I’ve heard of a story of a wedding ceremony presided over by a young minister…

Unfortunately, this humorous story sometimes reflects the marriages in our modern society.

One common word we use in everyday life is “love.” We often discuss the term “love” in our culture. I love Jesus. I love my wife. I love my parents. I love my children. I love my church. I love sports. I love reading, walking, and travelling. However, all the statements about love do not mean the same thing.

On Communion Sunday, we will explore passages from the Holy Bible regarding God’s spiritual principles for intimate loving relationships, particularly marriage. In our Epistle reading for today, we shared a well-known passage that is often read at weddings. The author of this Epistle, the Apostle Paul, begins by highlighting the importance of love. No matter how much power, pleasure, or possessions we may enjoy today, all these things can mean nothing without Christ’s love, called “Agape” in Greek.

After emphasizing this topic, Paul lists fourteen kinds of divine love. In today’s message, I invite us to explore this holy text and apply its sacred lessons to our faith journey. Once again, I love the three points of the sermon, so I categorize these godly affections into three C-initiated words: Covenant, Commitment, and Communion.

Firstly, love in marriage is a covenant between the couples, sealed with Christ’s unconditional love. That is why the Apostle Paul emphasizes this morning that love always protects, always trusts, always hopes, and always perseveres (1 Corinthians 13:7). Do you understand the difference between a covenant and a contract? In a contract, both parties usually agree to fulfill their own responsibilities. If they neglect their duties, the contract can be terminated, and their relationship can end at any time.

Someone introduced three types of love in the following phrases: “I love you if; I love you because; I love you in spite of.” Friends, do you love some people only if they help you out? Do you love some people simply because they are good to you? Yes, I do too. We all may love depending on the actions of others. But do we love some people in spite of how they respond to us? This question can be challenging for all of us to answer.

The first two love statements I described can represent a contract or conditional love. The last description can symbolize a sacred covenant in Christ’s love.

Down the road, we may find ourselves wondering about our relationships with some people close to us, asking a question similar to the one the Apostle Peter did: “Lord, how many times should I forgive this person who sins against me? Up to seven times?” Do you remember what Jesus said to Peter? He stated, “I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times” (Matthews 18:21-22). Seventy multiplied by seven equals four hundred and ninety occasions. In other words, there are no limits to forgiving or loving one another.

Think about how many times we have sinned since we were born. It is almost impossible for us to count all our numerous mistakes, failures, shortcomings, and wrongdoings throughout our lifetime. All of us here in this sanctuary or via Zoom are imperfect. Each of us has grown up in different life environments.

In real-life relationships, on the one hand, we face challenging things we may not expect from our spouses, friends, neighbours, co-workers, and so on. On the other hand, we can discover more good qualities from those around us. Over time, all of us can become better and grow together if we continue to show our covenant love to our loved ones while remembering Christ’s unconditional love for us.

Secondly, love in marriage is a commitment to one another for the rest of our lives, rooted in Christ’s sacrificial love. The problem I have witnessed nowadays is that many married couples seek their own happiness through their spouses. Someone once said: “[Committed] love seeks its happiness in the happiness of the beloved.” This is what the Apostle Paul is saying today: “Love is not self-seeking” (1 Corinthians 13:5). This expression refers to sacrificial love.

Jesus Christ committed His everything to each of us, as sinners, from the Bible’s point of view. Did He make a commitment of His love for us for a certain period? No, Jesus sacrificed all His being until He died for our sins on the cross. Eventually, Christ expressed His fulfilment of love with the following proclamation, “It is finished” (John 19:30), at His last moment on earth.

Friends, are you committed to giving your undivided hearts to your loved ones for a specific lengthy time? Or are you dedicated to giving your everything to them until you are called to be with the Lord? I believe that the latter is your choice, right!

Have you heard that a mother is always a mother to her children, no matter how old they are? When my wife and I went back to our homeland, we spent most of our time with my mother. She just turned 79 yesterday and lives by herself. During our stay, she kept checking whether we were well-fed. Continuously bringing us something to eat, she made sure we were not hungry. A mother’s love lasts forever.

As I have stated before, there are many challenges that married couples face. Whether they like it or not, sometimes they have to deal with sickness, financial difficulties, emotional issues, arguments, and so on. Do not get me wrong. I am not saying marriage is too difficult for husbands and wives to handle the challenges listed above. In fact, most of us agree that marriage is one of the greatest blessings God has given us.

We can and will eventually find this divine blessing when our loved ones are most happy. Amazingly, we can and will experience this godly satisfaction when we try to make our loved ones happy. Furthermore, we can and will discover undescribed joyfulness while seeking our happiness in their happiness. They can and will also experience happiness when their loved ones are happiest.

Thirdly, love in any relationship is communion between two people as lifelong partners in Christ’s communal love. Today’s sacred text also describes love as patient and kind. Someone suggests replacing each word for love with our own names. In my case, it would be: Caleb is patient. Caleb is kind… I want to stop here since I feel embarrassed about doing this because I am not that loving of a person.

What about substituting the name of Jesus instead of ours? “Jesus is patient. Jesus is kind… Jesus is not self-seeking… Jesus always trusts…” Now, it does make sense in this loving statement. As the Son of God, Jesus came to the earth as a human being. Whenever Christ needed Agape love, He knelt and communed with God in prayer despite His busy ministry.

The success of Christ’s covenant and committed love is drawn from His intimate fellowship with the Lord. No matter how busy Jesus was in His public ministry, He always secured time for His daily conversation with God and received all the strength, wisdom, and direction from the Lord.

When we make promises of building up a relationship with God and others, we usually pledge before the Lord by saying not only “Yes, I do” but also “I will.” I believe that these responses are very appropriate since our covenant and committed love for God and others is valid not only at that present time but also for the future. With the “I will” statement, we indicate our ongoing and continued dedication to God and others.

A relationship can be compared to a marathon. We encounter difficult points that may arise during the long-distance run. Even good married couples sometimes face challenges in their relationships. It is crucial for us to understand how to solve these matters together at some point. I believe that many of us are good communicators with others and that is great. On top of this, we need to keep in mind that the simple but significant “I will” statement cannot be kept without the help of God.

Like Jesus Christ, when we commune with the Lord in our daily devotion and ask for His supernatural love, God can and will help each of us maintain the promises we have made so far and assist us in the coming days. That is why we can confidently and courageously respond to our covenant and committed love with this combined proclamation: “With the strength of the Lord, I will! With God as my helper, I will!”

I recently read a letter sent to Ann Landers, an advice columnist at the Chicago Sun-Times, from one of her readers…

What an intimate loving relationship in their marriage and in their walk with God.

In today’s Gospel, we find one of Jesus’ disciples isolated despite being together at the same table. As Jesus shared an illustration of bread with them, He hinted that one of them would betray Him. Later, Jesus dipped a piece of bread and gave it to Judas. However, no one else realized that he would soon betray Christ. Jesus was deeply saddened when He witnessed one of His beloved disciples, Judas, being tempted by Satan. He was also very upset when He saw the others not caring for their fellow believer with God’s love.

After Judas left the sacred fellowship, Jesus gave His disciples a new command. “Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another” (John 13:34). A crucial aspect of this divine instruction is loving one another based on Christ’s love for us. Jesus understands our imperfections and knows we cannot love others with our own strength. We need to remember how much God has cared for us. He loved us until He sacrificed His one and only Son, Jesus Christ for us, even though we repeatedly make mistakes and fail to do righteous things. Jesus has forgiven us so many times, more than seventy-seven times, in our faith Journey.

Even today, Christ invites us to come to this Holy Communion table as we are. Jesus is always ready to cleanse our sins from our hearts and make our minds pure again. By remembering Christ’s love, Jesus wants us to care for others, especially those close to us in our family, church, and community, just as He loves us. We cannot change the whole world on our own, but we can make a difference when we all do our part with the help of the Holy Spirit.

The late Anne occasionally spoke to me about the benefit of showing God’s love in various ways. She made phone calls, sent cards, and visited isolated people. She believed God would bless our world through those godly activities when we did them together. Our loved ones can benefit from others’ loving actions, and someday, we may each be blessed by such friendly assistance.

One of the best ways to witness God is by demonstrating His love within the family of God, which is Christ’s Church. That is what Jesus said in our Gospel: “By this, all men will know that you are my disciples if you love one another” (John 13:35). That is what God wants us, as St. Andrew’s, to be known for. The thing that proves to people outside of the church that we are Christ’s followers is not our gorgeous building, our worship services, our long history, or our wonderful tradition. What attracts the community to us as Christ’s disciples is our love for each other!

With Christ’s Agape love, we can continuously practice His greatest command based on the unconditional, sacrificial, and communal love that our Mighty and Merciful God has shown us in our faith journey. May God provide each of us with His abundant sacred blessings during the communion observance as we reflect on the three attributed words that start with the letter C: Covenant, Commitment, and Communion!

*In this sermon, I have incorporated some thoughts from various sermons based on John 13:18-38 & 1 Corinthians 13:1-7,13.