I was an adjunct professor at Hanover College in Hanover, IN from January, 2011 until May, 2012. It was during that time that my spirituality was reawakened, and I gained a deep understanding of the love of God for each of us. I was asked on a couple of occasions to share my story, and was then asked to give a sermon for the weekly chapel service in the Spring of 2012. What follows is the sermon I delivered that day. I hope that you enjoy!
"If I could speak all the languages of earth and of angels, but didn't love others, I would only be a noisy gong of a clanging cymbal. If I had the gift of prophecy, and if I understood all of God's secret plans and possessed all knowledge, and if I had such faith that I could move mountains, but I didn't love others, I would be nothing. If I gave everything I have to the poor and even sacrificed my body, I could boast about it; but if I didn't love others, I would have gained nothing. Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged. It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance. Prophecy and speaking in unknown languages and special knowledge will become useless. But love will last forever! Now our knowledge is partial and incomplete, and even the gift of prophecy reveals only part of the whole picture! But when the time of perfection comes, these partial things will become useless. When I was a child, I spoke and thought and reasoned as a child. But when I grew up, I put away childish things. Now we see things imperfectly, like puzzling reflections in a mirror, but then we will see everything with perfect clarity. All that I know now is partial and incomplete, but then I will know everything completely, just as God now knows me completely. Three things will last forever - faith, hope and love - and the greatest of these is love." -1 Corinthians 13:1-13 (NLT)
Verses from the first letter to the Corinthians, Chapter 13, are often used at weddings, since it is at weddings where love always fills the air. The readings in the church are selected, often by the couple being married, to emphasize that they love each other and that love is the greatest gift. While we can only hope that this is true for each and every married couple on the planet, these words from Corinthians are not meant as a profession of love. They were written to remind us that love must show up in each and every day of our lives, whether married or single, if we are to fulfill our promise to God. Love cannot just kick in when we find “the one” with whom we will spend the rest of our lives. Most importantly, we must learn to love the person we see in the mirror each morning, and not feel as if the sin of arrogance is creeping into our lives. Arrogance is defined as an “offensive display of superiority or self-importance; overbearing pride.” It is not love.
Each one of us was created with special gifts bestowed upon us by the Father. One of the ways that we demonstrate our love for Him is the cultivation of those gifts, the use of those gifts, and the sharing of those gifts with others. Sharing our gifts visibly demonstrates our love of others. And when we share our gifts, others, in turn, will be willing to share their gifts with us, and so on, and so on, and so on. Human beings are social creatures; in the story of Genesis, it’s why God created Eve. Most of us crave interaction with others at some level. We cannot hoard our thoughts for very long, lest they ultimately consume us. We must share and expand upon what we know and believe so that we can move beyond thinking and reasoning like a child toward the unachievable goal of seeing everything with perfect clarity.
So, if the destination of seeing everything with perfect clarity is unachievable, why are we here on Earth? What was God thinking when he put Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden and allowed them to be tempted by the fruit of the tree? Could it be that He has so much love inside of Him that He wanted to let some of it out and allow it to grow in crazy multiples, just to see what would happen? Perhaps the experiment changed once the apple was eaten? Maybe it became even more interesting to Him? It seems to me that He set up the classic struggle between good and evil…white hats versus black hats. Whatever his reasoning, what did not change is the love of the Father, nor the potential for goodness and love that is installed in each one of us on our “born on” date. It just got a little more challenging for us to allow our goodness to come forth, since we are all now swimming in a sea of sin.
At a time in my life when allowing the goodness to come forth was particularly challenging, I came across a passage by Marianne Williamson. Those who have been to my office have seen it hanging on my door. I strive to live my life by it. Why? You decide:
Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us. We ask ourselves: who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, and fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small doesn’t serve the world. There’s nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It’s not in some of us, it’s in everyone. And as we let our own light shine we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we’re liberated from our own fear our presence automatically liberates others.
If we believe in God, we know that we are powerful beyond measure, because He made us, and everything that He made was good. The potential brightness of our light must scare us. After all, we are all sinners and are attracted to the darkness in our world at least once in a while. And we do this even when we know that there is a better way, as we are told by Paul in his letter to the Romans, Chapter 12, verses 1-3.
Don't copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God's will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.
Because we are children of God we are by definition brilliant, gorgeous, talented and fabulous! Our brilliance, however, must be cultivated via education; we must do some heavy lifting and study…all of us! Give us a basic understanding of a subject and our collective imaginations fly to new discoveries. Our gorgeous-ness is deep under the layers of skin we live in, which simply serve to hold our bones and muscles and inner workings in place. No matter what we, or society, may think we look like externally, we each have beauty in our hearts and souls, and it is multiplied when we decide to share it with others in the form of love. Our talents lie dormant until given the opportunity to burst forth and surprise even ourselves with the breadth of what we are truly capable of becoming. And fabulous? You know it! And if you don’t know it by now, you’d better embrace it! Again, God created you from the dust of the Universe, and you are here to do his bidding on Earth since He has a universe to manage.
Since we have all of these gifts inside of us, shrinking inside yourself is a sin. Not using your talents is a sin. Not living a life in homage to God is a sin. Not being “fabulous” so that others will not feel inferior is a sin. Sharing your love is using your gifts to brighten the world we live in. The light of the world is in each one of us. We are duty bound to turn our light on and let everyone see how awesome our God is to give us such gifts. We have nothing to fear, for God is on our side. He loves us! He continuously bathes us in his grace! And when someone finally sees your light, they will be less afraid to be liberated in Him and turn their light on and share their gifts. As Paul told the Philippians in Chapter 4, verse 13:
For I can do everything through Christ, who gives me strength.
God does indeed liberate us from fear through His love for us. Always has, always will! FEAR, I have believed for a long time, stands for False Expectations Appearing Real. Think about it…How often does all that we fear actually happen? Answer: rarely, if ever! What do we have to fear? We have the ultimate safety net: God! Turning your fear off and turning your light on WILL give someone else the courage to believe in Him and turn their light on. So, how do we turn our light on? From the first letter of Paul to the Corinthians, chapter 16, verses 13 and 14:
Be on guard. Stand firm in the faith. Be courageous. Be strong. And do everything with love.
