Manuscript for the service on February 14

 Epistle 1 Corinthians 13:1–13

¹If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. ²And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. ³If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.

⁴Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant ⁵or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; ⁶it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. ⁷Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

⁸Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. ⁹For we know in part and we prophesy in part, ¹⁰but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. ¹¹When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways. ¹²For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.

¹³So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.

A This is the Word of the Lord.

 

Holy Gospel

P The Holy Gospel according to St. Luke, the eighteenth chapter.

C Glory be to Thee, O Lord.

³¹Taking the twelve, [Jesus] said to them, “See, we are going up to Jerusalem, and everything that is written about the Son of Man by the prophets will be accomplished. ³²For he will be delivered over to the Gentiles and will be mocked and shamefully treated and spit upon. ³³And after flogging him, they will kill him, and on the third day he will rise.” ³⁴But they understood none of these things. This saying was hidden from them, and they did not grasp what was said.

³⁵As he drew near to Jericho, a blind man was sitting by the roadside begging. ³⁶And hearing a crowd going by, he inquired what this meant. ³⁷They told him, “Jesus of Nazareth is passing by.” ³⁸And he cried out, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” ³⁹And those who were in front rebuked him, telling him to be silent. But he cried out all the more, “Son of David, have mercy on me!” ⁴⁰And Jesus stopped and commanded him to be brought to him. And when he came near, he asked him, ⁴¹“What do you want me to do for you?” He said, “Lord, let me recover my sight.” ⁴²And Jesus said to him, “Recover your sight; your faith has made you well.” ⁴³And immediately he recovered his sight and followed him, glorifying God. And all the people, when they saw it, gave praise to God.

P This is the Gospel of the Lord.

C Praise be to Thee, O Christ.

 

Apostles’ Creed

C I believe in God, the Father Almighty,  maker of heaven and earth.

 And in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died and was buried. He descended into hell. The third day He rose again from the dead. He ascended into heaven and sits at the right hand of God the Father Almighty. From thence He will come to judge the living and the dead.

 I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy Christian Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins,      the resurrection of the body, and the life T everlasting. Amen.

Sermon

1 Corinthians 13:4 - Love is patient and kind.

There seems to be good reason to believe that Valentine was a real guy. Archaeology has found an old memorial with his name on it. Old stories have been passed on about him. It is said that back in the 200s when the Christian church did not have any official status, and the Roman empire was in charge of all things in a person’s life, like who could get married and how, Valentine, a priest in the church got in trouble for marrying young couples. So tradition and superstition, have made this connection between Valentine and the sweet love between a man and a woman.

Since then, Valentine’s Day has grown into this commercialized event. It’s a big business, around 22 billion dollars annually in our country. Valentine’s is a very secular holiday, associated with worldly ideas of romance and passion. But there is a big overlap with the Christian message of love and the importance of marriage.

“God is love”, we are told. God made us in his image to be people who love. He made us male and female, starting with Adam and Eve. And God provided Adam with an attraction for his wife Eve, such that he could call her bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh. And when Adam loved Eve, it was a lesson on how the Lord loves His people. And when Eve loved Adam, it showed how God’s people, the Church, love their Lord.

Love is patent and kind. In our love, lets not forget to be patient. Patience is invaluable when you love someone who is different than you in one way or another. Can you love someone when you don’t always understand what they are doing? What were they thinking? Why are they reacting this way? Patience is awarded eventually with understanding. You gotta wait for it. It’s not easy, We all could learn to be more patient. Let’s strive for patience, especially with those we love.

The Bible says in a number of places, “Wait for the Lord.” Consider this: You who love God, need to patient with God. Love is patient and kind. When God does not do what you want Him to do, when God does not carry through with what you thought you heard him say, when you don’t know what He is doing or thinking, wait for the Lord. Be patient.

In Psalm 13 you can hear King David struggling to have patience with God. He says, “How long, O Lord? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me? How long must I take counsel in my soul   and have sorrow in my heart all the day?”

This is how we can pray when it feels like God isn’t helping, like He isn’t doing anything about our problems and our suffering. I know I’m not the only one who thought at first that this pandemic would be over in a couple of weeks, or a couple of months, or surely by the fall, certainly it wouldn’t last a year! O God, are you listening?

King David sets his mind to wait for the Lord, and not give up. In patience, he could look forward to good things from His Savior and Lord. He ends Psalm 13 by saying, “But I have trusted in your steadfast love; my heart shall rejoice in your salvation. I will sing to the Lord,   because he has dealt bountifully with me.”

You likewise, trust in the Lord’s steadfast love. Rejoice in your Lord’s salvation. In the depths of your troubles and sorrows you won’t feel like whistling a happy tune. God will give you good things. Keep thinking that the time will come when you can feel good again, “I will sing to the Lord, because he has dealt bountifully with me.”

Love and trust God, even if you can’t understand what He is up to at this present moment. Patience is awarded eventually with understanding. “For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known” (1 Corinthians 13:12).

And then there’s this, you gotta remember: God is more patient than you. He hasn’t given up on any of us yet. Everyone of you listening, God loves you. He wants you to love Him and trust in Him. Everyone you know, everyone you meet, God loves them and wants them to love Him and believe in Him. His love never fails. Out of everything that there ever was, or is now or ever will be -- “faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.”

God’s love for you abides. It lasts. It is eternal, infinite. In your darkest moment, there’s God’s love. At the hour of your death, God’s love is there, it abides. At the moment of your ugliest transgression and sin, God’s love patiently endures, because Jesus did what it took to take your sin away from you and to pay for it himself.

Love is patient, love is kind.

Jesus shows us what it means that love is kind. Being kind means taking your attention off yourself for a moment to think of someone else. Be kind, that means, stop dwelling constantly on what you need and what you want and consider what it is that might benefit someone else. “Love seeks not its own way.” The kind love of Jesus, who was equal with God, considered that the glory of heaven was not something he had to cling to, but for the sake of his loved ones, you and me, he set aside the glory and took on shame instead. For our sakes, for our needs, He emptied Himself, gave up all.

The Valentine’s heart, that cute symbol of love, ought to remind us of the heart of Jesus that came to stop beating as his life’s blood drained from him on the cross. That’s his love, patient and kind., giving, enduring, abiding for you. Amen.

 

Prayer of the Church

P O Lord, our God, You have opened the eyes of the blind to see and the ears of the deaf to hear. As we prepare to enter the season of Lent, open our eyes and ears anew, through the preaching of Your Law and Gospel, to see and hear Your Son, our Savior, Jesus Christ. Lord, in Your mercy,

C hear our prayer. 

P Preserve Your Church and her ministers. Give to all pastors courage to embrace gladly the crosses of their office, that following their example all Christians may also bear the reproach of the world, the attacks of Satan and the temptations of the flesh in the confidence of Christ’s redemption. Lord, in Your mercy,

C hear our prayer. 

P Preserve the family and all godly Christian homes. Give parents diligence and persistence in their duties to teach the faith in word and example. Keep all children in the promise You made to them in their Baptism. Let the patience, kindness and endurance of Christian love have no end among us. Lord, in Your mercy,

C hear our prayer. 

P Preserve the state and its servants. To all whom You have given authority, bestow also the wisdom needed to use it dutifully for the benefit of those under authority. Turn us from every evil in judgment, law or action, and renew in us and our fellow citizens discernment and selflessness. Lord, in Your mercy,

C hear our prayer. 

P Preserve us and all who call to You in any need [especially _____________]. Lord, in Your mercy,

C hear our prayer. 

P Lord God, heavenly Father, what You foretold through the holy prophets has been fulfilled and accomplished in the suffering, death and resurrection of Your Son. You have set forth His Passion and resurrection as the firm foundation and content for our faith. Have mercy on us, and open our eyes to be fixed on the Son of David at all times. Give us courage to follow Him through all adversity and every assault of the devil to view His Passion with repentant hearts and with delight, for by it You have redeemed us from all sin and evil. Comfort us with the certainty of Christ’s resurrection, by which we, too, have the confidence of eternal life; through the same Jesus Christ, Your Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.

C Amen.

Lord’s Prayer

C Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name, Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven; give us this day our daily bread; and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us; and lead us not into temptation,  but deliver us from evil. For Thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever and ever. Amen.

 

Benedicamus

A Bless we the Lord.

C Thanks be to God.

 

Benediction

P The Lord bless you and keep you.

The Lord make His face shine upon you and be gracious unto you.

The Lord lift up His countenance upon you and T give you peace.

C Amen.