What is love? When I first ask myself the question the first thing that pops into my mind is the 1990’s song “What is Love?” by Haddaway. If you don’t know the song, I advise against you listening to it because I promise it will get stuck in your head. I find that the best way to answer the question, “what is love”, is to look to scripture. The Bible has a lot to say about love, as a matter of fact there are several hundred verses about it and various words in Greek and Hebrew that are used to describe it. To ask the question what is love, is to embark on a journey that never ends.
This month we began a sermon series called, “The Best Year Yet”, because that is what I believe God has for us here at Cornerstone, our best year yet is ahead of us. Each we we have discussed various forms of “new”. So far we have shared about the blessing of a “New Year”, the empowerment of “New Wisdom”, and the responsibility to set “New Priorities”. This week we will be discussing how God will be leading us to a “New Love”. Our scripture will focus on 1 Corinthians 8:1-13. In these verses the Apostle Paul is urging the church in Corinth to abstain from eating certain foods. The reason he has for doing so is that he believes that although eating the food in and of itself is not wrong, the mere act of doing so may lead those that do not understand astray. I will go into more detail about this on Sunday, but for now what I hope you hear from this is that Paul understood that in everything thing we do we must look beyond the immediate consequences of self and consider the well being of others.
In our society there is a lot of “me” focus. We don’t often consider how our actions will affect our neighbors, society, or even others in the near & far future. As Christians we must consider not only how our actions, whether intentional or not, will affect our neighbor. This Sunday and next we are also participating with a world-wide campaign, called “The Souper Bowl of Caring”. This event was started more than 28 years ago, with a single prayer from a single youth group: “ Lord, even as we enjoy the Super Bowl football game, help us to be mindful of those without a bowl of soup to eat.” What that youth group realized nearly 3 decades ago was that although they were doing no personal harm by watching the Super Bowl, they were also doing no one else any good. Since that day, more than $135 million and even more cans of soup have been donated to local charities across the country through Souper Bowl of Caring. It has become a powerful movement that is transforming the time around the Big Game into the nation’s largest celebration of giving and serving.
A “New Love” for our neighbors is found when we start thinking and caring beyond ourselves. Through this mission, we can all learn what it is like to make a positive difference in the world – as we collect food, raise money, and volunteer. We can provide food to the hungry and compassion to those in need. Join Cornerstone UMC and The Cornerstone Christian Learning Center and be a part of this movement that is sharing God’s love with those in need.
February 4th, 2018
Donations of canned soups can be brought to the CCLC/Cornerstone Church from January 22nd through February 4th. All donations will be delivered to local food pantries in the Garland/ Richardson Area.
In God’s grip,
Pastor Chuck Church
