Thought fir the Day -Monday 28 September

Thought for the Day – Monday 28th September ‘If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.’ (1 Corinthians 13: 1-3) How is your cooking or baking doing? Is it improving during lockdown? I am usually quite good at laying out all the ingredients that I need for a recipe and then usually take my time and follow the recipe through stage by stage, checking things off as I go. Imagine my surprise, and disappointment, then when we went to tuck into a dish recently – a dish which looked as it always did and smelt really good and tasty – only to discover on eating it that it was rather lacklustre in flavour and certainly not as hot and spicy as usual. Yes, you’ve guessed it, I had missed out one of the vital ingredients needed to make it so spicy and tasty – I had obviously taken the wrong red powder from my spice rack and replaced it with something else red but not as spicy! Disappointed or not I had taken so long preparing it that we just ate it anyway – but it wasn’t quite the same without that vital ingredient! I think although not talking about a culinary disaster here, rather more about Christian discipleship, Paul is thinking along the same lines when it comes to that vital ingredient. As he has visited each new place setting up new churches he has given the people in those places the ‘recipe’ for Christian discipleship – he has talked of things such as faith to move mountains, spiritual gifts, human gifts, being generous, being committed to the point of being humble and self-sacrificing and so you would think the recipe is complete. Yet, that is not the case, for as far as Paul is concerned you might follow this recipe to the letter but still without the one vital ingredient of love then the recipe will just never work out. He even feels that though they follow the recipe their discipleship will count for nothing if they do not have love as the vital ingredient!! No matter how often we hear this message of the importance of love – and believe me as Christians we do hear it often – we still need to keep hearing the message, for love is the important vital ingredient of discipleship! Yes, we can show our faith outwardly in our thinking and believing and our actions and our deeds but if that is all it is – an outward showing - without the underlying important motive of love – then everything we do may just count as nothing and we certainly don’t want that to happen. Rather like me confusing my spices and making the recipe fail and producing a bland result – we don’t want to confuse all these incidentals of Christian discipleship with the one vital ingredient that really matters - love - and loving others as God has loved us! Prayer Loving Lord, Your love is patient and we pray for the patience to love others as you have loved us. Your love is kind and we pray you would give us the courage to be kind to others and to serve with patience. Your love is not pompous and we pray you would give us insight that we might speak the truth in love and for the sake of your kingdom. Your love does not seek its own interests and we thank you for this and pray for those who serve those who are poor or in need, who give tirelessly of themselves and who have much to do and little time for themselves. Your love is not quick-tempered and we pray for those who are angry and for the violent and their victims. Your love bears all things so we remembvfer before you those with heavy burdens, many cares, much stress, and too little comfort and help. Your love never fails, not even death can separate us from your love. Lord, may we love as you. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.