Without Love

“ Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal. And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing. And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing. ”

Imagine a world without love. That may be hard, but you've seen bad movies—like No Country for Old Men , or stark worlds in amime , rock videos with a version of a simply predatory world, a depressing spy story, a book of avant-garde poetry. It's so trendy to be loveless, or it used to be. Modern, efficient, utilitarian, socialistic, serving the collective, the Borg of Star Trek , the human hive, a mechanized society of automatons. It doesn't have to be science fiction-like; it might be a Western or Film Noir, nihilistic or existential. A world without love is everyone in black turtlenecks and shaved heads, unisex, sterile, perfect: dead.

Two songs from the 60s and 70s keep playing in my head. Peter and Gordon had a hit of the song by Lennon and McCartney: “Please lock me away And don't allow the day Here inside where I hide With my loneliness I don't care what they say I won't stay In a world without love…” The Doobie Brothers had another hit that ended, “Well the pistons keep on churnin And the wheels go round and round And the steel rails are cold and hard For the miles that they go down Without love Where would you be right now Without love Where would you be now?”

Without love, where would we be now? T. S. Elliott writes in modern, but Christ-inspired poetry: “Who then devised the torment? Love. Love is the unfamiliar Name Behind the hands that wove The intolerable shirt of flame Which human power cannot remove. We only live, only suspire Consumed by either fire or fire.” Love is torment, passion, or painful longing. It would be less painful if we did live in a world without love. We would die like bugs, without knowing, without caring, without feeling.

The great cause is love , for God so loved the world. The great commandment is love , Love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and soul and mind. For love God made us, and redeemed us, and led us to Himself. God is love . He inspires passion in us, puts it in our breast, fans the flame and places the object of our desire before us. He is really quite without shame in this, as Love is His greatest purpose. He wants us to dive in, get involved, make a mess, get hurt sometimes, but in the end, we will know that we've lived. Without love, life means nothing, and the existentialists can laugh at us for a change.

Last Sunday night, very late, Deacon Faith joined a dozen or more college students in this sanctuary for prayer to set in motion 5 days of 24-hour prayer over their campus, fellow students, instructors, the city and this church. They met God here in His House and they were profoundly moved. He and, periodically, Cassie met with them for consultation, prayer, communion, or just sitting in the Presence. If Love ever had a face, it was in those young people. Friday night, the Deacon and I gathered them up one last time and they decided they would wash our feet and pray over us. When we'd received that service, we did the same for them, then just sat here and talked about what they'd experienced. They had a new appreciation for what our church means to the greater church at large, who we are and the value of our traditions. I explained how our piece of the Body of Christ, this Anglican worship and theology, though a small part of the Greater Body, was almost lost, so like a small piece in a jigsaw puzzle that is missing, finding it becomes the most important thing, crawling under the table, looking behind the couch, in your shoes. They understood. We ushered them around the base of the altar and had communion until midnight. They didn't want to leave.

Last night in Augie's a beyond-capacity crowd gathered, standing room only, to hear two musical acts, drink lattes, eat cheesecake, love our coffeehouse. In the steamy room as rain lashed the streets outside, love was expressed again in another venue, and the two acts were Christian songwriters, one a young local man with dreadlocks, named Kyle. The talent was great, the passion of the music in evidence, great love, shared and reflected from an appreciative crowd.

What are these young people telling us? One young man said, “We are the fatherless generation. You are being fathers to us, teaching and loving us, giving us a father's love.” I have great hope for our world when I see the love in these students. We're going to be okay, I think.

Jesus gathered His young apostles around Him that night and said to them , “My dear children, I am only to be with you a little longer… I give you a new law: Have love one for another; even as I have had love for you, so are you to have love one for another. By this it will be clear to all men that you are my disciples, if you have love one for another.” John 13:33-35 The only way anyone can authenticate God for another is through love.

St. Paul said it too: “If I can speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but am without Love, I have but become a loud-sounding trumpet or a clanging cymbal. If I possess the gift of prophecy and am versed in all mysteries and all knowledge, and have such absolute faith that I can remove mountains, but am without Love, I am nothing. And if I distribute all my possessions to the poor, and give up my body to be burned, but am without Love, it profits me nothing.” 1 Cor 13:1-3 It's read at weddings and I'm not sure anyone hears. Without love, nothing means a thing. It wouldn't matter. We might build the tallest building, win a war, cure cancer, go to another planet, start a religion and do great miracles—have the whole world follow us and pour money on us, enslaved to this beautiful destiny we promise, and if love were not the cause, the object we serve, the manner in which we accomplish it all: none of it would last, no part of it would be worthy.

For Jesus meant those words. The world will know we are His disciples only if they see we have love for one another. Conversely, if we do everything well, have the best music, the largest most beautiful church, thousands packing our pews, and I even had hair—in the end, if we failed the love test, no part of it would matter in the least. And the world outside looking in would simply shake its head and say, “Nope. It's not here. If there is a God, they don't know Him.” The love authenticates us as God's people. A world without love is a world without God.

Three million Israelites raised the dust of a desert called Sin, just released from slavery in Egypt. Moses, their unlikely leader, brought commandments from this God of theirs and along with the many new laws was one for a young mother to bring her baby and herself to the Holy of Holies to make a sacrifice. The first-born son was to be redeemed by sacrifice, for the sons of Israel were saved from death by the blood of a lamb, at the last plague that struck the Egyptians. The mother was also to offer prayers to end of her time of purification after the pains of childbirth. It was commanded. 14 centuries later, a young mother came with her husband and 40-day-old baby boy into the Temple that Herod had rebuilt in order to fulfill that Law.

An old man stood agape, wondering— could this be? Was this the One? It was! The Holy Spirit had told him that assuredly he would not die until first he had seen the long-awaited Messiah. He knew that the Son of God must come into the Temple, so Simeon stayed night and day now, waiting and watching and praying for the One to enter, so that his aged eyes might just see Him and his hopes be rewarded at last. Love does such things. He loved Israel, he loved God, he loved the promises, he loved the things God loved and wanted what God wanted. So when it was fulfilled, he could say to God, “Lord, now I may depart in peace, as you have said, for my eyes have beheld your salvation prepared here before all people: a light for the Gentiles to see by and glory to Israel, your own people.”

What made that old man stay there, watching? Love . What brought the young family to God's Temple for sacrifice, even as a hardship? Love . What drove two dozen college students to spend the first five days and nights of their semester in our church, praying for God to visit Chico and change the lives of their friends? Love . What attracted a full house of young folks again through a rainstorm to hear a friend play his music? What put light in your eyes when you found the person you knew you'd love for a lifetime? What put the sun and the moon and the stars in the sky? What brought Jesus into this world? What gives us the power to live yet another day? What causes people to volunteer for police work, nursing, teaching, parenting, building, or leading the world? What brought you here today? You tell me.

Without love, the very fabric of the world loses its vitality, comes loose, tears and shreds and falls to ruin. Without love, we speak words without understanding, read books without comprehension, drive north or south or west, but with nowhere to go. Without love, where would you be now? I won't stay in a world without love.

Jesus told the twelve, “Behold, we go up to Jerusalem, and all things that are written by the prophets concerning the Son of man shall be accomplished. For he shall be delivered unto the Gentiles, and shall be mocked, and spitefully entreated, and spitted on: and they shall scourge him, and put him to death: and the third day he shall rise again.” They didn't understand a word He said. We may only understand Christ through love. My wife watched The Passion of the Christ in a movie house and, after seeing the brutal beating, the whiplashes and nails, she said, “I couldn't stop thinking, this is how much He loves me, and I was so grateful.” Love makes sense of the sacrifices we make, translates this foreign language into comprehensibility. Love, four letters that mean what life is for. God is love . Without love… without love… nothing. With love, when we love, as much as we can love, all things become alive, have meaning, find their reason, and give life again and again. With love, for love, by love, in love. Be in love. Be love.

PFH+