Sages and a psalmist, and generations of philosophers teach us that music is the language of the soul. Whether it's a foot-stomping sawdust trail gospel, a stately classic, a praise tune, or a Taize chant, modern church music had a curious genesis.  In his history of hymns, Albert Bailey asserts that it was the love affair of Anne Boleyn and Henry the VIII that inspired an English language hymnody.  He wrote, "Historically it is a fact that this love affair was the first of a chain of events that led to a break with the Church of Rome, the establishment of a liturgy in English, and the provision that hymns in English might be publicly sung only if the words were taken from the Bible.  Without those purgations our hymns would have remained Latin."

Today, Christians celebrate the result of that love affair and more so the creative spirit that birthed a dynamic hymnody in English.  From his mountain top view covering 200 A.D. to 1929, Bailey wrote "that hymns embody more than a personal expression of religion; they reflect also the religious and social beliefs and practices of the ages that produced them."

The hymn for this morning may be a proof of his thesis.  Amidst the '67 "summer of love" and the "love generation" of the 60's - 70's, Hal Hopson set the first portion of I Corinthians 13 to the lyric English folk melody, "O Waly Waly."  The spiritual counterpart to the secular era of love and peace sought to build a lifestyle based on biblical love.  Marin Luther King, Jr. inspired that search with his tremendous personal witness to biblical love in the Civil Rights Movement.

The secular version of the "love generation" lacked boundaries.  The spiritual expression, however, wanted to harness the power of love, politically, socially, and personally.  Using the lessons of Jesus' life and the witness of his contemporary disciples as a foundation, a practice of non-violent love sought justice and peace.

Then as now, the words of I Corinthians 13 and Hopson's musical interpretation, invite us to understand our lives in terms of God's love and justice.  Beginning with a litany of spiritual gifts, St. Paul warns that all these qualities and characteristics amount to nothing more than pretense in the absence of love.  Hopson's first verse summarizes St. Paul's words, "Though I may speak with bravest fire, And have the gift to all inspire, And have not love, my words are vain; As sounding brass, and hopeless gain."

The Greek word used for this biblical 'love' is agape.  In his doctoral dissertation, Dr. King wrote, "Agape affirms the other unconditionally.  It is agape that suffers and forgives.  It seeks the personal fulfillment of the other."   Christian love is not mushy emotion. It is demanding, disciplined, and intentional.  It directs us to know our motives, to understand the movement of our hearts, and to sustain consistency between the love we espouse and the way we live.

Most of us cherish and prefer the middle section of I Corinthians 13 that enumerates the qualities of Christian love.  It's a comforting and inspirational passage, curiously suitable for weddings and hard times, for daily routine and lofty thinking.  Hopson's hymn is focused solely on the first portion that challenges the core of our self-perceptions and motives.  It pushes us to know where love is seated in us, and demands that we know the difference between pretentious behavior and genuine Christian love.

The consistency between love and lifestyle inspired Hopson's second verse which warns of a generosity that is not fueled by love: "Though I may give all I possess, And striving so my love profess, But not be given by love within, The profit soon turns strangely thin."  There is a vast difference between tossing a buck in a beggar's bucket and the philanthropist who ponders her core beliefs and how she wants to make a real difference for the homeless.

Basically, Christianity is about a strong, self-knowing inner life that embodies an outward way of being that seeks the spiritual and material well-being of all.  In Hopson's verse and in the spirit of St. Paul's words, our outward love is to be given from the storehouse of Christ's love within us.

The final verse of the hymn is our prayer, "Come, Spirit, come, our hearts control, Our spirits long to be made whole.  Let inward love guide every deed; by this we worship and are freed."  As vessels filling with Christ's love we are transformed and his love radiates through our lives.  Pretense is replaced with simplicity and humility, we are made whole again, and love comes from a new center of our being.  Love that is both disciplined and free is a form of worship reflected in our every word and deed.

"Come, Spirit, come, our hearts control, Our spirits long to be made whole.  Let inward love guide every deedÉ."  We pray this verse knowing that in it's answer, Christ's love will be manifest in and through us, silence our fears, open and harmonize our lives, and make Life radiant and abundant.  Such is the power of love!  Free of vain things without love, "profits strangely thin," and every pretense, we understand afresh the power of love in St. Paul's final words, "In this life we have three lasting qualities: faith, hope, and love, and the greatest of these is love."  Faith and hope are subordinate to love.  All things in the world of the spiritual and material are subordinate, set in the service of Christ's love!  Lord hear our prayer!