In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit

 This past Wednesday, the world was observing Valentine's Day with cards and candies and heart decorations.  I imagine, however, that many of the people who did so didn't know that Valentine's Day has Christian roots having to do with a real historical man named Valentine.

 In about 270 A.D. the Roman emperor Claudius issued an edict forbidding marriage.  It was a time of war, and he was having a hard time getting men to be willing to serve as soldiers.  He felt one of the reasons that was so was that married men did not want to leave their wives and families for battle.  And so he canceled all engagements and weddings.  During this time a Christian bishop named Valentine is said to have invited young couples to come to him in secret to be joined in matrimony and not be denied God's gift of marriage.  The emperor supposedly learned about this and brought the bishop to the palace.  Claudius was impressed with Valentine's dignity and conviction, and attempted to convert him to the Roman gods to save him from execution.  Tradition has it that Valentine refused to renounce Christianity and instead attempted in vain to convert the emperor.  While Valentine was in prison awaiting execution, it is said that he came to love the jailer's daughter.  But a short time later, in February of 270, he was executed by beheading.  His written farewell message to the one he loved began, "From your Valentine."

 Hundreds of years later, when the Church wanted to put an end to a pagan lovers festival that occurred on February 14th, they designated that day as St. Valentine's day.  Whether the remembrance of this martyred bishop has accomplished its intended purpose is certainly debatable.

 While the world has its ideas about love–ideas which are often twisted to mean little more than warm feelings or just plain lust–today's epistle gives us the divine definition and description of love.  St. Paul begins by speaking of the importance of love.  He reminds us that if we don't have love, even our greatest works will amount to nothing.  Do I speak in the tongues of men and of angels?  If I have not love, all those words amount to nothing more than clanging and clattering.

 Do I have deep insight, prophetic powers, the ability to penetrate the deepest mysteries of God?  Can I express Scriptural doctrine with precision and clarity?  Do I possess great knowledge and learning?  If I have not love, even with all of that, I am nothing.  Do I have faith that can move mountains?  Without love, even faith comes under judgment.  It is empty.  "Dead," says James.  Faith without love is faith without God, for "God is love."  We are saved by faith alone, but faith is never alone.  It lives and breathes the loving God it clings to.

 Do I have impressive works, generous deeds of charity?  Have I given richly of my time, my talents, my treasures for the church of Christ? Without love and a holy and right attitude in my heart, I gain nothing.  Even if I offer my body for burning–and what greater act of devotion could there be than to die as a martyr?–and yet have loved only myself and my martyr's death, then the Law would condemn even my martyrdom as nothing.

 You see, God wants more from us than good works.  He wants our love.  In fact that's really all He wants from us–to love Him with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength, and our neighbor as ourselves.  And we don't do it.  For we are born in love with ourselves.  True love is always and entirely directed outward, toward God and our neighbor.  But our hearts are turned inward, toward our own needs and priorities and ideas.  The Scriptural Law of love judges not only the works of our hands, but also the orientation of our hearts; not only our actions but also our motives.  It reveals where love is absent in us, or where we use our good deeds for self-serving purposes.

 Real love, Paul says, is "patient and kind."  Love is willing to wait a long time, faithfully, right up to the very end.  Love that cannot wait isn't true love but self-love.  Love never forces its own way, never hurries things along, never manipulates things to get its way.  Love has nothing to lose because it doesn't seek to gain in the first place.  That's how love can wait patiently.

 True love always returns kindness, even when it is met with hatred and hostility.  It turns the other cheek to those who strike it.  It offers the shirt off its back as well its coat.  It goes the extra mile for the other.  It blesses those who curse.  It returns good for evil.  It prays for the enemy.  It speaks well of those who speak ill of it.

 True love never looks at itself; therefore, it has no basis for comparison with others.  "It does not envy, does not boast, is not proud or rude."  Love rejoices in the prosperity and success of others. "Love isn't self-seeking," therefore it can seek the good of others.

 True love "isn't easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs."  Love is a lousy score keeper when it comes to people's faults.  It doesn't keep bringing up the past mistakes and failings of a spouse or friend or relative.  Instead, love forgives.  It starts new each day.  Therefore, love is not easily provoked to anger.  Little things don't bring up the past memory of big things.  Love is merciful and compassionate.

 Now that doesn't mean love is indifferent to right and wrong. "Love does not delight in wrong but rejoices in the truth."  The love that Paul is talking about is not the sugary, mushy, live-and-let-live kind of love of our culture.  True love is sometimes tough love.  The parent who indulges the sin of the child doesn't love that child.  The congregation that lets the sin of its members go unchecked doesn't love its members.  The church that refuses to speak the truth, no matter how unpopular and costly the truth might be, does not love, no matter how nice the church may otherwise appear.  True love grieves over the sin of others. And love risks loss to rescue others from their sin.

 Real love rejoices in the truth, even when the truth is hard.  Love and truth run together in the same channel.  "Speak the truth in love," St. Paul says in Ephesians.  Love would just as soon deal with a sinner as a sinner, as our Lord Jesus did, than deal with a phony face, a pious facade that hides the truth.  Love wants to get the truth out in the open, where it can be seen as it is, so that it can be loved without limits or conditions.

 True love "bears all things."  It puts up with everything.  Only love can bear with things as they actually are.  It doesn't whine about wanting to go back to the good old days, but deals with the present for what it is.  There is no sin, no crime, no disaster so great that love cannot face it, because love is greater than the greatest sin.  As it is written, "Love covers a multitude of sins."  This is how love can reach out even to the unlovable and repulsive.  Love bears all things.

 True love "believes all things," even to the point of risking being cheated and taken for a ride.  For only in this way can it be completely free to love without conditions, without limits.  Love "hopes all things."  It refuses to yield to suspicions of doubt about another but always seeks to put the best construction on everything.  It hopes for the best and doesn't look for the worst.  Love "endures all things."  It lasts through thick and thin.  It doesn't break it's commitments.  When all else fails, love doesn't.

 Now, who loves in this way?  Only God does.  I hope you've already been pondering in your minds and hearts how this description of love is a perfect description of God.  Our love fails.  But His love endures forever.  God has made His love known to us by sending His Son.  St. John writes, "In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins."  Jesus is God's love reaching down to us, God's love in the flesh.

 Romans 13 says, "Love is the fulfillment of the Law." And Jesus is that Love who has fulfilled the Law for us, to rescue us from our lovelessness and restore us to the Father by His mercy.  Today's epistle can only be understood fully and properly when we recognize that Jesus is the Love being lauded and praised; He is real, palpable love for you.

 Jesus has been patient and kind toward you.  He's stuck with you.  He's sometimes had to wait for a long time, hasn't He?  In your baptism He committed Himself to you for the long haul.  He's brought you to where you are today, here in His house, where He is present in love for you.  It is written, "The Lord is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish."

 Jesus is not self-seeking.  Rather He seeks your salvation.  He lives for you.  He turned the other cheek when He was mocked and beaten, to save you from judgment.  He went the extra mile for you, walking the way of the cross which you could not bear, offering up His own body not to be burned but crucified, where He stretched out His arms to embrace you forever.  Truly, Jesus bears all things, even our sin.  He endured suffering and persecution, all for the sake of you, His beloved.

 Jesus wasn't envious, boastful, or proud.  He does not delight in evil, but rejoices in the truth; for He is the Truth.  Our Lord is not easily angered.  He keeps no record of wrongs.  Psalm 130 prays, "If you Lord kept a record of sins, O Lord, who could stand.  But with you there is forgiveness, that you may be revered."  His precious blood has fully paid the price for all wrongs to set you free.  By faith in His redeeming work, you stand before your heavenly Father holy and righteous.  For through Christ, God remembers your sins no more.  The only record He now keeps is your name written in His Book of Life.

 How true it is, then, that Love never fails you.  For Hebrews 13 says, "Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever."  He is the embodiment of love, love that never changes.  That's why Paul ranks love greater than faith and hope.  Jesus is love incarnate.  Our faith will one day turn to sight.  Our hope in the promises of God will be fulfilled on the Last Day.  But love, and He who is love, will continue forever in the new creation as the very essence of our lives as God's people.

 That love of Jesus is here for you today, spoken tenderly to you in His Gospel, ready to be poured into you with His true body and blood.  As it is written in Romans 5, "The love of God has been poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit."  He makes you instruments of His love to a truth-starved and hurting world.  "This is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and gave His Son as the atoning sacrifice for our sins."  "Now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love," the love of Christ.

  In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit

(Some of the above was adapted from a sermon by the Rev. William Cwirla, Hacienda Heights, CA.)