The Sermon Text —I Corinthians 13:1-13

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. 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. 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.

Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

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. For we know only in part, and we prophesy only in part; but when the complete comes, the partial will come to an end. 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. 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. And now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; and the greatest of these is love.

In the verses preceding the famous 13^th chapter of I Corinthians Paul tells his readers that they all need one another. God has intended that we live in community. To enhance the community each person is given a gift. Each person is given something to do that shows who God is: Everyone gets in on it, everyone benefits. The thing is, none of us has all the gifts. The only way we get in on all these gifts is if we share.

Let me put this another way. Your life—my life— is a gigantic puzzle. As we grow up we try to put the pieces of our puzzle together. Most of us have ordinary pieces, pieces not unlike those of our friends and acquaintances. A few have unique pieces. We identify some of our pieces early in life. Some of us have such terrific pieces that others tell us: "You can live the rest of your life off those pieces." For example, some are very smart. Brilliant. We look at that piece of their puzzle and think, "With that kind of brain power you can do anything you want in the world."

Others have an amazing musical piece. These persons can sing like a bird, or play the piano like Mozart. We assume that – with their amazing piece, their big shining piece – they will soar through life.

Another person has the ability to make money. This person can see an opportunity and seize it in a nano-second. Figures, numbers fall together. Deals are made and the person with this piece becomes rich.

Most of us identify our pieces, and we like them. We aren’t the most talented, but our pieces are enough to get us by. But here is where it gets interesting – none of us have all the pieces for our puzzle. Some of our pieces are missing. Where are they? Either we have them and can’t find them or other people have them. All we know is that we only find our missing pieces as we connect with other people. Sometimes older people, wiser people – teachers, neighbors, uncles, mentors – have our pieces and share them with us. Sometimes people in our peer group have our pieces. As we make friends we find our pieces. Sometimes one or two of our missing pieces are discovered when we find our soul mate, our great love.

Some people go through their entire lives without finding their missing pieces. It can happen to people with modest skills, or it can happen to a genius, a musical wunder-kind, or someone who is very rich or very talented. It looks like they’ve got the world by the tail, but their life is a mess. They are missing one or more major pieces in their life puzzle.

Some people never find their pieces because they are forever looking inward. They even take time off to "find themselves." The problem is they assume you can do this on your own. But you can’t. You need help in finding your missing piece and until you get help you won’t find it. Others don’t find their missing piece because they are so proud of the pieces they have that they don’t look for the rest. Others don’t find them because they refuse to connect with others and learn from others.

Everyone has a piece called love, though not everyone finds it. Paul tells us that you can have a lot of pieces, but if you don’t have love you don’t have it all. You can have enormous spiritual gifts – you can speak in tongues, you can have prophetic powers, you can be smarter than anyone – you can understand all mysteries and explain the most difficult problems to the rest of us dummies, but if love is your missing piece you have–and you are– nothing.

So, as countless songs announce: Love is the answer. The question is: What is love? Here is where our friend Paul steps in. He tells us what love is: it is patient and kind, not jealous or boastful, not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way and it is not irritable or resentful.

He tells us, life is not just about being loved. It is about loving. That is where so many of the romantic songs go south. Though I’ve shared this with you before, I don’t know anything that is more to the point than Herman Hesse’s story: Augustus.

The story begins when a young woman and her husband move to a new area far from their homes. She is pregnant, late term. Just before she is to give birth her husband dies. Unable to travel back home she decides she will meet her neighbors and tough it out.

When the baby is born it is a beautiful boy. She names him Augustus, and invites all her neighbors to attend a baptism party in her home. The last to arrive is the strange little man from next door, who lingers until everyone has gone home. Before he leaves he says to her, "I have a unique gift for your baby. Before the clock strikes six tonight make a wish for baby Augustus. Any wish. Trust me, I have the ability to make it come true."

The woman is caught off guard and doesn’t know what she should wish. Once he leaves she busies herself cleaning up after her guests and loses track of time. Just before the town clock is to chime she says, "I wish that everyone in the world would love my Augustus."

And they did. He was a charming child. He was a winsome boy. He was the cutest young man you have ever seen. Everyone adored him, including the little man next door who is the only one who ever put any restrictions on him. Augustus took advantage of his charm and used all of his friends, who didn’t seem to mind. When he was old enough he always had someone else’s car, and spent someone else’s money. Everyone loved him. The problem: he hated his life.

One day, despondent, he decided to end it. In a hotel room he mixed the poison. Just before he was to drink it the little man from next door burst into the room and destroyed the drink. He then said, "I am in large part responsible for your malaise. I should never have given your mother the wish. She wasn’t ready. Now, I am going to give you a second chance. You can rescind the wish and make another one."

Quickly Augustus said, "I want the ability to love everyone in the world." And he did.

From that day on he gave himself for others. He lost some friends. He discovered that love and suffering are companions, but his life was meaningful.

The secret is not just being loved, but to love. Life is not about getting ours, it is about sharing ours.

St. Paul starts this little essay by suggesting that too many of us expend our effort on the lesser gifts in life, gifts such as—money, beauty, fame, success. In essence he says, these are the lesser prizes. What you need to do is to go for the gold. Strive for the greater gifts. What is the greatest gift of all? Love. Love is the greatest gift because unlike other gifts, it endures. Being smart doesn’t compare because no matter how smart you are there is more you don’t know than that you do. Knowledge is imperfect.

Love is the greatest because everyone is enhanced by it. Not everyone benefits from your other gifts. This one is so focused on others that everyone grows.

Martin Luther King Jr. often worked with young zealots, people intent on changing the world. Some of them would have killed for peace. Some were ready to have their bodies burned, in the name of justice. King used to remind his followers, "THOSE WHOM WE WOULD CHANGE WE MUST FIRST LOVE." The focus of love is always on the other, the recipient.

If anyone asks, "Do you wonder where Paul came up with his concept of love?", the answer is Jesus. He has heard the stories of Jesus. He has studied Jesus. He has prayed. Everything he knows about love he has learned from the life and message of Jesus. He could have put this chapter in a different form. He could have said, "Friends, be like Jesus. Let Jesus be the model for your life, after all: Jesus is patient and kind. He is not jealous or boastful; he was never arrogant or rude. He was not irritable or resentful. He never rejoiced in the wrong, rather he rejoiced in the right."

For many this would be a profound way of teaching. But for others, it would be too religious. It would be too spiritual. So Paul translates. He makes it simple. You want to live the God life, he says, then love. This is what love is. So, you can say "imitate Jesus," or you can say love. They end up the same.

Just know that behind all of this teaching is the one who has been called, "The man for others." I once saw a poster that said, They asked Jesus, "How much do you love us?" Jesus showed them his hands and then died. Jesus put his entire puzzle together, because he knew that God and those he met daily had the final pieces.

Paul doesn’t explain it to us but love is always connected to suffering. Whoever has one love has one sorrow. Whoever has ten loves has ten sorrows. The cross reminds us that love and suffering are forever bonded. The reason is that we live in a world gone wrong. Therefore, something as beautiful as love is painful.

Do you want to put your life together? Reach out to God and to others. Between them they can help fit the pieces of your puzzle together. Along the way you will uncover all of your gifts, including the greatest gift of all.