The Launch Pad

1 Corinthians 13:8-13

Last week, the session met with the Middle Schoolers preparing to join the church and heard them answer the question, “What does it mean to you to join the church.” If you ever have days where your hope is faltering, I invite you to think on this: seven youth who have been raised under the care of your love and teaching all profess that joining the church means something to them. In just a few moments, one of these will be professing her faith to receive her baptism, and the other six will be reaffirming their baptismal vows.

During that meeting with the middle schoolers I asked Martha a question. “Martha,” I said, “you’ve just celebrated your 91st birthday, and I want to ask you something: do you feel like you are done growing in your faith?” Her answer should not surprise us. “No,” she said. Of course not. This is, of course, because faith is not an ‘accomplishment,’ but rather an ongoing action. Faith is not a ‘destination,’ but rather a journey. Where you are in your faith today, is not where you will be in your faith five years from now.

Today’s Scripture lesson comes from a section of Paul’s letter to the Corinthians about “Spiritual Gifts”…in other words “the way that God works through us.” Paul is speaking to a congregation that has forgotten the journey, believing instead that their current faith is sufficient. Unlike Martha, they think that they have “arrived.” Almost like comparing the color of karate belts, the Corinthians were looking at different spiritual gifts as indicative of having achieved different levels of faith.

This comparison of spiritual gifts has become occasion for some members of the Corinthian congregation to brag, to puff themselves up. Paul, however, is not impressed. He famously addresses the problem by telling them that they might have all sorts of spiritual gifts: speaking in tongues, prophesy, faith to move mountains, but if you don’t have love, you have nothing. This passage is famously read at weddings because of its beautiful affirmation of love, but it was not initially written to describe romantic love. Paul was addressing this context, our context, he was seeking to reaffirm the faith of an entire congregation, and to prepare the Corinthians to set off on a journey together.

Paul isn’t writing these words to settle us, but to unsettle us. To get us back on journey! He does this by setting up a contrast between things that are temporary and things which are eternal. To do this he uses the metaphor of growing up and becoming an adult. Childhood, he says, is only temporary, all of life does not consist in being a child. Just so, the Spiritual gifts that the Corinthians claimed and celebrated are only temporary, all of God’s will for us does not consist of those things. Whatever may be temporary, he continues, these are the things in which God calls us to live and move and have our being: “faith, hope, and love.”

Love, he concludes, is the greatest way in which God works through us. Why is that? Because, he says, “Love never fails.” Literally, the passage reads “love never falls.” Prophecies eventually lose relevance. Speaking in tongues will stop. Knowledge is only partial. But faith won’t cease, hope won’t quit, love won’t fall. Love will keep flying.

A few weeks back I said this in a sermon: "Faith is not something to park, it's something to drive." I that Martha was willing to admit that even she isn’t done growing in her faith. One might hear this and ask, “So If our faith is a journey, if we’re never done growing in our faith, what’s the point of professing our faith at any given moment?” The profession of faith is like a countdown to launch and the church is like a launch pad from which we are sent into the world full of faith, hope, and love. Professing our faith connects us to the God who strengthens us for the journey and to the community with which we travel.

Think about that. Think about what it means to have the church as a launch pad in your life. Think about how you are able to live and love knowing that you have a place where you are loved and accepted unconditionally, fed and nourished in both body and wisdom, and inspired and challenged to grow.

To you, the congregation of Ampthill Presbyterian Church, on behalf of our confirmands and our candidate for Baptism, I thank you for being such a place. I thank God for you, and for your loving, and feeding, and teaching, and inspiring. I extend a special thanks to Chris, Mary Beth, Stacey, Rudy, and Robert for serving the teaching ministry of this church that has been a launch pad in the lives of our children and youth and the children and youth of this neighborhood.

To the confirmands, to you who will join this congregation today, I ask you this: are you willing to be a launch pad in others’ lives? In many ways, you already have been. For example, I think of Kayla bringing Desirée to Ampthill, to meet the friends she made in this place, to share in the fellowship she found here. And now, Desirée has decided to be baptized. In many ways, Kayla, that is because you loved her and cared for her as a friend. In the big picture, here’s what was going on. God was using you and your ability to love as a launch pad for Desirée.

Another example is the friendship between Raven and JohnJohn which in many ways has been forged in this fellowship. I know that you two can be silly and enjoy laughing together, but I also know that you guys have been there for one another in life, in struggle, to support and encourage one another. Not everyone would do that for a friend, I see great maturity in that. I also see God in that, and I see your trust in a love that is bigger than the struggles life throws at us. I give thanks to God for you and your friendship. I know there are many Sundays, Raven, when you help get Johnathan a ride here. You are literally a part of his journey of faith. You are a launch pad.

Another great example is found in the faith journeys of Elizabeth, Alexis, and Emily. The foundation of your faith is literally built into the history of this church. Your professions of faith today are your own, for sure, but they join to the journey of families who have been a part of this congregation for generations. Many of your grandmothers and great grandfathers taught the Sunday School classes in which your Sunday School teachers’ Sunday School teachers were taught. You represent an apostolic lineage in the life of this Congregation. I know how proud your parents and families are to witness your decision to join this church. Just as they have been launch pads for your life of faith, so too are you launch pads for them as you inspire them to grow in their faith. I say this because it is impossible to watch a child grow up in their faith, to mature as you have, to make the decision to profess that faith and join the church, and not be inspired and encouraged to continue one’s own journey.

Journey on, O Church! May you be set firm in the foundation of Christ, and sent faithfully to continue loving, feeding, and inspiring your friends, families, peers, co-workers, whomever God sends to join you on the journey. May joy and nothing less guide you on your way. May you be blessed; may you be a blessing, may you be a launch pad. And may light, love's own crucified risen light, guide you and countless others out of every darkness all the way home. Shalom!