Love in a Broken World

1 Corinthians 13

…And the greatest of these is love.  –1 Corinthians 13:13

Last night, thanks to the wonder of DVR technology, I watched last weekend’s “live” performance of RENT, a“rock opera” set against the backdrop of the AIDS epidemic in New York City in the early 1990s.  I had tears in my eyes through most of it. The 2005 movie based on the stage play has long been a favorite, though I haven’t watched it in a while.  The music is powerful and the story itself is a deep dive into the human condition. All the characters in RENT have “baggage.”  There is pain, struggle and brokenness in these peoples’ lives.  The characters are profoundly human. The story looks at the realities of injustice, greed, privilege, yearning, dreaming, desire, addiction, disease, relationships, and death.  But, the thing that always makes my eyes water up is the way the power of love helps the characters in the play transcend the harsh realities of their lives.  It doesn’t take away those realities. It doesn’t cure them in some wishy-washy sentimentalized way.  It doesn’t make “everything better.” But, it does carry them in the midst of the pain, struggle and brokenness of their lives, at, at times, helps them rise above it.

The beginning of RENT, not coincidentally, is also set against the backdrop of Christmas Eve -- the birthday of the one who came into the world to embody God’s love for the whole world.  Yes, even for bohemians struggling with pain and brokenness in New York City. Yes, even for those of us caught up in the realities of injustice, greed, privilege, yearning, dreaming, desire, addiction, disease, relationships and death.  Yes, even for the likes of you and me.  Jesus’ way of love isn’t sentimental either.  Jesus’ love carries him into the harsh realities of human life. During his ministry he confronts disease, and injustices, and death.  Ultimately, Jesus’ love carries him to a cross, through death and into new life.  

I am sure that Paul was thinking of Jesus when he told the conflicted, divided and struggling Corinthian church that 

Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. (1 Corinthians 13:4-7)

Like the Corinthians, the church today can fall far short of loving in the way of the Lord we follow and strive to emulate.  Like the people in RENT we sometimes give in to the pain, struggle and brokenness in our lives.  We can and do hurt one another.  (And that is an understatement!) But the love lifted up by Paul, Jesus’ way of love, still has the power to help us persevere and even transcend our own brokenness.  It still has the power to transform us, and bring life from death.  

If you are looking for a way of life that gives life, Paul’s description of love is a good place to start. 

Peace,

Bishop Mike

Thanks for reading. This week, I pray for all those who live lives of desperation, and for the church to be the loving community – for ALL people -- God intends for us to be.