We are good at doing church.
We teach Sunday school. We sing hymns. We serve on committees. We volunteer at events. We give generously. All of those things matter. All of them are important. But the apostle Paul reminds us of something we often forget. Without LOVE, none of it holds together.
In 1 Corinthians 13, Paul starts what we often call the Love Chapter with a hard truth. He does not begin with romance or warm feelings. He begins with a warning. You can speak with eloquence. You can have deep knowledge. You can exercise great faith. You can give everything away. But if LOVE is missing, it is all noise. It gains nothing. It amounts to nothing.
That is why our new worship series is called Love Is the Hinge.
A hinge is small, but it is essential. A door can be beautifully crafted, solid, and impressive, but without hinges, it cannot open. It cannot protect. It cannot welcome. It cannot function the way it was created to function. In worship this week, we have placed a broken door on the stage with no hinges attached. Written across the door were words like prophecy, tongues, knowledge, and generosity. All good things. All gifts Paul names in this passage. Yet without LOVE, the door will not hold.
The same is true for the church.
We can be busy and active. We can be gifted and passionate. We can even be generous and sacrificial. But when LOVE is replaced with self-interest, superiority, factions, bitterness, or exclusion, the hinges loosen. Eventually, the door falls. What was meant to be a place of welcome becomes a barrier instead.
Paul is not saying that spiritual gifts are bad. He is saying they are incomplete without LOVE. Love is what connects belief to action. Love is what connects faith to real life. Love is what connects the heart of God to the work of God’s people.
At the end of worship, we will invite people to come forward and place sticky notes on the broken door. Some may write confessions. Some may write the names of people they struggle to LOVE. Some may name attitudes or behaviors that have kept LOVE from flowing freely in their hearts. It will be a holy moment. A reminder that repair begins with honesty.
This first week sets the foundation for everything that follows. Love is not optional. It is essential. It is the hinge that holds the door steady. Over the coming weeks, we will begin to repair the door piece by piece. But it starts here. With LOVE above all.
May we be a church that does not just do church things, but LOVES deeply. May our words carry grace, our actions reflect compassion, and our doors open wide on strong hinges of LOVE.
Grace and peace because grace always goes before peace,
Pastor Sharon