1 Cor 13: 3If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.
4Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant 5or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful;
I was trying to come up with some of the different ways that we say, “Easier said, than done.”
Can you practice what you preach?
You can talk the talk, but can you walk the walk?
Kind of related is money related:
Put your money where your mouth is.
Talk is cheap, show me the money.
I know there’s more. You’re probably thinking of some them right now. But there’s a reason we have so many different ways of saying this similar thing.
Saying and doing are two different things. That’s an experience across ages and community and family and business and politics.
So, you kind of know how a sermon about love is going to say.
I’m going to say you ought to love. And you know that, right?
You know that you ought be patient, don’t you?
You know that you ought be kind and ought not insist on your own way or feel so irritated or be so resentful.
And we might even leave today or had began your morning or started your year or week saying, “I’m going to be like that. I’m going to be better.”
And then…yah, and then.
Sometimes we sure can talk the talk, can’t we?
But when the preaching ends and the practicing begins…
It’d be a lot easier to be not be so irritated with them if they weren’t so irritating.
It’d be a lot easier to be patient if they didn’t keep doing the same thing.
It’d be a lot easier to not keep a record of wrong if they didn’t keep being so wrong, and a lot easier to not insist on my own way if I wasn’t always so amazingly right.
And you know what we have to admit? I and you have to admit that we’re very difficult to love sometimes.
I really do insist on my own way, too much. Enough to lose patience with me and for you to not always be so kind.
And you get pretty irritated with yourself, so you can imagine how others around you might be a little irritable.
Love is hard. Love is specific. Love is work and word and talk and paying the price and saying and doing and preaching and practicing and the Scripture Readings today say that and show us the one who does perfectly, too.
We have this beautiful meditation on love…
3If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.
And that love is and love doesn’t and love bears and love endures…
And it’s paired with this Gospel reading:
That describes how Jesus loves and give’s away all He has and delivers up His body and who He is and what He isn’t and how bears and endures:
[Jesus] said to them, “See, we are going up to Jerusalem, and everything that is written about the Son of Man by the prophets will be accomplished. 32For he will be delivered over to the Gentiles and will be mocked and shamefully treated and spit upon. 33And after flogging him, they will kill him, and on the third day he will rise.”
Our Lord’s love is not an up in the clouds love.
But a God so loved the world, that He came down, He’s going to Jerusalem.
Our Lord’s talk is not cheap, He paid the price.
He who talked the talk, walked the walk to His place of suffering and death in your place.
It wasn’t easier said than done, because our Lord knew exactly what it would take when He made the promise to love you, to never leave you nor forsake,
Everything written about the Son of man will be accomplished,
The thing that you need the most is to be loved.
For you to begin to be patient again.
For you to begin to endure suffering again.
For you to begin to not be resentful and keep record of wrongs.
What you need most isn’t to be told to love, but to be told that you are loved.
You are not complete unless you know and hope and believe that you are loved by God.
You cannot bear all things, believe all things, endure all things, and hope in the midst of all things, unless you are loved by God.
Jesus loves you, not because of anything particularly loveable about you.
He really does have to have patience with you. You do often keep thinking, saying, and doing the wrong same things.
And He really does have to endure much from you and you insisting on having your own way, too often.
But He does love you. And because that love didn’t generate from you, but from Him, it can’t be taken away by you or your irritating, sinful ways.
You are loved. Period.
And because you take that love into yourself, even receive in your own body this meal of love in which Jesus gave Himself up for you, and because it is not you who love, but Christ who lives in you,
Yes, you love.
And no it’s not easy.
It’s takes your time and your energy and your patience and your not keeping a record of wrong and your begging and pleading for God to continually help you not be so irritable and grumpy or envious or insistent on your own.
And there’s a reason there’s sayings about how it’s easier said than done when it comes to your money.
Because that is one way that you sacrifice yourself for the sake of others.
We say we love Christ’s Church and His Word and we put our money with our mouth is.
We say we love our family and boy if they aren’t sometimes saying, “Show me the money.”
But in good wisdom and careful stewardship, we do.
Let’s leave again with that oughtness of loving and patience and kindness toward others.
We know it’s easier said than done, and for that, we thank Jesus He keeps loving us perfectly by saying it and by doing it.