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Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
Brothers and sisters, looking at the epistle reading today, the second lesson from Saint
Paul’s letter to the Corinthians. Please be seated. Now, even though it’s probably
the least favorite musical of Texas Longhorn fans, I have to quote today from the Broadway musical
Oklahoma. It features a young couple named Will and Ado Annie, who discuss
their intentions concerning the future of their relationship. And since it’s a
musical, this happens in a song called, With Me It’s All or Nothing. Okay, I’m not
going to sing it, but part of it sounds like this, part of it goes
like this, “‘With me it’s all or nothing. Is it all or nothing with you? It can’t be
in between. It can’t be now and then. No half-and-half romance will do.'” Many couples,
when they’re getting married, at their wedding, they want to express similar intentions by
by having 1 Corinthians 12 read at their weddings.
This chapter is often called the love chapter of the Bible.
And at weddings, they especially emphasize
verses 4 through 8, and I’ll reread those here.
They’re familiar. You’ve probably heard it.
Maybe they were at your wedding.
Love is patient and kind.
Love does not envy or boast.
It is not arrogant or rude.
It does not insist on its own way.
It is not irritable or resentful. It does not rejoice at wrongdoings, but rejoices with the truth
Love bears all things believes all things hopes all things endures all things
Love never ends when a couple gets married. They they want their love to be like that
Patient and kind no envy or boasting and and on and on
They want an enduring
protecting
trusting
hoping love that never ends and the couple is saying to each other that with
my love it’s all or nothing and everybody at the wedding goes oh isn’t
that nice and it’s well-intentioned and even kind of sentimentally cute but
let’s face it the all part of all or nothing doesn’t always work out ah but
But let’s not look just at wedding couples.
This applies to all of us.
We all may be so determined to live with an all-or-nothing kind of love and even make
commitments to it with our marriages, our friendships, and even to God.
But as well-intentioned and even sentimentally cute that our all-or-nothing pledge may be,
the all part doesn’t always work out, does it? And this is a pretty tall order.
I got to get it right here. This list is pretty difficult. I mean, who can do
all of this? I get tired just reading it, much less trying to do it, and it may
even seem like a setup for failure for anyone,
especially a couple getting married, to expect to do this.
Really, why have this red at a wedding?
When I counsel premarital couples getting married,
if they choose this, and we talk about that,
but I ask them, why are you choosing this?
You want to set yourself up for failure?
And no, it’s all good, don’t worry about it.
Don’t think I’m that weird, but.
I mean why bother trying for an all kind of love when you might end up with
nothing sometimes? Well if we if we look at these verses if we look at the love
chapter only in the light if we look at this only in the light of our love well
it is a setup for failure for there are certainly times when we we fall off on
some points or all the points of this list. You’re not always patient and kind.
It’s easy to be envious and boastful or arrogant or rude or angry. Boy, there’s
some good ones, huh? You’ve been in traffic lately? And who isn’t
self-insistent? You got to look out for number one, right? If you don’t, who will?
irritable or resentful and rejoicing at wrongs but that’s easy to do isn’t it
don’t we like to see our enemies kind of get theirs we like to see somebody do
wrong and get punished for it well rejoicing at wrongs that’s easier
than keeping this list I’ll tell you that we don’t always have this kind of
love. It’s not always all with us. Oftentimes, we end up with nothing. Oh, and then there’s
the topper at the end. Did you see that one? Love never ends. Never. Right? Again, that’s
if we look at the love chapter in light of our own love. And if we look at the love chapter
in light of our own love, it brings frustration. Because what the list does in part is show
our failure to love with an all-or-nothing kind of love.
It shows us that it’s not our love for each other as married couples or relatives or friends.
It’s not that love that can justify or save us.
Our love doesn’t forgive our sins.
our love doesn’t forgive our failure to love or to be patient or to be kind and
all the way down the list that’s the bad news of the love chapter the good news
is the love chapter isn’t all about our love for each other it points us to
God’s love for us because only God’s love is an all kind of love because
despite how sinful we are, despite how much our all love fails, despite not
being able to keep this list, God still loves us with an all kind of love. A friend
once said to me, you know people sometimes do really stupid things but I
still love them. I said that’s great but you know what that could be a quote from
God my people sometimes do stupid things but I still love them because again
despite our sinfulness God still loves us so much that he sent his son Jesus as
a human into our world to suffer and die for us Romans chapter 5 verse 8 I love
this verse, it says, God demonstrated his love for us in this, that while we were
sinners, Christ died for us. Not while we were good, not while we were keeping the
list, not while we had an all kind of love, but while we were sinners, Christ
died for us. That’s an all kind of love that God has for us, that Christ
would die for us and then that love extends even to Jesus because he rose
from the dead he got up out of the grave and went from death to life again that
is unending love love that doesn’t stop with the grave love that goes on into
eternity that’s what God’s love is it never ends it doesn’t stop it it’s
eternal it’s everlasting and even the Prophet Jeremiah said that God says I
have loved you with an everlasting love and I know that we humans we can’t
really fathom everlasting we can’t understand or even begin to comprehend
eternal but we know it’s much bigger than us and it’s something wonderful and
And that’s how God loves us, with a love that never ends.
Even when love is difficult, God never stops loving.
When you stop being patient, God doesn’t.
When you stop being kind, God doesn’t.
And so on, down the list.
His love never ends because His love is all.
God’s love is all because it continues
to give the benefits of Christ’s death and resurrection
by loving and forgiving you
even when your sins don’t stop.
Jesus is the only one who can do this list.
He’s the only one that can perfectly do this
all or nothing kind of love.
In fact, if you just replace the word love
in the love chapter here,
you have what this chapter is really about.
it’s about Jesus. Jesus is patient and kind. Jesus doesn’t envy or boast. Jesus
isn’t arrogant or rude. He doesn’t insist on his own way. He is not irritable or
resentful. Jesus does not rejoice at wrongdoing but rejoices with the truth.
Jesus bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all
things, Jesus never ends. That is God’s all love for you. Jesus is the only one
that can do that. And unlike Annie and Will in the musical, God doesn’t have to
say or sing that his love is all or nothing. God’s love is always all. There’s
nothing with God’s love in Christ God freely and completely loves us loves you
because no matter what you’ve done no matter how bad you think your sins have
been or no matter how bad they really are no matter that God still loves you
while you’re a sinner Christ died for you there’s no nothing there it’s all
complete. That’s the kind of love that God has. It’s all. It’s complete. And when
you confess your sin, God forgives it all because of Jesus. The life, death, and
resurrection of Jesus is all for you. Jesus is the all of God’s love for you.
And with that love then, with that all love that God has given to us, we can
strive for that all kind of love. As married couples, to our relatives, to our
friends, to whoever, you know, we can’t keep the list, but we can try to, we
strive to, we don’t always get it wrong, we always need to be serving and loving.
that’s what we still need to strive to do.
So it’s good to actually make those commitments.
You can make those kind of vows
at your wedding or whatever,
but it’s good to realize your failure too
and be committed to God’s love for you in Christ as well.
See, because the question that’s asked
with Will and Annie,
the question that’s asked kind of remains here.
in the song it says with me it’s all or nothing okay and that’s God saying God
says with me it’s all or nothing and then the question is it all or nothing
with you now I don’t mean in doing all the kind of love in the in the list we
already know we can’t do that all so when the question is asked is it all or
nothing with you it means is it is it all with you in
receiving Christ’s love for you? Is it all or nothing in receiving the
forgiveness of your sins in Christ? Because that’s what God wants for you.
He’s got all of this love and it’s for you. He’s all in. What about you?
Receiving what God wants to give you. That’s the all or nothing for us. We
receive it all or nothing. I love the first part of the reading today when it
talks about if I don’t have this love if I don’t have this you know then I have
nothing you see that if we have all of our own loving things and we’re gonna
fail we really have nothing but if we have God’s love and receive that we have
everything we have it all it can’t be in between it can’t be now and then no half
and half romance will do with God. He loves you 100% completely and wants you
to take it all. Let Jesus have all of your sin and you take all of his love.
Again, Jesus is all in with his love for you. How is it with you? You can have it.
God’s love always gives all. It never gives nothing. Christ’s love always
gives all it never gives nothing and may that love may God’s love his never
ending all love with Jesus be with you always amen now may the grace of God
which passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus
amen
