The following sermon was delivered by the Reverend John W. Howe, Rector of Truro Episcopal Church in Fairfax, Virginia. The title is Three Things About Love, and the scripture reference is 1 Corinthians chapter 13. 

I see old Bill Bailey frowning at me because he just looked at his watch and our time is gone again, and he really wants to teach his class. So I'll only give you three sermons this morning. if you'd like to look along with me we were on page 999 I'm going to take another look at that epistle reading 1 Corinthians 13 is the most well known, the most often quoted and the most favorite chapter in the Bible Yet I think something is almost always missed.

We've seen it made into samplers. We've seen it printed up on little cards. We've had people quote it.

It's been carved into stone. And yet almost always it's taken out of context. And when you take it out of context, you miss one of the most important things that is really happening here.

I'm glad the way that the reading came this morning was to begin with the latter part of chapter 12. Notice, will you, that the last verse of chapter 12 and the first verse of chapter 14 are almost word for word the same. Earnestly desire the higher gifts.

Earnestly desire the higher gifts ends chapter 12 and 14 continues right where that left off. Make love your aim and earnestly desire the spiritual gifts. The context of this chapter is Paul's great discussion of God's gifts to us.

The gifts of the Holy Spirit. And when we see that as the framework in which this passage occurs, suddenly it takes on a different kind of a meaning to us. He's been talking about God equipping us for service.

Service to Him and service to each other. And he's been talking at some length about the various gifts within the Christian church. And the thesis is that God has separate callings for us, and when He calls us, He will equip us.

If we'll wait for Him to do it, if we'll look to Him for the equipment, He will give it. He'll give a gift in order to carry out a calling. We're not all called to the same role, the same ministry within the church.

I may be called to be a preacher. You may be called to be an evangelist. Or a pastor.

Or you may be called to be a helper. I love that word, a helper. Somebody who doesn't necessarily have an up-front job, but who is absolutely indispensable behind the scenes.

You may be called to be an administrator. And as you go through the New Testament, you find that there's a tremendous diversity of gifts, not just a few. There are at least 20 separate gifts that are mentioned if you add up all the things said throughout the New Testament.

And I don't think that's an exhaustive list. I think if anybody was trying to give us an exhaustive list, then every time we come to a discussion of gifts, we'd have the same list. They're not trying to do that.

They're just suggesting to us, here are some of the gifts. Notice one thing is that there's no great distinction between supernatural gifts and natural gifts. Some people may be called to speak in tongues, or to do miracles, or to be used of God in bringing healing to somebody's body.

But do you notice how those kind of dramatic supernatural gifts are all interwoven with things like being an administrator, being a helper? We have other things like being a charitable giver. That's a gift I pray you might have.

And God calls us to different functions within the body of Christ. Different gifts for different Christians. This is the whole thesis of this section of Scripture.

Chapters 12 through 14. different gifts for different Christians. No one Christian to have all the gifts.

No one gift for all Christians. We need each other. Just like the ear needs the nose, the eye needs the feet, the hand needs the mouth, we need each other.

It's in that context that Paul interrupts himself to give us this tremendous passage on love. As if to say, as important as the gifts are, as absolutely indispensable as the gifts are, the body of Christ can't be the body of Christ without God's gifts. But as important as they are, there's something even more important.

And that's the fruit of the Spirit. Two New Testament categories for the Holy Spirit's work. gifts and fruit.

The fruit is spelled out in Galatians 5. You remember the passage. The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, patience, meekness, kindness, and so on.

The fruit of the Spirit are character traits. The character of Jesus Christ Himself reproduced in us. Different gifts for different Christians, but all Christians to have all fruits.

That's the New Testament balance. And Paul is going along here saying the gifts are absolutely critical, but even more important is the fruit of the Spirit, the context within which we exercise the gifts. And most important of all is love.

In other words, the motive for ministry. Sometimes we get so hung up on the gift that God may have given us. I'm a preacher.

Look at me. I'm a lay reader. I'm the head of the altar guild.

I'm an evangelist. Or whatever it might be. That we miss the whole point of the gift.

Which is that we might serve each other. so Paul says seek those gifts don't be afraid of them God wants to give gifts to his people he wants to fully equip us but even more importantly is that we might be vehicles of his love to each other that's the first sermon the second paused to think about this description as a way of talking about Jesus. Take his name and substitute it for the word love every time it appears.

And you have the most lovely little portrait in words of Jesus himself. Jesus is patient. Jesus is kind.

Jesus is not jealous or boastful. Jesus is not arrogant or rude. Jesus does not insist on his own way.

He is not irritable or resentful. He doesn't rejoice at wrong. But he rejoices in what's right.

He bears all things. He believes all things. He hopes all things.

He endures all things. A description of the character of Christ. And as I just said, you and I are called to reproduce, to have God reproduce in us the character of Christ.

We're to be little Christs. This is what we're to be. I love to remind folks when they're getting married that they're not promising to go on feeling the same way for the rest of their lives.

It would be very unlikely they could do that. They're called to go on behaving the same way toward each other for the rest of their lives. You know, there's hardly an emotional word in all the New Testament describing love.

What it describes is behavior. This is a description of behavior, of relationship. And of course, the beautiful thing is that as we begin to behave the way God wants us to, the feelings begin to follow.

The third sermon is this. We're told to love our neighbor as ourselves. And it's often been remarked that the man who doesn't love himself has a neighbor who's in deep trouble.

If I've got self-hatred or self-rejection reigning in my heart, I have very little that's worthwhile to give to my neighbor. I'm called to love myself. But what does that mean?

May I suggest to you that the same thing applies to me as does to my neighbor? If I'm not promising to go on feeling a certain way, but rather to behaving a certain way, it's possible to love my neighbor when I don't really like him very much. In other words, there may be some things about him which really turn me off.

And yet I can behave toward him in a certain way. Why can't I do that for myself? why can't I love myself even when I don't particularly like myself why can't I be patient with myself kind to me why can't I rejoice in what's right about myself rather than always worrying about what's wrong?

Can I bear with myself? Can I believe the best about myself? Can I dare to believe that God isn't finished with me yet?

Can I hope for something better? Do I have to be so hard on me? Let's be gentle with ourselves.

And our neighbor will thank us. Let's pray together. Father, we would see you equipping your people for the work of ministry.

distributing spiritual gifts amongst us, enabling us to do great and mighty things and also to do those behind-the-scenes things which are thankless and yet all-important. Lord, help us to see the character of Jesus Christ spelled out in behavior and help us to appropriate His empowering to become little Christs. And help us to love ourselves, that we might love our neighbors more adequately.

For we ask it in His name. Amen.