1 Corinthians

Do you ever read something and think, “I’ll pretend I didn’t see that”?

Some homework set by a teacher at the last minute that you’d rather your children didn’t have to do.

An email sent at 5.25pm inviting you to some drinks after work.

A new “no-right-turn” sign on a route you drive every day.

We all get tempted to put our fingers in our ears from time to time. Pretend we didn’t hear something that is somewhat inconvenient.

At times, the Bible can be like that. Sometimes, God says things to us that we’d love him to unsay.

Most of us wonder at times, what happens to us when we die.

Often the answer is that we just don’t know.

So we make something up that would make us feel a bit better if it were true. Many a parent has told their children that granddad has just become one of the stars in the sky, and if you look up you can see him looking down on us. We know it isn’t true, but we just don’t know what else to say.

Does God still speak today? That’s the question asked by our Bible reading.

If he doesn’t, we’re in the dark.

We’ve just baptised Andrew. He’s got to chart a path through life, and his parents have just signed up God to be his guide.

Well, our boys love mazes, and maybe Andrew’s brother and sister do too. If you’re a bit lost at Crystal Palace or Leeds Castle, you’d love to have a birds eye view. Someone who can look down and see the whole maze and tell you which way to turn. They could then shout down directions: “Left. Left. Right. Not that one – it’s a dead-end”.

I take it we all agree that love is important. If I told you that I’m going to try to convince you that love is important, you’d probably switch off. We know that already.

What’s not so obvious is what we mean by this. What is love? How is it important?

Nearly every world religion teaches that love is supreme. Whether it’s one of the 5 Sikh virtues. Whether it’s required by Allah to enter paradise. Or whether it’s the ancient religions with many gods – including Aphrodite, Cupid, Eros and Venus.