In the Checkout Lane

If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing. Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. (1 Corinthians 13:1-7 ESV). The month of February has several holidays scheduled within it. Perhaps the most celebrated is Valentine’s Day. It’s strange to me how easily it is to begin to think about a day devoted to the expressions of love and friendship and miss that same feeling most of the rest of the year. Our world of bigger, better, and faster tends to discount anyone who may tarry in the least to show a kindness to someone else. Recently as I was standing in the checkout line at the grocery store, I looked at the small rack of magazines near the conveyor. There were several titles: National Enquirer, The Globe, and In Touch must be the most popular as they were front and center. These are what we have come to call “tabloid magazines.” I have discovered that these magazines, along with various talk shows, and other gossip media are a multi-million-dollar industry. It seems we take pleasure in the lurid and tawdry lives of others, whether they are celebrities, politicians, or people enjoying their fifteen minutes of reality-show fame. We chat about the latest professional athlete’s steroid scandal or a celebrity’s plastic surgery. We joke about a politician’s affair as if it is perfectly acceptable. We even fall to the point of casting judgment on people while reveling in their misfortune. Paul writes that “Love does not delight in evil” (cf. 1 Corinthians 13:6). The Message translates this verse, “Love doesn’t revel when others grovel.” Popular culture gives plenty of evidence of the world’s brokenness. The media use this brokenness to grab our attention. But brokenness is nothing in which we should take pleasure. God is grieved by brokenness and desires wholeness. Our reading today gives us a better way to live. I encourage you to join me to think a bit more the next time you feel a secret satisfaction at the fall of a pop icon, or you get a kick out of the juicy details of a celebrity scandal, or you take pleasure in the embarrassment of a disgraced politician, or you enjoy reading about the breakup of a beautiful Hollywood couple. God doesn’t want us to delight in evil; he wants us to “challenge” it. He doesn’t want us to be entertained by the brokenness of people’s lives. He wants us to help heal it with the love of Christ.