March 30, 2025 • 29 mins
The bright spot in our Lenten journey through Les Misérables has arrived as we explore God's gift of love through the romantic relationship between Cosette and Marius. Their love story unfolds against a backdrop of revolution and upheaval, offering a glimpse of hope amid darkness.
Victor Hugo's masterpiece reveals multiple dimensions of love throughout its narrative. We witness romantic love between young Cosette and Marius, familial love through Fantine's ultimate sacrifice for her daughter, and agape love (godly, selfless love) when Jean Valjean rescues Marius from the barricade despite his personal desire to keep Cosette for himself. What's remarkable is how these seemingly different expressions of love share a common foundation.
Turning to 1 Corinthians 13, we discover Paul's powerful message to an overconfident Corinthian church. His profound contrasts cut through spiritual pride: speaking in angelic tongues without love makes one merely "a noisy gong"; understanding all mysteries and possessing mountain-moving faith without love means "you are nothing." These aren't harsh judgments but urgent reminders that love must be our foundation.
This message resonates perfectly with Les Misérables' character journeys. Jean Valjean's transformation culminates when he sets aside his desires to save Marius for Cosette's happiness. Similarly, we're challenged to examine whether we've merely intellectualized love rather than allowing it to transform us spiritually. Have we become like that Corinthian church – convinced we have everything figured out while missing love's deeper reality?
The wisdom shared by our long-married congregants – some celebrating 40, 50, even 60 years together – confirms what both Scripture and Hugo teach us: authentic love requires profound humility. This virtue appears essential whether we're discussing agape love, familial bonds, or romantic relationships like Cosette and Marius.
Join us as we continue discovering how these timeless stories illuminate our spiritual journey. If you've found value in this exploration, we'd love for you to share your own reflections on how love and humility have intersected in your life.
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Episode Transcript
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Pastor Darren (00:00):
I'm glad that you are all here.
So we've been walking throughthis Les Mis series and just to
remind ourselves a little bit.
We started with Jean Valjean,the character that modeled grace
for us, not only learning tooffer grace, but learning to
accept grace and to let itaffect the way he acts and the
(00:22):
way he lives.
Then we moved to Javert, thelaw, the authority who leaned
into justice.
It became kind of a contrast tograce and we saw the difficulty
in trying to lead a life ofpure justice in an imperfect
world.
We learned about Fantine, whowas a character that represented
(00:45):
the people who can fall throughthe cracks of our society,
those who can fall into thoseplaces where they aren't cared
for in our systems, where theyare left to figure it out for
themselves and often do not.
But today, this chapter is thebright spot in the middle of
(01:06):
Lent.
We are talking about God's giftof love, romantic love, agape
love, godly love, and it ismodeled in this relationship,
this romantic relationshipbetween Cosette and Marius.
So are you rooting for him?
(01:30):
Right?
We have to root for him alittle bit in this thing for
sure.
Well, remember Cosette.
Her life starts out prettyrough.
She's the daughter of Fantine,remember the one single mother
who tried to make it and justdidn't quite make it.
She was left with thisinnkeeper and his wife who
(01:51):
turned out to be prettynon-reputable, and after an
understatement, I guess right,and she ends up with this couple
.
But Fantine, when ultimatelyshe dies, valjean is able to
connect with her and tounderstand that he actually
(02:13):
played a part in Fantine's dying.
Here's about Cosette, thisyoung daughter that she was
trying to get back with.
So Valjean commits to findingCosette right and takes her with
him and begins to raise her ashis own.
But in all of that turmoil heends up having to escape to hide
(02:33):
again.
If you'll remember, Valjean isactually still a criminal and so
the justice, javert, is alwayshunting.
And so in all this turmoil ofgetting Cosette, well, he starts
getting exposed again.
So they have to go hide.
They hide in this monastery.
Well, cassette starts to grow alittle bit and starts to feel
(02:56):
pretty hemmed in, maybe evenprison-like circumstance, living
in this monastery, hiding.
And slowly Valjean lets herkind of get out into the world
and she connects with this youngman named Marius and the
romance, the chemistry, is thereright from the beginning and as
(03:17):
that romance begins Valjeangets worried again, possibly a
self-serving anxiety, in thesense that he had finally
learned to love somebody else, adaughter, cassette, and now he
might lose her to this Mariusinto marriage.
So he takes her away again.
(03:39):
So now I'm going to switch toMarius, just to get you all
caught up, because not everybodyhas read the story or is
reading through the book withthe rest of us.
But Marius, born intoaristocracy, so often humanity
tends to lean towards haves andhave-nots.
Well, the aristocracy would behaves.
(03:59):
But he starts to wrestle withthis idea of how that works.
He starts getting sympathy forthose who are leading toward
revolution, those in therebelling stage of all of this,
and so in the midst of this, hefalls for Cosette, although they
(04:23):
are mostly in hiding, so theykind of have to be tricky about
how they find each other.
But when Valjean realizes thatthis is happening, he gets
spooked.
He takes her away again.
Marius, very upset that thisyoung lady that he loved now
doesn't know what to do with hisemotions, what to do with his
(04:45):
grief.
He jumps into the rebellionwith both feet.
Now he's really ready to fightand he's there, he's at the
barricade, and you mightappreciate, pastor Matt's, if
you're reading the book with us,his description of this
barricade, because it's kind ofinteresting.
Everybody's there for kind ofweird purposes.
(05:06):
You think they're there forthis rebellion, but everybody
else has this other thing too.
Valjean's checking out Marius.
He wants to know if Cosettereally ought to love him.
Javert is in disguise trying toundermine the rebellion but
also find Valjean.
Marius is kind of in there,he's fighting but really he's
(05:28):
just upset that he's lostCosette.
Everybody's kind of in thesemixed emotions, this mixed stage
of we're rebelling kinda, untilGavroche, the young kid.
He gets killed as the battlebegins on either side of the
(05:48):
barricade and everybodystraightens up and says wait a
minute.
The innocent kid gets killed.
I remember why we're here.
Battle ensues, marius getsinjured in this battle,
seriously injured, and Valjeanrescues Marius, rescues him most
(06:09):
likely because of Cosette, whomhe loves as a daughter.
He rescues Marius, bringsMarius back to where he can heal
and be made well.
But it's worthwhile noting thatMarius doesn't know.
It's Valjean that saves him.
So they start their lifetogether.
Valjean is a patriarch of sorts.
(06:29):
Marius and Cosette are nowromantic and then Valjean, again
feeling guilt, not being ableto deal with grace given to him,
confesses to Marius about allthe bad things that he has done,
but none of the good things.
And so Marius starts to pullcassette away from this bad guy,
(06:50):
valjean.
And it's not until the very endthat Marius learns that it was
Valjean who actually saved him.
And they get this climacticscene in which they're able to
come to Valjean and acknowledgethis super selfless act that he
(07:12):
had learned in his full storyarc to be a selfless man of
grace that not only received itwell but shared it well.
And there's your light and yourshining hope.
Isn't that fun.
All right, what are we 10minutes in?
And all I did was tell you whathappened in the story, all
(07:36):
right, well, now I can preach asermon, because we're all caught
up a little bit.
Hopefully you're understanding.
The theme for today is loveitself, and in Les Mis, in this
version, we're seeing all thedifferent variations of how love
is often played out.
We have romantic love,obviously, with Marius and
(07:58):
Cosette, but there's familiallove too.
Probably Fantine is the best,loving her daughter, so much she
says I got to figure out how tomake this work and does
everything she can to try tomake sure Cosette gets taken
care of.
And then I would say agape love, godly love, may be best
represented by Valjean inrescuing Marius, even though he
(08:23):
kind of wanted Cosette forhimself.
So you see, all these differentlove representations, and the
interesting thing to me is howthose representations, those
understandings, start to overlap.
How are they the same?
We think of romantic love andgodly love as being so distinct,
(08:44):
and yet are there things thatare similar, are there things
that they share?
And so we're going to do thatwith 1 Corinthians, 13, 1
through 13.
And many of you had this withyour wedding.
Seriously, yeah, okay, there wego, all right.
(09:08):
A couple of you are honest, therest of you?
What would you have read upthere, besides the love passage?
For gosh sakes, my goodness,love is patient, love is kind.
It just takes me right toweddings when I hear this
passage.
I really do appreciate it.
So this is Paul, all right, Ican't think of anything funny to
(09:30):
say.
I'm usually good with somethingabout sirens, and no, it's not
there.
Anyone Say a prayer, someone'shaving a bad day.
There we go, all right.
Today's not the day of prayer.
Is it the day of prayer?
May.
Every time I hear a siren.
Oh well, there you go, you'reright.
(09:51):
Maybe that's our invitationwhen you hear a siren, to say a
little prayer because somebody'sin danger.
All right, with the sirenhaving moved on jumping back
into 1 Corinthians 13.
They call it the love passagebecause he's defining love.
This is Paul who wrote theletters that are most of our New
(10:12):
Testament, writing to thechurch in Corinth, who have
turned out to be kind of afeisty bunch.
You know, it's good for us toremember this is early, early
church.
They're just figuring out howto be church at this point.
It's this new understanding ofcoming together, this new way of
(10:32):
worshiping, this new directionto God and this group in Corinth
.
They'd become kind of feistyand Paul wanted to help them
remember what was reallyimportant In all of this.
As we lead church, we can dogood things, but if you're not
doing it with love, you mightnot be doing it right.
(10:56):
It's interesting too, pastorMatt, who wrote the book we're
working through.
He talks about Paul sort offeeling his way around it, just
throwing things out there.
But I have sympathy for Paul,because have you ever tried to
define love in words?
I mean, sometimes we have ahard time even deciding if what
(11:19):
we're feeling is love right,when you're getting down to that
stage of well, do I want tospend 80 years with him or not?
Right?
We've all had that questionthat we're wrestling with.
And if you're talking aboutgodly love the wrestling with
understanding godly love and howto accept it but also how to
(11:43):
share it in the best ways I meanwe wrestle with that.
We're trying to figure out howto do it best.
It's not always easy knowinghow to live something like that
out, and for me, I count that asjob security, because as long
as we wrestle with that, I gotsomething to say for 20 minutes
on Sunday mornings.
We wrestle with love andunderstanding exactly what it is
(12:09):
.
So I have sympathy for Paul ashe wrestles with it, but he does
have this one tight principlethis one he's holding on to
really, really tightly principlethis one he's holding on to
really, really tightly and Iwould say it has something to do
with.
Love is not just a head thing.
It's not all about what's goingon in your brain.
(12:33):
Listen to the first part of thispassage again.
If I speak in the tongues ofmortals and of angels, I speak
in the tongues of mortals and ofangels.
A good thing, yes, if you'respeaking the words that angels
are bringing to this world andsharing.
We assume angels are connectedto God, sharing words that are
(12:55):
important to us from God.
If we are able to speak inthose tongues, we're feeling
pretty good about ourselves.
Right, if I can speak likeangels and say the things angels
want, said, we're feeling goodand yet listen to what Paul does
here.
If I speak in the tongues ofmortals and of angels but do not
have love, I am a noisy gong ora clanging cymbal.
(13:22):
You see the counter positionthere.
Do you feel the car juststopping really fast?
If you find yourself doingamazing things but don't have
love, then you're doing nothing.
I hope you're feeling thatcontrast.
He continues on.
(13:47):
And if I have prophetic powers,prophetic powers, you're able to
again to speak for God, maybeeven to look into the future and
speak into that future in theway God would have you speak.
You have prophetic powers.
You understand all mysteriesand all knowledge.
Right, he's laying it up thickand high.
(14:08):
If you have prophetic powers,you understand all mysteries,
all knowledge, and if you havefaith so as to remove mountains
I'm going to call that strongfaith, we're moving mountains,
removing mountains.
Strong faith you can have allof this but do not have love.
(14:31):
You are nothing.
Do you feel that contrast?
I mean Paul's laying it thickhere.
He's going right at us sayingyou could have the absolute best
, but if you don't have love,you're just playing around.
If I give away all mypossessions and if I hand over
(14:55):
my body so that I may boast Nowremember this would be a
Christian virtue, especially2,000 years ago Very selfless,
I'm handing everything over, I'mgiving it to people who need it
.
I'm not owning anything, overlyrelying on anything.
It's very, very selfless.
I give away all my possessions.
(15:19):
This massive contrast that he'strying to get us to understand
you could have everything thatwe in our brains and in our
lives see as amazing, butwithout love it's nothing.
This is what I feel him holdingon to here.
(15:44):
He's trying to tell us at leastin my reading, that there's
something here that is deeperthan our wisdom can reveal,
deeper than our brains, oursimple minds can take in.
We can find the logic in acertain concept or philosophy,
in love, but if that's all wefound, we've missed what I would
(16:08):
call the spiritual reality ofthat concept of that philosophy.
We've got it wrapped up in ourbrain and organized in our brain
but we're not feeling it.
Well then, we're going to stickto it, only as long as it
(16:28):
continues to make sense.
Not because it touched ourhearts.
The church in Corinth it kind ofgets characterized, as you read
through the letter, as thischurch that feels like it has it
all figured out.
They've got it all organized Atleast they believe they've got
(16:52):
it figured out.
And Paul wants them to know.
I'm not sure you figured it out.
You might have nothing.
You figured it out, you mighthave nothing.
Dr Crouch, inworkingpreachercom he points out
this description.
He says the church's factionsseem to exude this attitude.
(17:12):
We are right Pillars of thechurch, beacons of truth, giants
of faith, and we tower aboveyou people who are not one of us
.
Do you hear that?
How he's describing, how we seePaul describing this church in
(17:34):
Corinth, why he feels he needsto write this passage to this
church?
I think that we might possiblyhave even had engagements with
churches like that Kind of feellike they've got it rigged.
(17:56):
There's a certainoverconfidence.
I wouldn't be surprised ifpeople in this room had actually
been part of a church like that, that super confidence.
We've got it figured out.
(18:16):
Certainly not here at UnitedMethodist Church of Westlake
Village.
We have proper humility here.
But you know that church thetype of church it might be
greatly proud of its missionprogram but rarely engaging with
anyone that they're servingthis kind of church might feel
(18:39):
good about itself, so good aboutitself that it doesn't really
reach out or share the witnessthat they've come to understand,
the love that they've come tounderstand about God, just
pleased with who they are.
It might be that kind of church.
(19:01):
And the message I think to thatkind of church, and when we
become that kind of people, isthat this passage may be better
characterized not as the lovepassage but the humility passage
, the passage that wants us toremember how important it is
that we understand not just thelogic of it but have some deeper
(19:26):
sense of the love that layunderneath it, that we have it
so strong that even when westart wrestling with it, we
still trust that it lay withinour hearts.
Because this love that we'retalking about, this love that
Paul's talking about, it's onlythe beginning.
It gets tougher.
(19:53):
Paul also tells us w ell, manypeople tell us in our scripture,
and if we're going to look at afull context of scripture.
Loo k at all the ways we'resupposed to be loving.
We're supposed to love ourenemies.
Cardinal fans, Pirate fans,Detroit fans.
We got to love them all.
(20:15):
It's not easy, but listen inscripture it says this in
Matthew, in Luke, 1 Peter, inthe Hebrew Bible, old Testament,
Exodus, Proverbs.
Paul's talking about it inRomans, etc.
Etc.
You know what else?
(20:37):
We're supposed to love thestranger, love the alien in our
midst.
If you look through Scripture,it's in Leviticus, the Old
Testament.
It's in Deuteronomy, it's inthe letter to the Hebrews,
letter to the Romans, it's inthe gospel of Matthew, et cetera
(20:58):
, et cetera.
That love that Paul is callingus to, it's big, it's tough.
It's the center of so much ofwhat we're supposed to be
understanding, or at leasttrying to understand, about how
to live here, how to live well,how to live abundantly.
(21:22):
I think this humility might bethe uniting principle that is
undergirding all of ourunderstandings of love.
We've been talking about Agapelove and its being essential to
godly activity.
We have to have love for Godand love for others in order to
(21:46):
truly be experiencing what Godwants us to experience in that
love, in that sharing.
If we want to know God in ourgood acts, love needs to be at
the center of that.
We talk about familial love.
If we don't embrace humility inour relationships, we're likely
(22:08):
only to love others for what wecan make them, not who they are
, which really isn't that just acelebration of ourselves and
not God, not the other person?
And what about romantic love?
(22:28):
Marius and Cosette?
What advice would we give themabout a successful marriage?
What part would humility playin that advice?
I know Brenda and I weresneaking up on 32 years of
marriage, but I think we'reprobably babies in this room
(22:57):
with that.
Anybody up to 35 years ofmarriage yeah Right.
40?
Yeah, all right.
How many are right in that 40range?
Well, right in the 40.
All right,J ohn, what have youlearned?
He looked right at her.
(23:20):
O h shoot, what am I allowed tosay?
What betterI say?
Humility, an important part of40 years?
I don't know that you get veryfar.
45 years anybody in that range?
45 years, right, I'll get there.
(23:42):
I'll get there A littlepatience.
45 years I'll get there, I'llget there A little patience.
45 years Humility is thatimportant.
Have we learned that Ken alreadywas humble, so he didn't have
to learn it?
He's Canadian.
Those guys, they were humblefrom the beginning.
(24:04):
Got the Canadian roots Allright.
50?
, 55?
Oh, man, we're still goingstrong over here.
Barb and the Weavers All right.
60?
Wow, oh, here we go.
All right, what's the secret?
(24:26):
You have it figured out?
Well, I know Phil's not goingto tell me because he's an
engineer, but Jeanie, I thinkJeanie will tell me what's the
secret.
Is humility involved there?
Would you tell Marius andCosette how important that was?
Yes, what other words would youuse?
(24:49):
It's a little too much honestyright here for a Sunday morning.
Keep on loving each other, amen, amen, amen.
Well, my friends, I feel likewhat we're trying to learn from
Les Mis, what we're trying tolearn from our scripture, from
(25:12):
Paul, is just the importance ofrecognizing that there is
something larger than any of us.
God has offered and put amongstus the truth of love, and it's
going to be something we're onlygetting tastes of, but they'll
be blessed tastes.
Let's keep ourselves humbled sothat we can always be accessing
(25:38):
that love in the ways that Godwants us to know that love.
Let's not get overconfidentabout thinking we have it
figured out, but remember God isalways leading us, god is
always guiding us, god is alwaysguiding us.
We're going to share ourmusical offering today, a Heart
Full of Love, and I invite youin this time to be reflecting on
(26:03):
the significance of love inyour own life, both Agape love,
but maybe in particular, theromantic love that Marius and
Cosette share in this song
A heart full of love, a heartfull of song.
(26:40):
I'm doing everything all wrong.
Oh God, for shame.
I do not even know your name,dear mademoiselle, won't you say
, will you tell A heart full oflove, no fear, no regret.
(27:12):
My name is Marius Pontmercy andmine Cosette Cosette.
I don't know wha t to say.
Then, make no sound.
I am lost.
I am found A heart full oflight, a heart full of you, and
(27:45):
you must never go away.
Cosette, Cosette.
This is a chain we'll neverbreak.
Do we dream we're awake?
(28:06):
A heart full of love, a heartfull of you.
.
.
A single look and then I knew,I knew it too, From today,
every day, for it isn't a dream,not a dream after all.
I'm glad that you are all here.
So we've been walking throughthis Les Mis series and just to
remind ourselves a little bit.
We started with Jean Valjean,the character that modeled grace
for us, not only learning tooffer grace, but learning to
accept grace and to let itaffect the way he acts and the
(00:22):
way he lives.
Then we moved to Javert, thelaw, the authority who leaned
into justice.
It became kind of a contrast tograce and we saw the difficulty
in trying to lead a life ofpure justice in an imperfect
world.
We learned about Fantine, whowas a character that represented
(00:45):
the people who can fall throughthe cracks of our society,
those who can fall into thoseplaces where they aren't cared
for in our systems, where theyare left to figure it out for
themselves and often do not.
But today, this chapter is thebright spot in the middle of
(01:06):
Lent.
We are talking about God's giftof love, romantic love, agape
love, godly love, and it ismodeled in this relationship,
this romantic relationshipbetween Cosette and Marius.
So are you rooting for him?
(01:30):
Right?
We have to root for him alittle bit in this thing for
sure.
Well, remember Cosette.
Her life starts out prettyrough.
She's the daughter of Fantine,remember the one single mother
who tried to make it and justdidn't quite make it.
She was left with thisinnkeeper and his wife who
(01:51):
turned out to be prettynon-reputable, and after an
understatement, I guess right,and she ends up with this couple
.
But Fantine, when ultimatelyshe dies, valjean is able to
connect with her and tounderstand that he actually
(02:13):
played a part in Fantine's dying.
Here's about Cosette, thisyoung daughter that she was
trying to get back with.
So Valjean commits to findingCosette right and takes her with
him and begins to raise her ashis own.
But in all of that turmoil heends up having to escape to hide
(02:33):
again.
If you'll remember, Valjean isactually still a criminal and so
the justice, javert, is alwayshunting.
And so in all this turmoil ofgetting Cosette, well, he starts
getting exposed again.
So they have to go hide.
They hide in this monastery.
Well, cassette starts to grow alittle bit and starts to feel
(02:56):
pretty hemmed in, maybe evenprison-like circumstance, living
in this monastery, hiding.
And slowly Valjean lets herkind of get out into the world
and she connects with this youngman named Marius and the
romance, the chemistry, is thereright from the beginning and as
(03:17):
that romance begins Valjeangets worried again, possibly a
self-serving anxiety, in thesense that he had finally
learned to love somebody else, adaughter, cassette, and now he
might lose her to this Mariusinto marriage.
So he takes her away again.
(03:39):
So now I'm going to switch toMarius, just to get you all
caught up, because not everybodyhas read the story or is
reading through the book withthe rest of us.
But Marius, born intoaristocracy, so often humanity
tends to lean towards haves andhave-nots.
Well, the aristocracy would behaves.
(03:59):
But he starts to wrestle withthis idea of how that works.
He starts getting sympathy forthose who are leading toward
revolution, those in therebelling stage of all of this,
and so in the midst of this, hefalls for Cosette, although they
(04:23):
are mostly in hiding, so theykind of have to be tricky about
how they find each other.
But when Valjean realizes thatthis is happening, he gets
spooked.
He takes her away again.
Marius, very upset that thisyoung lady that he loved now
doesn't know what to do with hisemotions, what to do with his
(04:45):
grief.
He jumps into the rebellionwith both feet.
Now he's really ready to fightand he's there, he's at the
barricade, and you mightappreciate, pastor Matt's, if
you're reading the book with us,his description of this
barricade, because it's kind ofinteresting.
Everybody's there for kind ofweird purposes.
(05:06):
You think they're there forthis rebellion, but everybody
else has this other thing too.
Valjean's checking out Marius.
He wants to know if Cosettereally ought to love him.
Javert is in disguise trying toundermine the rebellion but
also find Valjean.
Marius is kind of in there,he's fighting but really he's
(05:28):
just upset that he's lostCosette.
Everybody's kind of in thesemixed emotions, this mixed stage
of we're rebelling kinda, untilGavroche, the young kid.
He gets killed as the battlebegins on either side of the
(05:48):
barricade and everybodystraightens up and says wait a
minute.
The innocent kid gets killed.
I remember why we're here.
Battle ensues, marius getsinjured in this battle,
seriously injured, and Valjeanrescues Marius, rescues him most
(06:09):
likely because of Cosette, whomhe loves as a daughter.
He rescues Marius, bringsMarius back to where he can heal
and be made well.
But it's worthwhile noting thatMarius doesn't know.
It's Valjean that saves him.
So they start their lifetogether.
Valjean is a patriarch of sorts.
(06:29):
Marius and Cosette are nowromantic and then Valjean, again
feeling guilt, not being ableto deal with grace given to him,
confesses to Marius about allthe bad things that he has done,
but none of the good things.
And so Marius starts to pullcassette away from this bad guy,
(06:50):
valjean.
And it's not until the very endthat Marius learns that it was
Valjean who actually saved him.
And they get this climacticscene in which they're able to
come to Valjean and acknowledgethis super selfless act that he
(07:12):
had learned in his full storyarc to be a selfless man of
grace that not only received itwell but shared it well.
And there's your light and yourshining hope.
Isn't that fun.
All right, what are we 10minutes in?
And all I did was tell you whathappened in the story, all
(07:36):
right, well, now I can preach asermon, because we're all caught
up a little bit.
Hopefully you're understanding.
The theme for today is loveitself, and in Les Mis, in this
version, we're seeing all thedifferent variations of how love
is often played out.
We have romantic love,obviously, with Marius and
(07:58):
Cosette, but there's familiallove too.
Probably Fantine is the best,loving her daughter, so much she
says I got to figure out how tomake this work and does
everything she can to try tomake sure Cosette gets taken
care of.
And then I would say agape love, godly love, may be best
represented by Valjean inrescuing Marius, even though he
(08:23):
kind of wanted Cosette forhimself.
So you see, all these differentlove representations, and the
interesting thing to me is howthose representations, those
understandings, start to overlap.
How are they the same?
We think of romantic love andgodly love as being so distinct,
(08:44):
and yet are there things thatare similar, are there things
that they share?
And so we're going to do thatwith 1 Corinthians, 13, 1
through 13.
And many of you had this withyour wedding.
Seriously, yeah, okay, there wego, all right.
(09:08):
A couple of you are honest, therest of you?
What would you have read upthere, besides the love passage?
For gosh sakes, my goodness,love is patient, love is kind.
It just takes me right toweddings when I hear this
passage.
I really do appreciate it.
So this is Paul, all right, Ican't think of anything funny to
(09:30):
say.
I'm usually good with somethingabout sirens, and no, it's not
there.
Anyone Say a prayer, someone'shaving a bad day.
There we go, all right.
Today's not the day of prayer.
Is it the day of prayer?
May.
Every time I hear a siren.
Oh well, there you go, you'reright.
(09:51):
Maybe that's our invitationwhen you hear a siren, to say a
little prayer because somebody'sin danger.
All right, with the sirenhaving moved on jumping back
into 1 Corinthians 13.
They call it the love passagebecause he's defining love.
This is Paul who wrote theletters that are most of our New
(10:12):
Testament, writing to thechurch in Corinth, who have
turned out to be kind of afeisty bunch.
You know, it's good for us toremember this is early, early
church.
They're just figuring out howto be church at this point.
It's this new understanding ofcoming together, this new way of
(10:32):
worshiping, this new directionto God and this group in Corinth
.
They'd become kind of feistyand Paul wanted to help them
remember what was reallyimportant In all of this.
As we lead church, we can dogood things, but if you're not
doing it with love, you mightnot be doing it right.
(10:56):
It's interesting too, pastorMatt, who wrote the book we're
working through.
He talks about Paul sort offeeling his way around it, just
throwing things out there.
But I have sympathy for Paul,because have you ever tried to
define love in words?
I mean, sometimes we have ahard time even deciding if what
(11:19):
we're feeling is love right,when you're getting down to that
stage of well, do I want tospend 80 years with him or not?
Right?
We've all had that questionthat we're wrestling with.
And if you're talking aboutgodly love the wrestling with
understanding godly love and howto accept it but also how to
(11:43):
share it in the best ways I meanwe wrestle with that.
We're trying to figure out howto do it best.
It's not always easy knowinghow to live something like that
out, and for me, I count that asjob security, because as long
as we wrestle with that, I gotsomething to say for 20 minutes
on Sunday mornings.
We wrestle with love andunderstanding exactly what it is
(12:09):
.
So I have sympathy for Paul ashe wrestles with it, but he does
have this one tight principlethis one he's holding on to
really, really tightly principlethis one he's holding on to
really, really tightly and Iwould say it has something to do
with.
Love is not just a head thing.
It's not all about what's goingon in your brain.
(12:33):
Listen to the first part of thispassage again.
If I speak in the tongues ofmortals and of angels, I speak
in the tongues of mortals and ofangels.
A good thing, yes, if you'respeaking the words that angels
are bringing to this world andsharing.
We assume angels are connectedto God, sharing words that are
(12:55):
important to us from God.
If we are able to speak inthose tongues, we're feeling
pretty good about ourselves.
Right, if I can speak likeangels and say the things angels
want, said, we're feeling goodand yet listen to what Paul does
here.
If I speak in the tongues ofmortals and of angels but do not
have love, I am a noisy gong ora clanging cymbal.
(13:22):
You see the counter positionthere.
Do you feel the car juststopping really fast?
If you find yourself doingamazing things but don't have
love, then you're doing nothing.
I hope you're feeling thatcontrast.
He continues on.
(13:47):
And if I have prophetic powers,prophetic powers, you're able to
again to speak for God, maybeeven to look into the future and
speak into that future in theway God would have you speak.
You have prophetic powers.
You understand all mysteriesand all knowledge.
Right, he's laying it up thickand high.
(14:08):
If you have prophetic powers,you understand all mysteries,
all knowledge, and if you havefaith so as to remove mountains
I'm going to call that strongfaith, we're moving mountains,
removing mountains.
Strong faith you can have allof this but do not have love.
(14:31):
You are nothing.
Do you feel that contrast?
I mean Paul's laying it thickhere.
He's going right at us sayingyou could have the absolute best
, but if you don't have love,you're just playing around.
If I give away all mypossessions and if I hand over
(14:55):
my body so that I may boast Nowremember this would be a
Christian virtue, especially2,000 years ago Very selfless,
I'm handing everything over, I'mgiving it to people who need it
.
I'm not owning anything, overlyrelying on anything.
It's very, very selfless.
I give away all my possessions.
(15:19):
This massive contrast that he'strying to get us to understand
you could have everything thatwe in our brains and in our
lives see as amazing, butwithout love it's nothing.
This is what I feel him holdingon to here.
(15:44):
He's trying to tell us at leastin my reading, that there's
something here that is deeperthan our wisdom can reveal,
deeper than our brains, oursimple minds can take in.
We can find the logic in acertain concept or philosophy,
in love, but if that's all wefound, we've missed what I would
(16:08):
call the spiritual reality ofthat concept of that philosophy.
We've got it wrapped up in ourbrain and organized in our brain
but we're not feeling it.
Well then, we're going to stickto it, only as long as it
(16:28):
continues to make sense.
Not because it touched ourhearts.
The church in Corinth it kind ofgets characterized, as you read
through the letter, as thischurch that feels like it has it
all figured out.
They've got it all organized Atleast they believe they've got
(16:52):
it figured out.
And Paul wants them to know.
I'm not sure you figured it out.
You might have nothing.
You figured it out, you mighthave nothing.
Dr Crouch, inworkingpreachercom he points out
this description.
He says the church's factionsseem to exude this attitude.
(17:12):
We are right Pillars of thechurch, beacons of truth, giants
of faith, and we tower aboveyou people who are not one of us
.
Do you hear that?
How he's describing, how we seePaul describing this church in
(17:34):
Corinth, why he feels he needsto write this passage to this
church?
I think that we might possiblyhave even had engagements with
churches like that Kind of feellike they've got it rigged.
(17:56):
There's a certainoverconfidence.
I wouldn't be surprised ifpeople in this room had actually
been part of a church like that, that super confidence.
We've got it figured out.
(18:16):
Certainly not here at UnitedMethodist Church of Westlake
Village.
We have proper humility here.
But you know that church thetype of church it might be
greatly proud of its missionprogram but rarely engaging with
anyone that they're servingthis kind of church might feel
(18:39):
good about itself, so good aboutitself that it doesn't really
reach out or share the witnessthat they've come to understand,
the love that they've come tounderstand about God, just
pleased with who they are.
It might be that kind of church.
(19:01):
And the message I think to thatkind of church, and when we
become that kind of people, isthat this passage may be better
characterized not as the lovepassage but the humility passage
, the passage that wants us toremember how important it is
that we understand not just thelogic of it but have some deeper
(19:26):
sense of the love that layunderneath it, that we have it
so strong that even when westart wrestling with it, we
still trust that it lay withinour hearts.
Because this love that we'retalking about, this love that
Paul's talking about, it's onlythe beginning.
It gets tougher.
(19:53):
Paul also tells us w ell, manypeople tell us in our scripture,
and if we're going to look at afull context of scripture.
Loo k at all the ways we'resupposed to be loving.
We're supposed to love ourenemies.
Cardinal fans, Pirate fans,Detroit fans.
We got to love them all.
(20:15):
It's not easy, but listen inscripture it says this in
Matthew, in Luke, 1 Peter, inthe Hebrew Bible, old Testament,
Exodus, Proverbs.
Paul's talking about it inRomans, etc.
Etc.
You know what else?
(20:37):
We're supposed to love thestranger, love the alien in our
midst.
If you look through Scripture,it's in Leviticus, the Old
Testament.
It's in Deuteronomy, it's inthe letter to the Hebrews,
letter to the Romans, it's inthe gospel of Matthew, et cetera
(20:58):
, et cetera.
That love that Paul is callingus to, it's big, it's tough.
It's the center of so much ofwhat we're supposed to be
understanding, or at leasttrying to understand, about how
to live here, how to live well,how to live abundantly.
(21:22):
I think this humility might bethe uniting principle that is
undergirding all of ourunderstandings of love.
We've been talking about Agapelove and its being essential to
godly activity.
We have to have love for Godand love for others in order to
(21:46):
truly be experiencing what Godwants us to experience in that
love, in that sharing.
If we want to know God in ourgood acts, love needs to be at
the center of that.
We talk about familial love.
If we don't embrace humility inour relationships, we're likely
(22:08):
only to love others for what wecan make them, not who they are
, which really isn't that just acelebration of ourselves and
not God, not the other person?
And what about romantic love?
(22:28):
Marius and Cosette?
What advice would we give themabout a successful marriage?
What part would humility playin that advice?
I know Brenda and I weresneaking up on 32 years of
marriage, but I think we'reprobably babies in this room
(22:57):
with that.
Anybody up to 35 years ofmarriage yeah Right.
40?
Yeah, all right.
How many are right in that 40range?
Well, right in the 40.
All right,J ohn, what have youlearned?
He looked right at her.
(23:20):
O h shoot, what am I allowed tosay?
What betterI say?
Humility, an important part of40 years?
I don't know that you get veryfar.
45 years anybody in that range?
45 years, right, I'll get there.
(23:42):
I'll get there A littlepatience.
45 years I'll get there, I'llget there A little patience.
45 years Humility is thatimportant.
Have we learned that Ken alreadywas humble, so he didn't have
to learn it?
He's Canadian.
Those guys, they were humblefrom the beginning.
(24:04):
Got the Canadian roots Allright.
50?
, 55?
Oh, man, we're still goingstrong over here.
Barb and the Weavers All right.
60?
Wow, oh, here we go.
All right, what's the secret?
(24:26):
You have it figured out?
Well, I know Phil's not goingto tell me because he's an
engineer, but Jeanie, I thinkJeanie will tell me what's the
secret.
Is humility involved there?
Would you tell Marius andCosette how important that was?
Yes, what other words would youuse?
(24:49):
It's a little too much honestyright here for a Sunday morning.
Keep on loving each other, amen, amen, amen.
Well, my friends, I feel likewhat we're trying to learn from
Les Mis, what we're trying tolearn from our scripture, from
(25:12):
Paul, is just the importance ofrecognizing that there is
something larger than any of us.
God has offered and put amongstus the truth of love, and it's
going to be something we're onlygetting tastes of, but they'll
be blessed tastes.
Let's keep ourselves humbled sothat we can always be accessing
(25:38):
that love in the ways that Godwants us to know that love.
Let's not get overconfidentabout thinking we have it
figured out, but remember God isalways leading us, god is
always guiding us, god is alwaysguiding us.
We're going to share ourmusical offering today, a Heart
Full of Love, and I invite youin this time to be reflecting on
(26:03):
the significance of love inyour own life, both Agape love,
but maybe in particular, theromantic love that Marius and
Cosette share in this song
A heart full of love, a heartfull of song.
(26:40):
I'm doing everything all wrong.
Oh God, for shame.
I do not even know your name,dear mademoiselle, won't you say
, will you tell A heart full oflove, no fear, no regret.
(27:12):
My name is Marius Pontmercy andmine Cosette Cosette.
I don't know wha t to say.
Then, make no sound.
I am lost.
I am found A heart full oflight, a heart full of you, and
(27:45):
you must never go away.
Cosette, Cosette.
This is a chain we'll neverbreak.
Do we dream we're awake?
(28:06):
A heart full of love, a heartfull of you.
.
.
A single look and then I knew,I knew it too, From today,
every day, for it isn't a dream,not a dream after all.
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