Christ comes bringing ... love!
Love. Love. Love.
I will always love you.
Love me tender.
I just called to say I love you.
Wait... what? That's not what we're talking about today?
Oh bummer - I have a list a mile long!
I grew up in the suburbs of The City of Brotherly Love - and we all half-jokingly called it The City of Brotherly SHOVE. Philly isn't always known as a warm and friendly place. Heck - our sports fans are famous for booing Santa!
Ok, so we're not talking about The Beatles, or Elvis, or any other mushy love song. And we're not talking about our "common" understanding (misunderstanding?) of the word love...
So what are we talking about? How is the love that God sent on Christmas different from what we are expecting?
Well - just like hope, peace, and joy don't mean what we think they mean - so, too, does love look different when we consider it in the candlelight of Advent.
We're not talking about chocolate and roses on Valentine's Day. We're not talking about long walks on the beach with that special someone. It's not about our hearts at all, really.
This love is different.
Advent love - Christmas love - is about rescuing us, healing us, sacrificing for us. Our ability to love comes from the very fact that God loved us first. Because God loves us and wants to save us from ourselves and the mess we make of life here on earth, God rescued us. We couldn't manage to live up to the Law - and so God provided the next part of the plan.
God - perfect, holy, sinless God - took on our skin (and with it all our mess) in order to show us what true love looks like. And to provide us with The Way out of our mess.
Now it's starting to sound like a Lenten/Easter post instead of Advent. But.... you kind of can't have one without the other! These seasons are totally linked - and it is important to think of both in conjunction. Christmas - the moment God took on flesh and became a man on earth - was just part of the plan. If you stop the story at Christmas, you get stuck. It doesn't make sense.
The completeness of the plan - the fulfillment of the promise - the love part of the story is that there is more. That Christ was born and took on our human form - so that He could overcome it. So that He could triumph over our messes with his death and resurrection. Christmas and Easter are different chapters in the same love story!
God's love for us is so complete that God found it imperative that Christ be born... live life here on earth (just like we do)... and then suffer and die to carry the burden of our sins into the grave. And then, the best part of all, he conquered that death. He paid the price and then rose from the dead - conquering death once and for all!
From our forgiveness and holiness - a gift from God - we can be different people. We can - and should - be the candle in the darkness. The light. The word. The hope and peace and joy for those around us. Because we have experienced real love. Not love like we understand here on earth - but love from God. Complete, over-whelming, unearned, sacrificial love. And it makes us different.
What child is this
Who lay to rest
On Mary's lap is sleeping
Whom angels greet with anthems sweet
While shepherds watch are keeping
So bring him incense, gold and myrrh
Come peasant king to own him
The King of Kings salvation brings
Let loving hearts enthrone him
This, this is Christ the King
Whom shepherds guard and angels sing
Haste, haste to bring him laud
The Babe, the Son of Mary
O raise, raise a song on high
His mother sings a lullaby
Joy, oh joy for Christ is born
The Babe, the son of Mary
This, this is Christ the King
Whom shepherds guard and angels sing
Haste, haste to bring him laud
The Babe, the Son of Mary
What child is this who lay to rest
On Mary's lap, on Mary's lap he is sleeping
This, this is Christ the King
Whom shepherds guard and angels sing
Haste, haste to bring him laud
The Babe, the Son of Mary
The Babe, the Son of Mary
The Son of Mary
Today's Readings
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