Love Never Ends

February 2nd, 2025                     “Love Never Ends”                    Rev. Heather Jepsen

Sermon Series: Living Love

1 Corinthians 13:1-13 with Jeremiah 1:4-10

          As I mentioned at the beginning of worship today, we are going to be having a theme for the month of February and that theme is love.  There is so much strife and division in our country right now and it is even beginning to ruffle feathers here in our church family.  As the shepherd of this flock, I can feel my sheep starting to move too far away from each other.  I long to bring you all back together in unity, and so we are going to spend the month talking about the good work of love.  All the world is hearts this month so as you see those Valentine decorations I hope they will serve as a reminder to you to live love.  As our country struggles to stay united, what can we do as a church community to show love for each other and the world?

          The lectionary right now has us reading Pauls’ letter to the church in Corinth and today’s passage is his most famous, the treatise on love.  We hear this at almost every wedding and for good reason.  All of us should aspire to the traits that Paul asks of us.  Patience, kindness, humility, compromise, fidelity; these are the virtues of a good marriage.  They are also the things that make the church family work.

          Remember that Paul isn’t writing this treatise to couples on the verge of a life change.  Instead, Paul is writing to a church in conflict.  Last week we read about the body of Christ, and we realized that we need to embrace diversity and change as we live life together in the church community.  Now, Paul asks us to embrace the traits of love. 

          Paul reminds his readers that it doesn’t matter how gifted they are in the spirit, how prophetic they are or how good at preaching.  It doesn’t matter how much faith they have, or even how much money they put in the offering plate.  If we do these things for our own edification, they amount to nothing.  But if we do these things in service to others, then they are worthy for then they are done in love. 

          Paul is telling us that some things are more important than being right.  Being community together is more important than being right about law or doctrine.  Those things will come to an end, and many of them have, but love never ends.  Spiritual gifts, they end.  Great wisdom and interpretation of the scriptures, that will be replaced.  Speaking truth to power, that too will pass.  Earning your doctorate in theology, that will end.  The only thing we have that doesn’t end is love.  And so love, agape love of self-sacrifice and sharing, should be our primary goal.

          My friends, all around us the world is telling us that love is not the goal.  No matter which side of the political spectrum we are on, we are being encouraged to judge and look down upon the other side.  My friends, I remind you, that there are Trump voters, Harris voters, and non-voters sitting in the pews with you today.  You are not as homogenous as you might imagine.  And as the country begins to argue louder and louder, those arguments are seeping into our worship community.  Paul would remind us that this is not the way for the body of Christ.

          What I have noticed in our world this week is a great deal of contempt, and contempt is very dangerous.  I have been reading “An Atlas of the Heart” by Brene Brown, and just this week the emotion I was reading about was contempt.  In her book she quotes from a 2019 New York Times opinion piece by Arthur Brooks and I want to share that with you.  He writes:

“Political scientists have found that our nation is more polarized than it has been at any time since the Civil War.  One in six Americans has stopped talking to a family member or close friend because of the 2016 election.  Millions of people organize their social lives and their news exposure along ideological lines to avoid people with opposing viewpoints.  What’s our problem?”

“A 2014 article in The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences in “Motive attribution asymmetry” – the assumption that your ideology is based in love, while your opponent’s is based in hate – suggests an answer.  The researchers found that the average Republican and the average Democrat today suffer from a level of moral attribution asymmetry that is comparable with that of Palestinians and Israelis.  Each side thinks it is driven by benevolence, while the other is evil and motivated by hatred – and is therefore an enemy with whom one cannot negotiate or compromise.”

“People often say that our problem in America today is incivility or intolerance.  This is incorrect.  Motive attribution asymmetry leads to something far worse: contempt, which is a noxious brew of anger and disgust.  And not just contempt for other people’s ideas, but also for other people.  In the words of the philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer, contempt is “the unsullied conviction of the worthlessness of another.””

My friends, contempt is what I see on Facebook, in small group discussions, in the news, and out in our world.  And contempt will be the death of us.  My challenge for us this month is to move from contempt to compassion.

If you’ve been around me lately you have heard me preach this idea of “what is mine to do.”  We can’t change what’s happening in Washington right now, or anywhere else really.  What is mine to do?  Change my heart.  It is time for us to remember that as people of God we are called to love one another, and to honor each life on this planet with compassion.

Why?  That’s where our reading from Jeremiah comes in.  “Before you were formed in the womb, I knew you.”  God created each and every living being on this earth, and we are all equal in the eyes of God.  Everyone is special, everyone is loved by God, and everyone deserves dignity.  This is what our faith teaches us.  The true reason someone disagrees with you is because of how their life has been formed and lived.  God created you, you had your life trajectory, and so you have developed opinions based on your experiences.  Your neighbor too, is created by God, and their life trajectory has led them to the opposite opinion.  We need to accept that and move on.  We need to recognize that no one is better, or worse, and that everyone is worthy of compassion.

All of this is confusing and hard.  Paul reminds us that we see only in part.  But as a community of believers, we know what we see.  The law will pass, the prophets will pass, the church may even pass away.  But love . . . love never ends.  Love is our highest goal, our call as followers of Christ, and love is how we should interpret all things in our world.

This whole month we will focus on this one idea.  Love.  How do we live love in such a divided time and place?  I am confident that together we can move from contempt to compassion.  What is mine to do?  Live love.  Amen.