"All You Need Is Love" - I Cor. 13:1-13 - January 28, 2001

The Beatles had many great hits during the 60’s and one of my favorites is the one with the words, "All you need is love." Wouldn’t it be great if everyone took that seriously. Think about it. If everyone loved everyone else we wouldn’t need a military. No one would have debts. There wouldn’t be any prisons. We could eliminate law enforcement. There wouldn’t be any controversy over the next attorney general because we wouldn’t need one.

Unfortunately, that is not the case. You see, the problem is that although we may take love seriously, others do not. No matter how many times we turn the other cheek someone is going to hurt us or take advantage of us. So what’s the use in loving others all the time if it really won’t make a difference?

It must be realized that Paul was not talking to the world. This was not a global message on CNN to all the nations. This was a specific message to the Church at Corinth. Paul was speaking to people of the faith. They were divided. They were envious of one another. Some thought they were better than others. They were always comparing people, putting down those who were not important and arguing with those who had a different opinion. If Paul was going to make a difference in the world he had to start with the Church. They were to be a model of God’s love, embodying peace and hope in a world of chaos and despair.

Since Paul’s message was to the Church in his day it is to be a message to the Church in our day. We can’t make excuses. The world we live in does not always love but that doesn’t mean we can hold our love back, or give our love only when it is convenient. It is not a conditional love that Paul speaks about. It is a love that is unconditional. So Paul is speaking to us. The world may not live by love or ascribe to the dynamics of love that are outlined in this the "love" chapter of I Corinthians. We, however are given the challenge to be persons who love.

There are times, however when it seems impossible. How can I care about everyone I encounter? There are simply not enough hours in the day. Besides, its emotionally and physically draining, not to mention expensive. To love as Paul asks us to love seems overwhelming. So does he really expect us to give and give and give, all the love we can, without having a life?

This week was very busy for me. There was a lot of death and dying. I visited, I counseled, I comforted, I prayed, I taught, etc. Friday I had a meeting in Columbus. "Good," I thought. Now I can at least get a break from pastoral care and talk about church growth. During one of our breaks I asked one of the committee members how the holidays were for her. That was a mistake. She proceeded to tell me about the death of her mother and that she and her husband had been going back and forth to Florida. I was drained but somehow found the strength to listen. I must admit though, there are times when the love I can give reaches its limits.

This may sound like a cop out but Paul was speaking to an arrogant church. There were folks in the Church at Corinth who actually believed they were better than others. They had ascended to a faith that was smug and pious. Paul was speaking to a church that flaunted its gifts and sought praise and admiration for the works of their faith. They were "boasting" of their goodness rather than practice humility. What they needed was some very basic understandings of the way love should work. Those understandings of love were kindness and patience.

The love that Paul describes is subtle. It takes place behind the scenes. It happens without fanfare or "noise." The following story illustrates this in a profound way.

Michael rises every morning at 4 A.M., in good and bad weather, workday or holiday, and walks into his kitchen. In it are the fixings of his famous sandwiches, famous at least to those who desperately need them to stave off hunger for the day. By 5:50 A.M., he's making the rounds of the makeshift homeless shelters on Centre and Lafayette Streets, near New York's City Hall. In a short time, he gives out 200 sandwiches to as many homeless people as he can, before beginning his work day in the New York City courthouse.

It started 20 years ago with a cup of coffee and a roll for a homeless man named John. Day after day, Michael brought John sandwiches, tea, clothes, and when it was really cold, a resting place in his car while he worked. In the beginning, Michael just wanted to do a good deed. But one day a voice in his head compelled him to do more. On this cold, winter morning, he asked John if he would like to get cleaned up. It was an empty offer, because Michael was sure John would refuse. Unexpectedly, John said, "Are you gonna wash me?"
Michael heard an inner voice say, "Put your money where your mouth is." Looking at this poor man, covered in ragged and smelly clothes, unkempt, hairy and wild-looking, Michael was afraid. But he also knew that he was looking at a big test of his commitment. So he helped John upstairs to the locker room of the courthouse to begin the work.

John's body was a mass of cuts and sores, the result of years of pain and neglect. His right hand had been amputated, and Michael pushed through his own fears and revulsion. He helped John wash, cut his hair, shaved him and shared breakfast with him. "It was at that moment," Michael remembers, "that I knew I had a calling, and I believed that I had it within me to do anything. There are days when it's snowing, and I have a hard time leaving my warm bed and the comfort of my family to go downtown with sandwiches. But then that voice in me starts chattering, and I get to it."

And get to it he does. Michael has made 200 sandwiches every day for the past 20 years. "When I give out sandwiches," Michael explains, "I don't simply lay them on a table for folks to pick up. I look everyone in the eye, shake their hands, and I offer them my wishes for a good and hopeful day. Each person is important to me. I don't see them as 'the homeless', but as people who need food, an encouraging smile and some positive human contact."

"Once Mayor Koch turned up to make the rounds with me. He didn't invite the media, it was just us," says Michael. But of all Michael's memories, working side by side with the Mayor was not as important as working next to someone else. A man had disappeared from the ranks of the sandwich takers, and Michael thought about him from time to time. He hoped the man had moved on to more comfortable conditions.

One day, the man showed up, transformed, greeting Michael clean, warmly clothed, shaven and carrying sandwiches of his own to hand out. Michael's daffy dose of fresh food, warm handshakes, eye contact and well wishes had given this man the hope and encouragement he so desperately needed. Being seen every day as a person, not as a category, had turned this man's life around. The moment needed no dialogue. The two men worked silently, side by side, handing out their sandwiches. It was another day on the streets of New York, but a day with just a little more hope. ("The Sandwich Man," from A Fourth Course of Chicken Soup for the Soul)

I believe the most difficult dynamic of love is patience. We want instant results from our efforts. Or, we like to see tangible rewards when we give our love. To be loving is like planting seeds in a garden. They have to me fertilized, watered and cultivated. It takes time. As it says in the scripture, "One sows, another reaps."

But, we are not patient people. We live in a society that believes in instant gratification. We want everything now. We don’t want to wait. That makes it difficult to be the church. People want to see immediate results. They want tangible evidence of the fruit of their labor. To patiently work for things like justice, peace takes years of faith and love. What Michael did was subtle. And in the long run, his loving kindness produced a reward. Small perhaps, but then, unlike the Church at Corinth, we don’t keep records.

Perhaps you didn’t care for the Beatles. Their music, however is still being distributed. Some of their songs are now over 40 years old. Recently a new CD was produced that has 27 of their number one hits. Songs like, "All you need is love" are still being heard. Paul’s "love" chapter has been around for centuries. His mini sermon on the dynamics of God’s unconditional love will undoubtedly be with us forever.

"Love is patient, love is kind....and love never ends."

Dr. Keith Wagner, St. Paul’s United Church of Christ, Sidney, Ohio