I’d like to think about the reading we heard today from Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians. (1 Cor 13) Most of us have heard it at weddings. It is read at weddings because it says a lot about love, and we apply it to the couple standing up there at the front of the church – we hope they are going to be patient with each other, and kind, we hope they will not be envious or irritable, instead we want their relationship to be truthful and enduring.

But St Paul did not write this letter to a wedding couple, he wrote it to a church and community that was tearing itself apart. The church in Corinth was divided and quarrelsome. People argued about almost everything to do with faith. There were some born again Christians who insisted that you had to speak in tongues. Some groups had lawsuits against other groups. Other people again argued about who was the real leader of the church. Paul was being very angry with them all – just take a careful look at yourselves, he might have said, do you really love God or are you crucifying Christ all over again.

If you can speak in tongues, or if you have the word of prophecy, if you are faithful or generous, that’s great, says St Paul, but if they are not inspired by love and used in love they are useless. Paul, when he spoke about love, was not talking about feelings you have when you gaze into your beloved’s eyes. Paul says that love is the basis of right behaviour. Love is the way we treat each other, whether we are friends or enemies, neighbours or strangers. Paul challenges the Corinthians to look at what they are doing and ask, “Why am I doing this?” If they cannot answer, “I am doing this for love and in love.” then they should think very seriously about what they are doing.

The next question that St Paul raises sounds like that old song, “What is this thing called love?” That is, how do we recognise love when we see it? Now, when we are at a wedding we think about people falling in love, almost as if it was a hole in the floor, or a pool of water. The love St Paul talks about is much more solid – it is more like a building whose building blocks are patience, kindness, truthful, believing, hopeful and trusting. Love is something that must be learned and taught, sought after and cherished, built up over a lifetime. We are to look carefully at the bricks we are building with, using only the sound and strong ones, rejecting the ones tainted with envy, boasting, arrogance and rudeness.

St Paul sees the church as a school of love, where members of the community build each other up, lovingly correcting the mistakes of others and being ready to make changes in themselves. No one can be loving all by themselves – they need someone to practice on and someone to show them how to love. It might be easy to love your friends, and it might be possible to love people you don’t really like, but it takes God to help us love our enemies and those who hate us..

St Paul wanted the Corinthians to stop their quarrelling and to live in peace with each other, “Look beyond the obvious to something which will last for ever. After all, fashions in worship, in church life, come and go like any other fashions. What we may do and think now may be laughed at tomorrow. We laugh at those who thought the earth was flat and the centre of the universe was Jerusalem – but it’s healthy to remember that those who come after us may laugh at some of the silly ideas we have. St Paul wanted the Corinthians to be humble and open to learning so that they would be open to love as well. Faith is the assurance of things unseen, hope is confidence in the future, but love holds everything together.

If these are the questions that St Paul puts to the Corinthian church, what do we ask when we re-read the letter in our church and in our country? Lets take one example; Australia Day.

On Friday many people will celebrate Australia Day. There will be processions and speeches, fireworks and parties. People will sing Waltzing Matilda and I still call Australia home. There will be honours awarded and medals handed out. Several thousand people will take part in citizen ceremonies and become Australian citizens. A whole lot of people will have a whole lot of fun, but it is important to ask, “Why are we doing this?” And if we cannot honestly answer, “I am doing this for love and in love.” then we must seriously question the whole idea of Australia as a nation and Australia Day as a celebration.

St Paul, when he speaks of love, is giving us something to measure our lives. Nehemiah, the governor of Jerusalem, and Ezra, the priest and scribe, read the book of the Law to the people. It took them eight days, and when they had finished they told the people, “this Law of Moses is for you to measure your lives.” Of course the people couldn’t do it, they forgot bits of it, and disobeyed other bits and found themselves is a terrible mess – trapped by the law which only a few could really understand. (Nehemiah 8)

Jesus, when he stood up to read to the people in Nazareth, (Luke 4:14-21) chose the prophet Isaiah, and said, “I have come to release the prisoners, to take away the blindfold over their eyes and to let the oppressed go free.”

Nehemiah and Ezra told the people of Israel to obey the law. Everything they did was to be measured by the Law of Moses. Jesus came to set the people free. Love God, love yourself and love your neighbour, he said. That’s how the Law will be fulfilled.

St Paul tells us how the law of love works. It works when we are patient, when we are kind, when we are persistent, faithful and hopeful. When we are greedy, envious, boastful or rude, we need to think again, even if we have given a million dollars to charity.

In many ways it is easier to obey the law without thinking than to choose to do everything in a loving way.

But, by the help of the Lord Jesus Christ, love of God, and the power of the Holy Spirit which fills us we can succeed.

Thanks be to God