can change situations and it can change people.
Love’s power, as much as we have been saved by it, can save the world.

Just as we affirmed at the beginning of the service  …

Our faith proclaims that “God is love.”
We rejoice in God’s love for us and for all people

we also affirmed this …

Because God loves us we believe we are called to love one another:
to be a window through which God’s light shines;
a voice through which God’s message is heard;
a hand through which God’s help is given;
a heart through which God’s grace is shared;
to be for others all that Jesus has been for us.

Love is life’s most beautiful word …
life’s most beautiful possession …
life’s most beautiful expression …
the love given to you give … and the love you give.

In many ways we have, through today’s affirmation, talked the talked.
It looks good on paper.
                And it sounds good, too.
                        But the call of our Lord isn’t just to talk the talk …
it’s to walk the walk.
It’s not simply to say the words
                                                but to be the words:
to be the window
                                                                the voice
the hand
                                                                                the heart
                                                                                        through which love is made real.

Let me tell you a beautiful love story.

A woman by the name of Meg Hill writes
that she didn’t cry when she learned
she was the parent of a mentally disabled child.
She just sat still while she and her husband were informed
that two-year-old Kristi was  ~  as they suspected  ~  different.

“Go ahead and cry,” the doctor advised kindly.
“Helps prevent serious emotional difficulties.”

Serious difficulties notwithstanding, she couldn’t cry then
nor during the months that followed.

When Kristi was old enough to attend school,
they enrolled her in their neighbourhood’s kindergarten at age seven.

It would have been comforting to cry that day she left her
in that room full of self-assured, eager, alert five-year-olds.
Kristi had spent hour upon hour playing by herself,
but that moment, when she was the “different” child among twenty,
was probably the loneliest she had ever known.

However, positive things began to happen to Kristi in her school,
and to her schoolmates, too.
When boasting of their own accomplishments,
Kristi’s classmates always took pains to praise her as well:
“Kristi got all her spelling words right today.”
No one bothered to add that her spelling list was easier than anyone else’s.

During Kristi’s second year in school, she faced a very traumatic experience.
The big public event of the term was a competition
based on the culmination of the year’s music and physical education activities.
Kristi was way behind in both music and motor coordination.
Meg Hill and her husband dreaded the day as well.

On the day of the program, Kristi pretended to be sick.
Her mother desperately wanted to keep her home.
Why let her little girl fail in a room full with parents, students and teachers?
What a simple solution it would be just to let her child stay home.
Surely missing one program couldn’t matter.
But her conscience wouldn’t let her off that easily.
So she practically shoved a pale, reluctant Kristi onto the school bus
and proceeded to be sick herself.

Just as she had forced her daughter to go to school,
now she forced herself to go to the program.
It seemed that it would never be time for Kristi’s group to perform.
When at last they did, she knew why Kristi had been worried.
Her class was divided into relay teams.
With her limp and slow, clumsy reactions,
she would surely hold up her team.

The performance went surprisingly well, though,
until it was time for the potato sack race.
Now each child had to climb into a sack from a standing position,
hop to a goal line,
return,
and climb out of the sack.

She watched Kristi standing near the end of her line of players, looking frantic.

But as Kristi’s turn to participate neared, a change took place in her team.
The tallest boy in the line stepped behind Kristi
and placed his hands on her waist.
Two other boys stood a little ahead of her.
The moment the player in front of Kristi stepped from the sack,
those two boys grabbed the sack and held it open
while the tall boy lifted Kristi and dropped her neatly into it.

A girl in front of Kristi took her hand
and supported her briefly until Kristi gained her balance.
Then off she hopped, smiling and proud.

Amid the cheers of teachers, schoolmates and parents,
Kristi’s mom crept off by herself to thank God
for the warm, understanding people in life
who made it possible for her disabled daughter
to be like her fellow human beings.
Her little girl was loved.
It is was then that Meg Hill finally cried  ~
not tears of sadness but tears of joy.

That’s the power of love.
And that story illustrates in the life of one little girl and her classmates
how simple it can be:
      as simple as lifting a little girl into a potato sack.
And the difference it can make …
and the hope it can inspire …
and the healing it can bring …
and the joy it can infuse …
              is transforming.
  It illustrates just how indispensable it is.
                                                For you, and me.
For everyone.

It’s the greatest thing you’ll ever learn:  just to love and be loved in return.
Now that we know it, let’s do it.
It’s something we can all do.

SOLI DEO GLORIA

 

 

THE READING OF HOLY SCRIPTURE 1 Corinthians 13:1-8, 13; 14:1
(THE MESSAGE)
 1 If I speak with human eloquence and angelic ecstasy but don't love,
I'm nothing but the creaking of a rusty gate.
2If I speak God's Word with power,
revealing all his mysteries and making everything plain as day,
and if I have faith that says to a mountain, "Jump," and it jumps,
but I don't love, I'm nothing.
3-7If I give everything I own to the poor
and even go to the stake to be burned as a martyr,
but I don't love, I've gotten nowhere.
So, no matter what I say, what I believe, and what I do,
I'm bankrupt without love.

   Love never gives up.
   Love cares more for others than for self.
   Love doesn't want what it doesn't have.
   Love doesn't strut,
   Doesn't have a swelled head,
   Doesn't force itself on others,
   Isn't always "me first,"
   Doesn't fly off the handle,
   Doesn't keep score of the sins of others,
   Doesn't revel when others grovel,
   Takes pleasure in the flowering of truth,
   Puts up with anything,
   Trusts God always,
   Always looks for the best,
   Never looks back,
   But keeps going to the end.
 8-10Love never dies.

13But for right now we have three things to do to lead us:
Trust steadily in God, hope unswervingly, love extravagantly.
And the best of the three is love.
 1Go after a life of love as if your life depended on it—because it does.