December 22, 2013 The Advent Gift of Love
Preface to the Word
Well, Christmas is only a few days away and soon kids of all ages will be gathered with families and loved ones around a Christmas tree unwrapping gifts from Santa, family, friends, and others.
But we couldn’t wait! We’ve already begun unwrapping the special Christmas gifts God has given us in Jesus.
Three weeks ago we unwrapped the gift of Hope. Hope is a gift we can receive every day as we learn to keep looking up… because Jesus may come today in any number of ways.
Then we unwrapped the gift of Peace, a holy peace in which the lion lays down with the lamb and no one hurts or destroys because they are “full of the knowledge of the Lord.” So we talked about shalom and how each of us can play a part in spreading it all around.
Just last week, we unwrapped another gift of Christmas – Joy! Because God never abandons us and leads us home when we are exiled in strange and foreign places, we can know a joy that is profound and lasting. Joy to the world, our Lord is come!
So now, we are gathered on this last Sunday of Advent, and Christmas is only 3 days away. There is another gift to unwrap today and it’s the greatest gift of them all. I’m talking about the gift of Love.
The writer of the Gospel of Matthew is going to help us open God’s gift of love in Jesus, along with the Apostle Paul, the writer of the first Epistle of John, Christina Rosetti, Phillips Brooks, Mahatma Gandhi, and a little nine-year old boy named Joey!
But let’s start with Matthew….
Scripture Reading: Matthew 1:18-25
Sermon: I.
A. Many of you have heard this cute little Reader’s Digest story that’s been around for a while now. Nine-year-old Joey was asked by his mother what he had learned in Sunday school. “Well, mom,” he replied, “our teacher told us how God sent Moses behind enemy lines on a rescue mission to lead the Israelites out of Egypt. When he got to the Red Sea, he had his engineers build a pontoon bridge and all the people walked across safely. Then he used his walkie-talkie to radio headquarters for reinforcements. They sent bombers to blow up the bridge and all the Israelites were saved.”
“Now, Joey, is that really what your teacher taught you?” his mother asked.
“Well, no, mom. But if I told it the way the teacher did, you’d never believe it!”
B. Sometimes, that’s how I feel when I think about this story from Matthew that begins with those familiar words, “Now the birth of Jesus the Messiah took place in this way.” Like most of you, I’ve heard this story since I can remember. It is the story of Christmas and God’s miracle of Jesus Christ.
C. But the next part of the story – that critical part which says “When his mother Mary had been engaged to Joseph, but before they lived together, she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit”… I discover there’s that Joey in me that wants to come up with a more believable explanation.
I’ll confess that in the early, more foolhardy days of my ministry right out of seminary I thought it was my mission to do exactly that. I remember the sermon I preached early on in my first church about the virgin birth story – explaining how Paul never mentioned it in his writings, how the earliest Gospel, Mark, did not include it at all, how it was common in ancient days to attribute divine birth to heroes.
Didn’t quite get the reception I had hoped for! And I learned an important lesson. I was messing with something very basic to many people’s understanding of Jesus, with their foundational story of Christmas, with their very hope of our salvation.
So, I’m not going to preach that sermon today!
D. There is, however, a message in Matthew’s story of Jesus’ birth without which Christianity simply cannot survive. Quite simply, the message is that in Jesus we behold the human face of God. In Jesus, God is made known to our world and to us. And God’s “intrusion” into our world through Jesus came not in a display of awesome power, interestingly enough… was not revealed in magnificence; did not occur in a palace of royalty, in the temple of faith, or in a home of wealth. In Matthew’s story, God’s intrusion came unexpectedly, wrapped as a babe born to an obscure young unmarried woman and a pious carpenter.
E. Christina Rosetti captured the essence of Jesus’ birth story in a poem that she penned in 1885:
Love came down at Christmas, Love all lovely, Love divine;
Love was born at Christmas; star and angels gave the sign.
This poem is now a hymn, number 242, in the United Methodist hymnal. You can see that the word “Love” is capitalized. Love itself came down at Christmas, divine Love.
F. This, for me, gives an interesting spin on what Matthew intended in his story when the angel said to Joseph, “the child conceived in [Mary] is from the Holy Spirit.” For I see the writer of John’s Gospel saying the same thing when he wrote: “For God so loved the world that he sent his only Son…”
Love came down at Christmas, Love all lovely, Love divine;
Love was born as Christmas; star and angels gave the sign.
G. Christians see in Jesus God’s love song to the world. This is why today we light the candle on our advent wreath called Love.
“Love came down at Christmas.”
H. The Love that invades our world in Jesus reflects God’s holy, passionate desire to be with us, to save us from ourselves, to free in us the love birthed by God’s Spirit.
The Love we are given in Jesus is the gift of grace to unworthy and often unreceptive souls, wrapped with forgiveness and sealed with the promise of Emmanuel, which means “God is with us.”
“Love came down at Christmas, Love all lovely, Love divine…”
II.
A. But our observance of Christmas, my friends, is far short of what it is meant to be if we get stuck in our celebration of a birth that happened over two millennia ago. The Holy Spirit in which Jesus was conceived is the same Holy Spirit that is still at work in Jesus… (how shall I say this) - to impregnate our lives and our world with holiness, with hope, with love.
B. In 1865, the year that President Lincoln was assassinated in April, Phillips Brooks found himself in Bethlehem on Christmas Eve. At the time, Brooks was the rector of the Episcopalian Church of the Holy Trinity in Philadelphia and the country was still in a period of recovery from an extremely divisive and destructive civil war. There, in the dark night of that Christmas Eve in Bethlehem, Brooks made a short journey on horseback to the shepherds’ field. The recollection of his view of Bethlehem in the distance that night inspired him to write the poetry we now sing in the Christmas carol, “O Little Town of Bethlehem.”
Do you remember the prayer that concludes his carol?
“O holy child of Bethlehem, descend to us, we pray;
cast out our sin, and enter in, be born in us today.
We hear the Christmas angels the great glad tidings tell;
O come to us, abide with us, our Lord, Emmanuel!”
“Cast out our sin, and enter in, be born in us, today….”
C. The Holy Spirit that spawned God’s gift of Love named Jesus conspires to give birth to that same Love in us today. The nativity narrative is not just a “once-upon-a-time” tale of a baby born long, long ago. It’s the continuing story of God’s surprising, miraculous intrusion of Love in Christ, the enduring story of Love divine struggling to be born in us today.
D. In writing to the Corinthian Christians that were arguing about whom among them was the most holy, the apostle Paul explained that of all the abiding gifts of God’s Spirit – faith, hope, and love – the greatest of them was love.
When the Spirit is born in us and comes to life, it acts out in Love! At least, that’s what I John 4:7 claims:
“Beloved, let us love one another, because love is from God; everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love.”
E. According to E. Stanley Jones, the well-known missionary to India, Mahatma Gandhi himself once said: “I would suggest first that all of you Christians, missionaries and all, must begin to live more like Christ. If you will come to us in the spirit of your Master, we cannot resist you. I would suggest that you must put your emphasis on love, for love is the center and soul of Christianity.”
OK. You get the idea.
III.
A. As we gaze upon the Advent candle called Love and ponder Matthew’s story of Jesus’ birth, I invite you to reflect on these “Words of Love” written by an unknown author.
“There are glorious chapters in the history of Christian love. Mary visited by the Most High cherishes in her heart a divinely unselfish love for her son Jesus. As Jesus grows in wisdom, stature and in favor with God and [humans], he goes about his Father’s business of love. The twelve disciples who answer his call forsake all to follow him and learn together how to live in this love. Other disciples after the Pentecost form a beloved community, sharing all things in common, rejoicing and serving God. In the face of persecution many Christians are faithful unto death, like torches in a dark world bearing witness to a new light of love. Convinced believers in this way of love lay aside property and position to become … brothers [and sisters] of the poor, going forth to minister to any in need. Missionaries give up home and security to live in foreign lands as messengers of the gospel of love. Reforming spirits called Protestants are determined to correct the abuses of their day and create new communities where love and democracy unite in freedom to worship God. Churches and schools rise on the frontiers, social settlements in the slums, to bring life to new birth in spiritual love.”
B. You see, the birth of the baby named Jesus is only the beginning. Christmas is that, yes, but its so much more. It’s also about how God is giving birth to love in these times and in you and me.
Love came down at Christmas, Love all lovely, Love divine,
Love was born at Christmas; star and angel gave the sign.
Love shall be our token; love be yours and love be mine;
love to God and neighbor, love for plea and gift and sign.
C. From the blogger “Joy Howie:”
This carol’s beauty can mask the urgency of its rousing charge. It’s not a lullaby; it’s a commission: Whatever we do, don’t miss any opportunity to testify to Love. There will always be senseless violence and brokenness in the world. There can never be too much Love. Let Love and Beauty be our tokens. May Love and Beauty bloom wherever we are–as plea, gift, and sign.
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