Please read the two portions of Scripture below

From chapter 13 of 1 Corinthians

If I speak in the tongues of mortals and of angels, but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give away all my possessions, and if I hand over my body so that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.

Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends. But as for prophecies, they will come to an end; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will come to an end. For we know only in part, and we prophesy only in part; but when the complete comes, the partial will come to an end. When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child; when I became an adult, I put an end to childish ways. For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then we will see face to face. Now I know only in part; then I will know fully, even as I have been fully known. And now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; and the greatest of these is love.

And from the 4^th chapter of Luke’s Gospel

In the synagogue at Nazareth, Jesus read from the book of the prophet Isaiah, and began to say, "Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing." All spoke well of him and were amazed at the gracious words that came from his mouth. They said, "Is not this Joseph's son?" He said to them, "Doubtless you will quote to me this proverb, 'Doctor, cure yourself!' And you will say, 'Do here also in your hometown the things that we have heard you did at Capernaum.'" And he said, "Truly I tell you, no prophet is accepted in the prophet's hometown. But the truth is, there were many widows in Israel in the time of Elijah, when the heaven was shut up three years and six months, and there was a severe famine over all the land; yet Elijah was sent to none of them except to a widow at Zarephath in Sidon. There were also many lepers in Israel in the time of the prophet Elisha, and none of them was cleansed except Naaman the Syrian." When they heard this, all in the synagogue were filled with rage. They got up, drove him out of the town, and led him to the brow of the hill on which their town was built, so that they might hurl him off the cliff. But he passed through the midst of them and went on his way.

Last week my sermon was titled “smelly feet”! And it had 3 parts: the parts were: a premise – a problem – and a solution – they were connected thoughts.

FIRST THE PREMISE

1. We know we are supposed to tell people about Jesus – we studied last week the part of Matthew’s Gospel where Jesus says go and make and teach and baptize…
2. We reflected that when we hear this order “Go” we might get a military model in our head, that isn’t how Jesus did it – Jesus drew people to himself.
3. Therefore we need to draw people to US – to the church – a community of genuine love and concern for each other.
1. A love that isn’t natural love – its super natural.
4. So the premise is if we have this super natural love of Jesus people will be drawn – and we will be living the Great Commission.

THERE’S A PROBLEM THOUGH

1. What if someone has smelly feet?  In other words what if we really don’t like some of the other people here?
2. Or said differently, for people to be drawn to us, the church, to have this “super natural love” do we have to be “super wonderful people” who have a “super wonderful church”.
3. The problem is what do we do when we have trouble with one another?

THE SOLUTION

1. The solution is to recognize that super natural love is not the same as us all being best buddies.
2. 1 Corinthians 12 tried to explain it – it tried to explain that we need to recognize that we are different parts of one body – and some of the parts are “less honorable” – and even though they are less honorable, we love and respect them.
3. 1 Corinthians 12 went on in great detail using the human body as an analogy pointing out that while we may struggle with some of our “parts” – the reality is we need each other – to be connected to Jesus is to be a part of His Body the Church and we need each other.
4. So the solution is to see ourselves as needing each other, even when we might not think we do.  The solution is to realize we are part of something larger.

Interestingly God’s Word doesn’t just stop there – after this rather long analogy to our bodies God’s Word presses on and we read:

 And now I will show you the most excellent way. 1 Cor 12:31 (NIV)

The “most excellent way” for what – the most excellent way for being the church – more excellent than saying, “Well I don’t like “so and so” very much, but I guess I have to “appreciate” them as part of our one body.”

WHICH BRINGS US TO THIS WEEK – THAT MOST EXCELLENT WAY!

Let me start with a story:

One day my bosses boss said one day, “Collum, it must be nice to an angry young man – it’s a good thing you’re right – God help you the day your wrong”.

You see I was a guy focused on “the right answer”, (this is kind of a good thing if you’re involved in nuclear power plants).

But while I was focused on “the right answer”, I really didn’t care about how I proved I was right – I was kind of “an angry young man”.

¹ If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. 1 Cor 13:1 (NIV)

I was a clanging gong.

Why was I a clanging gong? Because I didn’t care about the people – I just cared, and I cared a lot, about being right!

How about us in the church, Paul is writing to a church, this is not a wedding reading – it’s for us!

We can get focused on “the right answer” in church can’t we?

We can get focused on “what is the right way” to do something, or we can get focused on “what does this situation require”, or we can get focused on “s/he did such and such and that wasn’t right”.

So what should we do?

Let’s think about Jesus:

Jesus kept bumping into people, people called Pharisees and Scribes; they were always asking Him, “What’s the right way to do this”, or “The Law requires thus and such, is that right?” or “Look at what s/he did and it wasn’t right”.

In fact today in the Gospel they are at first “amazed” by Him, but then they get angry and try and throw Him off a cliff.

Yet Jesus never ignored the Law – He never ignored what was right – in fact He said that He came to fulfill the Law:

But He always looked “higher” than it.

Jesus always showed Love – and this love would turn the whole situation around – His Love inspired people to fulfill the law and do more.

So what is the point this week – if we want to draw people to the church it isn’t enough to tolerate one another and it isn’t enough to be “right”.

There are lots of churches that think “they’re right”, and as soon as somebody disagrees they split.

When I say “churches that think they’re right” I’m not just talking about church teaching, I’m talking about our relationships.

It also isn’t about ignoring what is right – Jesus didn’t – and in the reading from 1 Corinthians God’s Word doesn’t say ignore “right-ness”.

But we must have love with our “right-ness”.

So we want to be a church:

• Where people are drawn in, drawn in because of the love of Jesus.
• Where people are drawn in, drawn in because the see the “right-ness”, the “truth” of God AND they see LOVE.
• Where people aren’t living in some fantasy land about how we are all “super-wonderful”, but we are real, we pray for each other, we bear with each other.

And the key is LOVE. 

• Loving people takes place when we stop trying to twist them into distorted images of ourselves and accept them for who they are.
• Realizing that we may never be their best buddies, but that we truly care for them.

This week I have a suggestion, are you struggling with someone, a fellow brother and sister in Christ?

Let me suggest you pray that God fills you with love for them.

We are going to continue this theme for another week, and next week look at how God can continue to help us as a church grow.

Let’s pray.