Ethic of Love

 

What if I speak in the most elegant languages of people or in the exotic languages of the heavenly messengers, but I live without love? Well then, anything I say is like the clanging of brass or a crashing cymbal. 1 Corinthians 13:1

 

Where do people today sound like clanging brass or crashing cymbals?  My first response is, “National, state, and local leaders!!”  My second response is, “Christians who preach hate, putting down beloved of God to push themselves/egos up!”  My third response, from my shy soul, is to softly say, “Um, sometimes me.”  Pastors sometimes love the sound of our own voices.  We love to wax poetic and go on and on ~ not only in sermons, but some pastors even post daily to a morning meditation online ~ can you imagine such a thing!  (Insert my face turning red with embarrassment here).  I can be a clanging brass and crashing cymbal, only I think I am playing beautiful music everyone should hear!

 

Remember, Paul is writing to a church, a community who were fighting and feuding about everything!  They were putting each other down, saying hurtful and hateful things.  There were factions in the church in Corinth.  Some elegantly said that Paul did the best baptism, while others said passionately that such a perspective was “Hogwash!”  Paul was shining a light on the behavior of people who thought they could convince each other through words and logic.  And two thousand years later, we are still stuck and stymied by the same mistake.  I invite you to meditate on this quote from Edwin Friedman: “The colossal misunderstanding of our time is the assumption that insight will work with people who are unmotivated to change. If you want your child, spouse, client, or boss to shape up, stay connected while changing yourself rather than trying to fix them.” 

 

To stay connected is to love, which will demand much of us.  May these words of Paul roam around your heart and inspire your living/speaking/words/presence this day and every day this year.  Amen.  

Ethic of Love

 

We are beginning the month of January by focusing on Paul’s words to the church, not a couple in love, but how the body of Christ is called to be in the world.  Today, I invite you to re-read 1 Corinthians 13 using Lectio Divina ~ or Divine Reading.  To review this prayer practice as described by Brian McLaren. “The first step is Lectio, where you read, which really means you deeply listen to the text, you try to take it in, you just try to let the text reach you. Second, is Meditatio. That's where we meditate, or we have an internal conversation. Respond to the text, ask questions about what you’ve read and imagine the response, summarize the text in one word or one short, succinct sentence. Third comes Aratio, which simply means prayer.  In this step, we turn our words and express ourselves to God in a conversation with God. In step three, we want to see what is evoked and provoked in us that speaks to the sacredness of desire. Step three is to name the desires that shape us from the scripture, shining a light on our lives. What do you desire after hearing this passage? And then you end with Contemplatio, which simply means contemplation to sit or rest in silence, sense marinate in what we have read and meditated upon.”  Today, move slowly through the above steps with this passage from 1 Corinthians 13:

 

What if I speak in the most elegant languages of people or in the exotic languages of the heavenly messengers, but I live without love? Well then, anything I say is like the clanging of brass or a crashing cymbal. What if I have the gift of prophecy, am blessed with knowledge and insight to all the mysteries, or what if my faith is strong enough to scoop a mountain from its bedrock, yet I live without love? If so, I am nothing. I could give all that I have to feed the poor, I could surrender my body to be burned as a martyr, but if I do not live in love, I gain nothing by my selfless acts.

Love is patient; love is kind. Love isn’t envious, doesn’t boast, brag, or strut about. There’s no arrogance in love; it’s never rude, crude, or indecent—it’s not self-absorbed. Love isn’t easily upset. Love doesn’t tally wrongs or celebrate injustice; but truth—yes, truth—is love’s delight! Love puts up with anything and everything that comes along; it trusts, hopes, and endures no matter what. Love will never become obsolete. Now as for the prophetic gifts, they will not last; unknown languages will become silent, and the gift of knowledge will no longer be needed. Gifts of knowledge and prophecy are partial at best, at least for now, but when the perfection and fullness of God’s kingdom arrive, all the parts will end. When I was a child, I spoke, thought, and reasoned in childlike ways as we all do. But when I became a man, I left my childish ways behind. For now, we can only see a dim and blurry picture of things, as when we stare into polished metal. I realize that everything I know is only part of the big picture. But one day, when Jesus arrives, we will see clearly, face-to-face. In that day, I will fully know just as I have been wholly known by God. But now faith, hope, and love remain; these three virtues must characterize our lives. The greatest of these is love.

 

What was stirred, swirled, and spinning in your heart/mind/body/soul with these words?  What prayers did you pray during Aratio ~ I know I prayed, “Help!!!!” because I am not sure I can live this way on my own.  I think that is Paul’s point.  If left to our own scheming and dreaming, our humanness doesn’t naturally go this way.  But when we are inspired and invited by God, something shifts within us, and space opens for these words to sing to our soul.  Write down your thoughtful intentions and prayerful reflections on this passage as we continue to make the road by walking into this New Year.  Amen.

Ethic of Love

 

As we begin 2026, I invite us to focus on Paul’s vision of the ethic of love.  Remember, Paul is writing to a church that was divided and fighting about everything!  Can you imagine living in a time and with people who disagreed and dismissed one another, rather than from a foundation of dignity ~ that all are created in God’s image?  (note the sarcasm here).  Can you imagine living in a time and with people who claimed to follow Jesus but did not love their neighbor, enemy, or themselves?  Can you imagine living in a time where the air was suffocating from the toxicity of anger and fear?  I hear your shy soul saying, “Tell me more, and history is rubbing her forehead with a headache and a sigh, “I am tired of repeating myself.”  Paul’s letter to the church in Corinth is written to people then and now who were at each other’s throats and were failing to live the ethic of love.  Although 1 Corinthians 13 has become the “classic wedding verse”, it wasn’t meant for a couple ~ rather for a community.  It was written not to celebrate love, but to challenge the church to be the church.  Today, I invite you to think of our church.  Open your sacred imaginations to hear Paul’s words begin written to First Congregational UCC in Sarasota, FL.  All of us ~ you and me and we.  Slow chew on these words:

 

What if I speak in the most elegant languages of people or in the exotic languages of the heavenly messengers, but I live without love? Well then, anything I say is like the clanging of brass or a crashing cymbal. What if I have the gift of prophecy, am blessed with knowledge and insight to all the mysteries, or what if my faith is strong enough to scoop a mountain from its bedrock, yet I live without love? If so, I am nothing. I could give all that I have to feed the poor, I could surrender my body to be burned as a martyr, but if I do not live in love, I gain nothing by my selfless acts.  Love is patient; love is kind. Love isn’t envious, doesn’t boast, brag, or strut about. There’s no arrogance in love; it’s never rude, crude, or indecent—it’s not self-absorbed. Love isn’t easily upset. Love doesn’t tally wrongs or celebrate injustice; but truth—yes, truth—is love’s delight! Love puts up with anything and everything that comes along; it trusts, hopes, and endures no matter what. Love will never become obsolete. Now as for the prophetic gifts, they will not last; unknown languages will become silent, and the gift of knowledge will no longer be needed. Gifts of knowledge and prophecy are partial at best, at least for now, but when the perfection and fullness of God’s kingdom arrive, all the parts will end. When I was a child, I spoke, thought, and reasoned in childlike ways as we all do. But when I became a man, I left my childish ways behind. For now, we can only see a dim and blurry picture of things, as when we stare into polished metal. I realize that everything I know is only part of the big picture. But one day, when Jesus arrives, we will see clearly, face-to-face. In that day, I will fully know just as I have been wholly known by God. But now faith, hope, and love remain; these three virtues must characterize our lives. The greatest of these is love.

 

What did you hear in these words?  I want to know.  Email me sharing how this evokes and provokes new thoughts on how our church might embrace and embody these words might be lived together.  May these words disrupt, interrupt, and stretch us to be the church that lives the ethic of love in these days.  Amen.

Blessing the House of this Year

 

The year as a house ~  A Blessing — Jan Richardson

Think of the year as a house: door flung wide in welcome,
threshold swept and waiting, a graced spaciousness
opening and offering itself to you.
Let it be blessed in every room.
Let it be hallowed in every corner.
Let every nook be a refuge and every object set to holy use.
Let it be here that safety will rest.
Let it be here that health will make its home.
Let it be here that peace will show its face.
Let it be here that love will find its way.
Here let the weary come,
let the aching come,
let the lost come,
let the sorrowing come.
Here let all find their rest
and let them find their soothing
and let them find their place
and let them find their delight.
And may it be in this house of a year
that the seasons will spin in beauty,
and may it be in these turning days
that time will spiral with joy.
And may it be that its rooms will fill
with ordinary grace and
light spill from every window

New Year Blessing

 

On the Threshold

 

On this threshold of one year to another, I encourage you to imagine God is sitting side by side with you.  God’s love has you, holds you.  Today, I encourage you to think about:

 

What brought you joy and made a positive impact on you?  Make a list ~ feel free to review what you wrote yesterday.

 

Who made a positive impact on your life?  List the names of those who left fingerprints on your heart.

 

Your accomplishments this last year ~ this doesn’t have to be “I won an Olympic medal” kind of triumph.  It can be something you worked on ~ like I walked a mile most days or I tried to love my enemies, or I was more loving toward my family.  I know many of us don’t want to pat ourselves on the back, but take a moment to honor that you made it through this year ~ which, given all that has happened, is really something.  And this past year has changed us all.

 

Now think about a challenge you faced ~ could be a family member who died or standing up for justice, or trying a new way of being in the world. 

 

What did you learn about yourself this last year?

 

If you could sum up this year in one word, what would it be and why?

 

May this prayerful pondering be a holy moment filled with God’s love that has you.  Amen.

Pause to Reflect and Review

 

On the cusp of a New Year, I invite you to rewind, review, and recall this past year.  I think the best way to do this is to take a few deep breaths.  Slowly inhale, hold the breath of life, and exhale ~ even sigh loudly.  Then, on a piece of paper, write down all you can remember about 2025  ~ you may want to make three columns: the good, the bad, the ugly!  Please know, this is NOT a quiz.  You can use your calendar to help spark your memory.  You don’t have to write down every meeting, volunteer moment, doctor’s appointment, or worship service (or sermon!).  Survey and scan the days that culminated and combined to create this year.  There is a great wisdom that goes, “the days are long and the years are short.”  This is that feeling that you have this time of year, wondering, “Where did time go!?!?!?” 

 

As you review the good, bad, and ugly…look also for places of bewilderment, wonder, awe this past year.  I was in awe when I witnessed my first Broadway musical.  I was in wonder as we wandered around New York City as a family.  I felt chills race and run up and down my spine as my son graduated from college and began his master’s program ~ where did the time go?!?!? 

 

Today, listen to the story your calendar wants to share with you and where God showed up (unexpected, like a baby born in a stable) this year for you.  Amen.