More than a Cliche take Three

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. - 1 Corinthians 13, The Message

Paul never met a list that he didn't love.  Paul never met a run-on sentence that couldn't use just a few more words to make it better.  Paul never missed a moment to pile on more and more images so that your mind was swirling, soul saturated, and heart soaked.  Paul had a flair for the dramatic.  I like to think he was the kind of person who puts out the candles on his birthday cake with a fire extinguisher!

I mean just look at that list above.

Put others first, don't covet, don't boast/brag/puff out your chest, don't get a big head, don't insert yourself when it is not your circus and not your monkeys.

Okay, that is a pretty good list, Paul...thank...

Wait...he says...I got more.  It isn't about you, don't get angry, don't see life has a balance sheet, don't think you are better than others (or in the words of my grandmother, "Get off your high horse".).

Um...thanks Paul....really given us a lot to think....

Wait...he says there is more.  Focus on truth, everything and everyone belongs, trust in God, look for traces of grace before you, keep going, and don't live life staring at your rear view mirror.

Awash in a litany that won't end.  Swimming in a stream of images that are overflowing.  Thinking to yourself, "He could have just said - leap over tall buildings and save the world."

This is impossible.

I wonder if that is the point.

I wonder if Paul is really describing God...not us.  If Paul is trying to suggest and say, "Let me tell you how God works and wiggles in the world."  We made this into a to-do list, perhaps to prove ourselves worthy of the One who already loves us unconditionally and unceasingly.  We think, "Wow, that is a lot, but I guess I better get started."  When actually, this is already complete because of God's presence in our lives. 

I also wonder if Paul is being a bit overly dramatic to make a point to the bickering community.  It is as if he is saying, "Listen, baptism and what you serve at church dinners and what leadership roles you have or don't have, to put your time and energy there might not be the best way faithfully forward.  Because love will take every fiber of our being...and even then we are only going to get it right maybe 5 percent of the time!"

Love isn't wishy-washy.  We think that because of too many Hallmark cards.  Love is actually the most powerful part of the world.  Love isn't just being a doormat, anything goes.  It will have a strong back and soft front.  Love invites us into a place where we see, as if for the first time, who and whose we are.  Of course most folks don't want to visit love.  Of course we distance and dismiss and deny that it is even possible or plausible.  Of course, because otherwise we'd have to change! 

We do this with Jesus.  He had to die for our sins.  We make God's unconditional love transactional.  It is not a commodity, like when I go to buy bananas and swipe my credit card.  We turn God's unceasing love into something that is depended on our belief - which by the way keeps us in charge the way we like it.  Rather, God's love is not just warm and fuzzy, God's love has known the pain of denial, desertion, and death.  That isn't something we can buy, it is a mystery that will change everything. 

In what ways do you resist Paul's words?
In what ways do you welcome them?
Who in your life can you share these words with in embodied ways?
Who do you struggle to let these words see the light of day with?

I pray as we let Paul's words really sink, settle, and sing to our souls, we will discover and discern more than a trace of God's grace.

Blessings ~~