13If I speak in the tongues of mortals and of angels, but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2And 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. 3If 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.
4Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant 5or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; 6it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. 7It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
8Love 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. 9For we know only in part, and we prophesy only in part; 10but when the complete comes, the partial will come to an end. 11When 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. 12For 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. 13And now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; and the greatest of these is love.”  I Corinthians 13, NRSV
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“When the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together, 35and one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him. 36“Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?” 37He said to him, “’You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ 38This is the greatest and first commandment. 39And a second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ 40On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.’”  Matthew 22:34-4, NRSV
***

I have a plaque at home that reads, “Tennis is one of the few pastimes where love means nothing!”
And remember Tina Turner’s song, “What’s Love Got to Do With It?”

Well…love means EVERYTHING! And love has to do with…EVERYTHING!
Love never ends!
Love never fails!
Faith, hope, love; the greatest is LOVE.
Love’s power and energy overcome fear, hatred and despair.

The positive presence of Jesus in our lives and in our church releases the power of love.

Consider the many recent news items that relate to faith or God in some way. I hasten to add that all news items relate to our faith and God in some way. Think about the following:

• The comments of Rev. Jeremiah Wright, pastor of the 6,000 member Trinity UCC in Chicago. What does it mean for the church, or a pastor, to be prophetic? How do we speak about injustices in a country that we love? How do we attempt to correct those things we see as wrong in our beloved nation?

• Last Sunday’s faith forum at Messiah College in PA where Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton,  & Sen. Barack Obama were questioned on difficult theological questions ranging from “Why does God allow people to suffer?” to “Do you believe that God created the world in six days?”

• Pope Benedict XVI’s first trip to the United States. One commentator wrote, “Anyone expecting strident speeches from the man once called "God's rottweiler" for his role defending Roman Catholic doctrine will be disappointed. Benedict will deliver an unwavering message that society needs religious values, but this intellectual pontiff will do it in the most positive way possible.” Pope Benedict XVI came face to face Thursday with a scandal that has left lasting wounds on the American church, holding an unannounced meeting with several victims of sexual abuse by priests in the Boston area.

• The Supreme Court on Wednesday by a vote of 7-2 upheld Kentucky’s method of execution by lethal injection, rejecting the claim that officials there administered a common sequence of three drugs in a manner that posed an unconstitutional risk that a condemned inmate would suffer acute yet undetectable pain.

• SAN ANGELO, Texas - A court hearing for the nation's largest child custody case. The lawyers represent 416 children and dozens of parents from the Yearning For Zion ranch owned by the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, a renegade Mormon sect accused of forcing underage girls into polygamous marriages.

• The news item in the New York Times: “Across Globe, Empty Bellies Bring Rising Anger.” “Hunger bashed in the front gate of Haiti’s presidential palace. Hunger poured onto the streets, burning tires and taking on soldiers and the police. Hunger sent the country’s prime minister packing. Haiti’s hunger, that burn in the belly that so many here feel, has become fiercer than ever in recent days as global food prices spiral out of reach, spiking as much as 45 percent since the end of 2006 and turning Haitian staples like beans, corn and rice into closely guarded treasures. One father’s children ate two spoonfuls of rice apiece as their only meal recently and then went without any food the following day. His eyes downcast, his own stomach empty, the unemployed father said forlornly, “They look at me and say, ‘Papa, I’m hungry,’ and I have to look away. It’s humiliating and it makes you angry.”That anger is palpable across the globe.  “It’s the worst crisis of its kind in more than 30 years,” said Jeffrey D. Sachs, the economist and special adviser to the United Nations secretary general.”

• Tuesday is Earth Day!  Each year April 22nd marks the anniversary of the birth of the modern environmental movement which began 1970. “Earth Day founder Gaylord Nelson, then a U.S. Senator from Wisconsin, proposed the first nationwide environmental protest. At the time, there were massive V8 automobiles. Industry belched out smoke and sludge with little fear of legal consequences or bad press. Air pollution was commonly accepted as the smell of prosperity. Environment was a word that appeared more often in spelling bees than on the evening news. On April 22, 1970, 20 million Americans took to the streets, parks, and auditoriums to demonstrate for a healthy, sustainable environment. The first Earth Day led to the creation of the United States Environmental Protection Agency and the passage of the Clean Air, Clean Water, and Endangered Species acts. Sen. Nelson was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom -- the highest honor given to civilians in the United States -- for his role as Earth Day founder.”

• The challenges of how to create a clean environment continue to confront us.
• The challenges of how to find just, humane solutions to the problems of world hunger, poverty, education, diseases, racism…confront us.

We hear Jesus’ word: Love the Lord your God with all your heart and soul and mind and love your neighbor as yourself. 
We hear the amazing words in I Corinthians 13 - that our actions are to be motivated by love…..love never fails, love never ends.
We ask, “Is it really possible to love like that?” The answer is YES! – because Christ lives in us!

Love casts out evil….love overcomes all fears….it is possible to experience the power of God’s love flowing in us and through us to our world.

Mic Morris, in his weekly email to the Scripture Play adult Sunday School Class, wrote, “Matthew is another profound statement of Love.  In answer to the question, what is the greatest commandment, Jesus ignores the top ten which were carved in stone and pages forwarded to Deut 6:5, "Hear O Israel, the Lord your God is One:  Your shall love the Lord your God with all your soul and with all your mind.”  He then pages back to Lev. 19:18 "Love your neighbor as yourself"  These are the two greatest commandments on which hang all of the Law and the Prophets. 
It seems so simple.  How did such a perfect expression of faith get loaded up with so much mandatory but arbitrary doctrines and beliefs?”  Good question!

Paraphrasing Marcus Borg: The vision of life at the heart of Christianity is not complicated…At its center is Jesus whose passion was God – loving God – loving people….on these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.
    
I close with two questions that I have been asking of myself…and I ask them of you this morning:

1. What can I (we) do to deepen my (our) love for God?
2. What practical actions can I (we) take to express my (our) love for other people?

I am listening for the answers.
Amen.