Fourth Sunday of Advent: Love
"This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends" - John 15:12-13 ESV
For nearly 18 months my church went through the process of calling a new pastor. I prayed daily for this person to be someone who preached and lived the Gospel, and most importantly, created an environment of love, both within the congregation and out into the community. During this time I read and studied the Gospels, particularly the Gospel of John. Throughout my study of the Gospels - especially John's Gospel - one single theme became apparent: love. Not just the love that God has for us, but how we are, in response to that Love, to be loving to others. Thankfully, my church did call a pastor who preaches the Gospel, and effuses love to us in the congregation, and encourages us to spread that love into the community.
I cannot tell you how many times I've watched The Chosen, the crowdfunded 3-season series that you can find on Prime, the CW, and on The Chosen app. There is so much in that series that I enjoy, but I am drawn to it mostly due to the love that is evident in the character of Jesus. He simply loves - no conditions, no biases, nothing impedes him from loving. And that love is expressed verbally, and to a great extent, with affection for His followers. This Jesus is portrayed as loving in his healing actions, in his words of consolation, in his gentle touching of others, and in his very tone as he asks a paralytic "Do you want to be healed?" And it brings me back to those verses in John 15, where Jesus simplifies all the law and the Commandments in a simple phrase: "...love one another as I have loved you."
I am old enough to remember Dionne Warwick's cover of the Burt Bacharach song, "What the World needs now, is love, sweet love". That was a worldly love: a love of simply being kind to one another. The Love that Jesus calls for in John 15:13 is a sacrificial love: love even if it hurts. That is a challenging love to do, one that requires a level of selflessness that Bacharach really didn't write about. It's a love that commands us to love the unlovable, forgive the unforgivable, to actually BE a follower of Christ, not just say we are Christian.
It is the love that came down at Christmastime, as so eloquently expressed in the Christina Rossetti poem:
Love all lovely, Love Divine,
Love was born at Christmas,
Star and Angels gave the sign.
Worship we the Godhead,
Love Incarnate, Love Divine,
Worship we our Jesus,
But wherewith for sacred sign?
Love shall be our token,
Love be yours and love be mine,
Love to God and all men,
Love for plea and gift and sign.
Let us, as this Advent season turns into the Christmas season, set our hearts upon the love of God, and be love to our family, friends, and the unlovable.
Follow John's Advent journey here on his blog, johnscoffeehouse.blogspot.com, or on Facebook, johnscoffeehouse.
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