Love is all there is I Corinthians 13: 1-13 January 28, 2007

This morning, as you know, in just a few minutes, we will conclude our time of worship and adjourn to Hahle hall for the annual meeting of Church Council. With that in mind, what I’d like to do, now, is to set the stage for that important meeting by introducing you to one of the great quotes of all time.

Before we get to the quote, though, let me give you some background on the man who gave it to us.

Pierre Teilhard de Chardin was a Jesuit priest-theologian and a distinguished scientist, who was born in France in 1881 and died in New York City in 1955.

He wrote about science, basing his ideas on the principles of geological and biological evolution. He also wrote about theology, relating these evolutionary cosmic concepts to traditional Christian creedal theology.

Clearly, Teilhard was a brilliant man. His ideas were bold and innovative.

He saw no conflict between his deep Christian faith and science. In fact, he studied and wrote about combining faith and physics, Jesus and geology, Christ and creation.

In his scientific studies, Teilhard became a symbol of the synthesis of science and religion. He believed that these two powerful forces did not contradict each other; for him, it was perfectly reasonable to be a Jesuit and a paleontologist at the same time.

He was a remarkable man in other ways as well. During World War I in France, Teilhard served in the military as a stretcher carrier. For his service in that war, he was awarded the famous French medal, the Legion of Honour.

The Roman Catholic Church could not embrace the thoughts of this brilliant thinker, because of his beliefs in evolution, and he was assigned (one might even say banished) to a remote place in China where he worked as a paleontologist for twenty years and participated in the discovery of one of the great geological finds of all time.

Why, you may be wondering, am I talking about Teilhard de Chardin this morning? Because, more than anything else he accomplished, he is the author of the famous quotation I mentioned a moment ago. It’s a quotation that has been etched into human history. I memorized it as a young man, and It has become something of motto of life and faith for me. Kind of like a watchword for life.

If you turn to the last page of the blue insert in your bulletin you’ll find the quote.

I think those words are worth putting into your deepest memory bank. Let’s all read the quotation together:

“Some day, after we have mastered the wind, the waves, the tides, and gravity, we shall harness for God the energies of Love. Then, for the second time in the history of the world, we will have discovered fire.”

What Teilhard is saying, in this wonderful quote, is that love is so powerful it is:

More powerful than the winds, (think for a moment of how powerful the wind can be)
More powerful than waves, (think of the awesome power of the ocean)
More powerful than tides, (picture in your mind the devastating power of a tsunami)
More powerful than gravity,
More powerful than the tornadoes
More powerful than earthquakes
More powerful than lightning
More powerful, even, than nuclear energy.

More powerful than all of these is harnessing the the powers of love.

Teilhard had that vision: to harness the energies of love is to harness a power greater than all the forces of nature. He said: And when we harness for God the energies of love, for a second time in the history of the world, we will have discovered fire.

As a paleontologist, Teilhard knew how important the discovery of fire was to the development of humankind. Harnessing the power of fire helped transform humans from animals standing upright to civilized people. What he is saying, then, is that if we could only harness the power of love, for the second time in the history of the world we will have power in our hands that is sufficient to change everything.

Our epistle lesson for this morning, I Corinthians chapter 13, is certainly the best known love passage in the Bible. It’s a passage that is read at almost every wedding. I’m sure you have heard it dozens of times. Like the quote from Teilhard, it reminds us of the significance of love.

I love the last verse of the passage. “And now faith, hope and love abide, these three; and the greatest of these is love.”

It is hard to think of a word that has been used more often than love. We talk about it in all sorts of ways.

We speak of "falling in love" as if it were a hole – or even worse, a trap. Sometimes we use the same word when talking about a favorite food that we use about a special person.

I love my wife, and I love pizza with anchovies.

I love my neighbor, and I love movies with happy endings.

I love God, and I love the music of Beethoven.

How do we get our arms around this word love? How do we grasp the meaning Paul was trying to convey in his wonderful love poem?

Noted preacher Julie Pennington-Russell talks about a friend of hers who was trying to learn to be a wood carver. He was working with an expert, and one day they were carving a little dog. The beginner, all frustrated, asked, "How do you do this? What's the secret of carving?"

The accomplished carver looked at him thoughtfully for a moment and said, "That's easy. You pick up a piece of wood and just cut off everything that doesn't look like a dog."

Pennington-Russell then suggests that we take this approach to Paul’s great love passage. That we listen in order to understand what needs to be cut away from us in order to allow genuine love to take root.

Love is not envious, says Paul. Nor is it boastful or arrogant. Love doesn’t care if others are going to be impressed by me or are going to think well of me.

And neither is love rude, which is to say it's not intent upon saying or doing anything that in any way diminishes someone else.

And then love doesn't insist on its own way, isn't always "me first." Love doesn't elbow its way to the head of the line.

Nor is love easily provoked; real love doesn't fly off the handle.

And love isn't resentful; doesn't keep score.

Finally, Paul says, love doesn't rejoice in wrongdoing; that is, it never celebrates the downfall of other people.

This, says Paul, are the things that love is not. Cut away all of those things and what you have left is love.

Then what about the things love is?

Paul says love is patient; it never gives up. And love is kind. Love takes pleasure in what's right and true. Love bears all things; puts up with anything and believes all things; trusts God always. Love hopes all things; always looks for the best. And love endures all things; it keeps going till the end.

To love like this is a pretty tall order. My guess is if we think about it and are honest with ourselves, we would agree that there is not one of us here who loves this way all the time.

But here is the good news. There is someone who did love like this—who does love like this—in fact, whose very nature, whose very being, is pure love.

You see, if you take Christianity and, like the woodcarver, whittle away all of the excess baggage—you find that one thing remains. What remains is not a doctrine, not a set of rules, not a creed, not a confession. When you whittle our Christian faith down to its essence, what remains is absolute, unambiguous, undiluted love. The love of God in Christ.

So, returning to our quote from Teilhard…

For each of us personally to harness the energies of love,

For the nations of this earth to harness the energies of love,

For this congregation to harness the energies of love,

We need to focus on the one who loved us more than anything and gave his life to prove the depth of that love.

Then we will find the new kind of power that Teilhard was talking about.

Are these words of Teilhard just wishful thinking? Bravado talk? Unrealistic rhetoric? Idealistic, unrealistic philosophy? Or could it be that his words and vision are true?

The winds, the waves, the tides, and gravity are powerful. But not as powerful as harnessing the energies of the force of love. I am not sure we really believe that, but the clear message from Paul – and from Teilhard – is that the key to life for our congregation is to harness the energies of love among us.

And when we as individuals, and as a congregation, harness the energies of love for God, we will discover fire for the second time…and power like we have never witnessed before.

So, as we conclude our worship this morning and reconvene again in Hahle hall for Church Council, let us keep the quotation from Teilhard in the front of our mind – and let’s go ahead and discover fire together. AMEN