Instruments of Love.
Pastor: Let us pray to our kind & merciful God that his love for us may animate all we do and that our love may become contagious.
All: Lord, make us instruments of your love.
Pastor: May we never forget that love of God and neighbor is the heart of the Gospel and that people are God's gift to us
All: Lord, make us instruments of your love.
Pastor: May we not lose our hearts in our times of systems, politics and fear, but that we may make room for human relationships of friendship and respect.
All: Lord, make us instruments of your love.
Pastor: May we have and make room in our hearts & homes for refugees and strangers, vulnerable and forgotten, that we may learn to share our blessings & wealth with our neighbors in need.
Lord, make us instruments of your love.
Pastor: Give us strength and courage to heal what is broken and mend what is divided. May we always uplift one another rather than tear down, accept each other with trust and affection, with hope for a better and more loving tomorrow.
All: Lord, make us instruments of your love.
"Believing in the power of love."
There's nothing like a good love story. There are so many amazing love stories told in novels and short stories, shown in movies or theater – or told and shown in our own private lives. In the world of fantasy and storytelling, as well as in our own reality, we are again and again strengthened in the truth that the Greatest of All is love.
A love that can give impossible and unimageable strength to withstand suffering and adversity: a love that can overcome separation and the ravages of time, and a love that can provide fertile ground for hope and faith where everything seemed hopeless.
"But greatest of all is love..." Paul wrote in 1. Corinthians chapter 13. Paul begins his beautiful hymn of praise to the power of love with these poetic words:
" Even if I speak with the tongues of men and angels, but have no love, I am a resounding brass and a tinkling bell.
Even if I have the gift of prophecy, and know all secrets, and possess all knowledge, and have all faith, so that I can move mountains, but have no love, I am nothing.
If I then distribute all that I possess and give my body to be burned, but have no love, it avails me nothing.
Love is patient, love is gentle, it does not envy, love does not boast, does not pretend anything. It does nothing immodest, does not seek its own, does not get excited, does not hold grudges. It does not take pleasure in injustice, but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
And then Paul ends the most beautiful hymn of praise with the words: Then faith, hope and love become these three. But the greatest of them is love.
Faith, hope and love are central parts of Christianity, but they are also quantities that cannot be measured, weighed or proven.
Faith, hope and love are these three powerful phenomena. Invisible, floating, divine and human at the same time, fleeting moments and yet eternal.
And yet, in the most beautiful song of praise of love, Paul writes that even though they all have an incredible lasting value, present effect and deep meaning here in our time and place, and even extend all the way into eternity, it is love that is strongest and greatest. Not faith and hope, but love.
Not even faith! It may seem strange that Christianity does not maintain faith as the greatest and most important thing. But love is valued most highly to such an extent that it deprives the first two of their real value, if they are not coloured by, carried by and recreated by love.
It may seem strange in a Lutheran church, where we preach with Luther that we are saved by faith alone. But faith without love is, as Grundtvig writes, like light without heat, like the agony of hell. For if faith is not borne of love, it can become both self-righteous and harsh, even dangerous and abused, as we have unfortunately seen numerous examples of throughout history and in our time.
Grundtvig wrote about the power of love in the poem New Year's Morning, how late at night he hears some words thundering in the darkness around him:
And you could have faith
For mountains to move
It is of no use,
When the heart is rock hard and cold.
So, love is the heart of faith and hope. Love is the heart soil of faith and hope. Love is the greatest.
Paul's beautiful praise to love is often read at weddings, as was the case last Sunday here in the church. But it is not just a sweet wedding read, it is a profound life read.
This beautiful praise of the beautiful human love in the light of the divine love. Because we know that love is the greatest, but there are so many other forces at play in our earthly love: jealousy, loss, finances, families with small children, buying a house, infidelity, quarrels, washing dishes and mortgages, nocturnal snoring, gray hair, etc.
The Danish poet and songwriter Anne Linnet has written about love throughout her sing. This week at Copenhagen City Hall, she was honored in Denmark by King Frederik. She received the Craftsmen's Association's honorary award for her skill and perseverance as a musician and songwriter. With beautiful songs such as "Barndommens gade." , "Tusind stykker" and "Forårsdag", which Mette will sing for us today, Anne Linnet has left her mark on the Danish music scene. Anne Linnet has written a beautiful song inspired by Paul's first letter to the Corinthians chapter 13. "Greatest of all is love." it's called.
I know all the secrets of the world
Sees more than meets the eye
Then I'm still no one
If you're not here
Nothing can exist and grow
Do I own all the diamonds in the world
But I haven't you
Then it doesn't benefit me anything
Knowing I'm me
In emptiness there are not two
Greatest of all is love
It can withstand everything and lasts
And death itself has to live with
That greatest of all is love.
Even though we often don't use the big words as Anne Linnet sings, we do know that love stays in our hearts, gives us strength and courage, sends us into life and out into the world.
This week I have been to a Festival. Not music festival, but sermon festival. It sounds like something only pastors can find funny....
But it has been absolutely fantastic to be able to sit virtually and listen to one amazing sermon after another. A well of diverse and different voices with a soft warm flow or a sharper tone that cut to the bone of the faith.
Two sermons stood out to me: first, the most beautiful sermon by Adam Boesack, a South African priest and professor who throughout his life has worked against apartheid, segregation, racism and for humanity, reconciliation, inclusiveness and love. He did know a lot about the courage to love in a unloving world.
His sermon "In need of a healing moment" was filled with love, strength and hope. Despite all the powers that fill our time with fear, mistrust, misinformation and deception, love is the greatest of all, and it calls us to act with honesty, dignity and courage.
But the sermon that probably stood out the strongest was "A new day, a renewed hope and a promised future," delivered with strength by Olu Brown.
His mantra throughout the sermon was: Lead with love. Because greatest of all is love. And that is the greatest commandment we are given: that we should love one another, as Jesus says in today's gospel. That all the commandments rest on the commandment to love God with all one's heart, soul, strength, and mind, and to love one's neighbor as oneself. And the simple message of love is gathered in the golden rule that says we should treat others as we want to be treated.... Lead with love. The greatest is love. Let love have not only the last word, but also the first, the second, the third.
“What has love got to do with it?” Tina Turner sang. Love has everything to do with it, we reply.
In love, we can find a new day, a renewed hope, and a promise of a future. In love, we can find the healing moment that our time needs.
Faith without love is like light without warmth.
Faith as an agenda, a confession, a displayed gold cross around one's neck, is emptiness, yes resounding brass and bells, as Paul writes, if love does not bear.
If faith is not carried by love or carries love with it, it is self-righteous and harsh.
Hope is to dare to bring the future into the present. Hope is to make plans, have visions many times in spite of it. Hope is not to give up, but to keep hoping. But if hope is not kept alive by love, then hope is hollow.
God's love is fundamental to a person's life. Unconditionally and graciously. To be deeply loved by God, to be seen, heard, blessed, gives us strength. And that love gives us courage.
A wonderful, colorful, embracing love that does not divide or separate as we do in gender, age, sexuality or race. But only sees the human being. In all our diversity and in all our humanity.
The Grundtvig motto, which is also the motto of our church, says it clearly and precisely: Human first then Christian. We meet in humanity. We meet as people and from there begins the conversation, trust, care, meeting and love.
The core of Christianity is love – to dare to believe in the power of love. Not as a blue-eyed naivety or flower power dance, but as hard work, great courage and bold actions.
Only through love can we find the way to truth, humanity, dignity and trust. Only through love do we find God.
And you would have faith
For mountains to move
It is of no use,
When the heart is rock hard and cold.