Text: Franziska Kuhn, Reformed pastor, Kleinbasel, Basel (CH), short sermon
1 Corinthians 16 verse 14 : “ Let everything you do be done in love.”
Do you know Obelix? This cartoon character who fell into the magic potion as a child and therefore has superpowers. I'm just imagining how different the world would be if we, humans, fell into a magic potion of love and received loving superpowers. If we couldn't help but love, love, love, cook lovingly, nod lovingly at ourselves in the mirror, nod lovingly at the other people we meet... And we therefore knew at all times what, when and why...loving reaction, action, Speech, silence, action, omission... would be.
Yes, it already appears here, this resistance and challenge that is inherent in this short, seemingly innocent sentence of the 2024 annual slogan. This was already clear to Paul when he wrote this sentence to the community in Corinth, where a wide variety of topics, opinions and grievances were brewing.
Probably precisely because he knew about the importance AND difficulty, he wrote a distinctive theology of love, the highlight of which is the Song of Songs of Love; At most, this has already come under your eyes, in your ears or fallen into your heart...
"Love is long-suffering and kind, it does not seek yours, it does not count evil... If I spoke with the tongues of men and of angels and did not have love, I would be a sounding brass or a clanging cymbal... ." (1 Corinthians 13:1-13).
***Let it happen***
But let's go back to the annual slogan text: Strictly speaking, the original Greek text doesn't say everything you do - but rather "everything you do is done in love." Or let everything you do happen in love, happen in love, take place in love, become in love. The verb used there is related to the word genesis: birth, origin, creation. So we could say: every time something happens in love, something original happens, something comes into being.
The two variants of the annual motto show us that it is - once again - about finding the good balance between task and gift, between doing and letting go, between (human) effort and (God) trusting letting go.
And even if we fail, the alternative of not daring, not loving, is definitely worse...
***Love gene built into us***
Now it is clear: the motto for the year would be completely wrong if it were impossible for us humans to love. But it seems that the “love gene” is built into us - so we are able to love. Of course, this system can be buried or destroyed by bitter inheritance and severe blows of fate. But who has ever met a person for whom love would not be good in the long term? Who has not flourished under the sun of real affirmation?
***Final Thought***
So how about we turn our lives into a love letter,
who also includes the unloved in the hope of consolation and the grace of light.
Or in other words:
Whether I loved or not is important
Amen
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