The passage I post today is more than a lovely litany to be read at a wedding. It is exhortative, that is, a call to live what we believe. It defines external markers of Christianity and tells us we are really expected to put these ideas into actions. And that is a hard thing to do. Read the passage, read it slowly. Ponder. Reflect. Where does it catch you? And then ask yourself, “how indeed is it possible to live out this call to love?” At the end, a short short story of one woman doing just that.
1 Corinthians 13
1If I speak in the tonguesof men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. 2If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. 3If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing.
4Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
8Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. 9For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10but when perfection comes, the imperfect disappears.11When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me. 12Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.
13And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.”
Yesterday, I received an email. The subject line read “Grace.” I opened it quickly, since I always need more grace. The writer of the letter wanted to tell me a story of grace and love. She had had a rough month after losing a loved one. What was more difficult than the death she grieved was the response of other family members. She bears a fierce love for family and works hard to bring together the separate strands. But, as any of us who have ever labored to love our entire families well, she struggled at times.
She wrote to tell me of a revelation that led her to love these people with a new heart, with new eyes. It wasn’t terribly complex, but it was rich. She remembered their stories. She remembered what they had suffered. She began to understand why they might respond the way they did to life’s tragedies and triumphs. She spoke a story of grace toward them that she had never expected. She said it was God’s grace that must have done it because she knew she couldn’t have come to love that way on her own.
The “Love” passage of I Corinthians 13 calls us to do many impossible things. One way this happens is by remembering God’s grace and kindness to us. What stories of grace will you remember today?
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