Words of Welcome

  2 Corinthians 13:11-13 Today is Trinity Sunday. It may not be as exciting as Pentecost Sunday, but it’s a good time to stop and think about the God we serve and worship. Most Christian traditions affirm the idea that God is both one and yet three. This may sound like some kind of math problem, but thankfully, especially since I’m not a math person, this isn’t about math. It just means that, like our Jewish siblings, we believe that God is one. However, Christianity complicates things by suggesting that God is also three persons. So, we sing: “Holy, Holy, Holy! Lord God Almighty! Early in the morning our song shall rise to thee; holy, holy, holy! Merciful and mighty! God in three persons, blessed Trinity!” (Reginald Heber).     The doctrine of the Trinity that we celebrate this morning is only present in the New Testament implicitly. It took several centuries before early Christians nailed down a consensus view of God as Trinity. The Nicene Creed, which we will ...

  William Wilson, Caritas, Glasgow Cathedral 1 Corinthians 13:1-13 As we continue our journey through the season of Epiphany, we’re looking for manifestations of God’s presence in the world. We began with the Magi following a star to Bethlehem, and that led to hearing God call out to Jesus at his baptism. We’ve heard Paul say that “to each is given a manifestation of the Spirit for the common good” ( 1 Cor. 12:7 ) and that the church is a manifestation of the presence of Jesus’s body in the world. Although the gifts of the Spirit are important to the health of the body of Christ, there is one more thing needed. That is what Paul calls the “more excellent way” ( 1 Cor. 12:31 ).  What is this “more excellent way?” It’s as that 1960s song proclaimed: “What the World needs now is love, sweet love.” That is the message of 1 Corinthians 13.  Paul places this hymn to love right in the middle of his discussion of spiritual gifts. Since the Corinthians are arguing about whi...

1 John 4:7-21 “What the world needs now is love, sweet love.” That may be true, but what is love and where does it come from? Do we need to just sing some silly love songs, because, as Paul McCartney put it, “some people wanna fill the world with silly love songs, and what’s wrong with that?”   If what the world needs now is love, then we need to define our terms. Is love a feeling, an emotion, or something else? The love songs that fill the air usually speak of tender feelings between two people, because “when I fall in love, it will be forever, or I’ll never fall in love.” If we’re honest with ourselves, each of us has probably “fallen in love” a couple of times. It’s possible that we have found a love that  “will be forever,” but perhaps not.  When Jesus shared the two love commands, which he drew from the Hebrew Bible, he had more in mind than feelings. He used the parable of the Good Samaritan to illustrate neighborly love. You know the story, a...

1 John 4:7-12 When I was in high school, we often sang a song in Bible study that drew from the Song of Solomon.  It went like this: I am my beloved’s, and he is mine. His banner over me is Love.  ( Song of Songs 6:3; 2:4 ) Who is the beloved whose banner over me is love? If you read the Song of Solomon in a straightforward way, you’ll discover that this is a most explicit love song. But, down through the ages, Christians have read this song allegorically to describe Christ’s relationship with the church. Christ is the Beloved, and those over whom the banner of love flies belongs to him.      In one of the weddings at which I officiated, the Scripture text was taken from the Song of Solomon. Among the words shared that day were these: Set me as a seal upon your heart, as a seal upon your arm; for love is strong as death, passion fierce as the grave.  Its flashes are flashes of fire, a raging flame. Many waters cannot quench love, n...