May 1 -- Sixth Sunday of Easter

Grace to you and peace…

Dear friends in Christ, as many of you now know our dear sister in the faith, Betty Corsi has died.  Betty took her final breath on this earth on Friday night.  She was surrounded by family.  And Joe was right there.   

Many months ago, the family had actually planned to reunion this very weekend, to celebrate birthdays and anniversaries.  I remember Betty telling me about it, looking forward to it with hope, but saying, “God willing...if Joe and I are still here…we’ll have a party...”  

She had been frail and falling frequently for many months and really took a decline a few weeks ago.  

I know not all of you knew Betty Corsi.  But she did so many things in this place and around this city.  Her love for children was incredible.  She was a perfectionist quilter, and so truth be told, she couldn’t handle quilting with others “because they wouldn’t do it right”.  But in her solitude and magnificent quilting room, she quilted many, many quilts for children and babies in ICU’s all over San Diego.  She was one of the founders of Third Avenue Charitable Organization, back in the ‘70’s.  And she sang all the time.  

We will have a service for Betty here in about two weeks, so I don’t mean to go on and on about her now, I guess I could write a whole sermon on how Betty Corsi embodied the virtues of faith, hope, and love…

But today I wanted to talk about her as a way of sharing the news of her death, asking you to keep Joe and the family in your prayers...  

And there’s a story about her that, I think, guides us into this very popular passage from I Corinthians today:   

I gathered with Betty and Joe’s family at their home yesterday to lead a short service entitled “Comforting the Bereaved”, and visiting with two of her daughters afterwards, they told me that one of the last things Betty said was one of the common things Betty always said -- a Betty-ism --  I remember this too: “Humph, talk is cheap.”  Mary Lou and Laurie, her daughters, were reminiscing with smiles and tears that even at the end, there was this table that Betty wanted cleared off to make room for flowers, and they were saying, “Yes, we’ll do that,” which is where she dropped one of her more famous lines, “Humph, talk is cheap.”

Dear Betty was always concerned about the other, and she had a highly tuned meter for detecting one’s...hmmm, how shall I say in church...malarky, balderdash, I think that’s abbreviated B.S.  It’s one of the things I loved about her.  You couldn’t fool her with smooth talk.  “Humph, talk is cheap.”

I think this sums up Paul’s beautiful and climactic words to the Corinthians, here in Chapter 13.  “If I speak in the tongues of mortals or angels, but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging symbol.”   Some scholars advise us not to read that in sentimental tones, but to imagine Paul almost shouting.  [read again]   He’s driving home a point.  Or to sum it up in Betty’s words, “Humph, talk is cheap.”  

Just a show of hands: how many had this text at your own wedding at some point in your life?  Some say this is the most popular passage in the bible.  But it was never intended just for two young lovers, as they entered a covenanted relationship.  I wonder if Paul had any idea this would be the wedding passage.  And what a great passage it is.  Good advice for marriage:  “Let love be genuine and primary; talk is cheap.”

But it was written for a small community -- this passage is what Paul’s been building up to in his letter.  It is the poetic finale to a group of Christians who were tearing each other apart, tearing each other down, with gossip, with elitism and exclusion -- who’s in/who’s out, with drunkenness and carelessness, and all in the midst of city filled with temptation and corruption and violence and fear.  

Those early Christians were up against a lot...as are we today.  Gossip, slander, the temptation to exclude and condemn, the temptation to draw the boundaries for God around God’s love.  The temptations all around us, corruption, violence, fear...

God speaks to us too...through Paul and through dear Betty: “Sisters and brothers in Christ, talk is cheap.”

Let our love be shown in our actions.  Let our love be genuine and selfless, patient and kind.  Not envious or boastful.  Not “look-at-me-how-loving-I-am.”  Let it be free and living.  No strings attached.  

--

Love never ends.  That’s the good news in this chapter.  Lest we end a sermon with a big “finger wag”: “Be a better lover.”  Paul tells us that love never ends.  Even as we flail and fluster our way through trying to love one another better, trying to be community better --  

We’ve got a lot of challenges before us, a lot of changes and transitions.  I don’t know about you, but I’m feeling the plates moving beneath me these days, both here at church and personally.  As we prepare for a building project (lots of anxiety and nervousness amid the obvious excitement too), as we face the death of loved ones -- especially Betty, for me.  Although my Grandpa, who’s been so influential for me too, is nearing the end.  Retirement of our bishop and the election of a new one.  Whatever transitions are happening in you life right now...    

Even as we flail and fluster and fumble our way through working at loving one another better, trying to be community better -- God’s love never ends.  God’s love for you never ends.

Final Betty story here: [“Jesus loves me.”]

It was like her final proclamation and gift to us.  Our faith might crumble, our hope might be dashed.  Our love might be imperfect.  But the greatest of these is actually God’s love...which is with you and for you and will never leave you.  AMEN.