Advent 2011 - part 5: LOVE

Fourth (last) Advent Sunday – 18 December.
Theme: Love

Advent considered hope, peace and joy. On the last Advent Sunday, 18 December, it contemplates love. Christ coming to us reveals Gods love for his people and for all of his creation.

1 John 4:9-10 This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.

The most important idea in these verses is that God showed his love. The Biblical understanding of love is that it is shown in actions. It is not so much what we feel, as what we do that is important when we try to understand this word “love” so often used in the Scriptures.

We know God loves us, because we know what he did for us. He created us to have fellowship with him, and when we strayed, he saved us and when we lost the battle against evil, he conquered for our sake.
We know we love God when we worship, serve, praise and want to obey God and when we live in awe of our Lord, because we know that he loved us first. Our actions in reaction to his love, show that we love him too.
We love our fellow Christians when we act as brothers and sisters towards one another and we know we love our neighbour when we act towards them in the way that we expect others to treat us as well.

Jesus is the demonstration of the love God has for us. He lived and ministered to reveal who God truly is. Jesus lived and acted in a way that showed us how God loves us: Jesus touched the “unclean”, he respected the rejected, he delivered the captives, he saved the lost and he healed the sick. Jesus showed the mercy, grace, love, compassion, patience and kindness of God.

This is the love we, as his children and witnesses, should show the world.
We hear a lot about the Christmas spirit and that this is a season for giving. We are more patient and show more compassion than we usually do. This is a good thing and it makes the season of Advent and the celebration of Christmas a most special time for many who are in ominous need to be loved.

But, as we await the complete and final coming of the Kingdom of Christ – we should prepare the way for the King by making practical, Christian love much more than a seasonal thing. It is supposed to be the Christian lifestyle displayed always and it shows God’s love all the time.

God loved us in sending his Son for our redemption. Now we should show his love that others may know his salvation and care. True Christian love is when we show through every aspect of our lives that God loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. In sacrificial living, we do!

Advent Hymn

Comfort, comfort ye my people,
speak ye peace, thus saith our God.
comfort those who sit in darkness,
mourning neath their sorrow’s load.
Speak ye to Jerusalem
of the peace that waits for them;
tell het that her sins I cover,
and her warfare is now is over.

Hark, the voice of one that crieth
in the desert far and near.
calling us to new repentance
since the Kingdom now is here.
Oh, that warning cry obey!
Now prepare for God a way;
let the valleys rise to meet him
and the hills bow down to greet him.

Make ye straight what long was crooked,
make the rougher places plain
let your hearts be true and humble,
as befits his holy reign.
For the glory of the Lord
now o’er earth is shed abroad;
and all flesh shall see the token
that his Word is never broken!

Music: Harvard University Hymn Book 94, (Genevan 42) Olearius 1671. for Advent

Advent part 4: JOY

Third Advent Sunday: 11 December 2011.
The theme is Joy!
When we prepare to celebrate the birth of Jesus, we may expect to be happy during the festive season, all the time. But happiness is not joy. One can experience the joy of the Lord even when circumstances are not particularly “happy”.

We may rejoice in all situations. Even when we are under threat, we are concerned or we are dissatisfied. Because Joy comes from the knowledge that we are within the will of God and it comes from the certain faith knowledge that God cares about us and takes care of us.
During this season we remember that God gave his only Son – because he cares and that he will never leave or forsake us. We know that when Jesus returns, he will be with us for all eternity.

When Mary was told that she expected the Saviour, she feared. She was afraid of the holy angel that came to see her. And she was afraid of the message: To be pregnant and not married carried the death penalty for a girl in those days. She could at least lose her fiancé who knew he was not the dad of the Baby! She ran the risk of rejection by family and of the community.

This is not a particular happy picture.
And yet – there is all the indications that the young virgin Mary rejoiced and was filled with joy. She was to be within the will of God! She was to do the most important work one can do for God. She also believed that nothing is impossible with God!

This is why, in spite of everything risky and dangerous her calling to carry the Christ child entailed, she could break out in song and dance to express a deep felt joy!

According to Luke, this is what she sang as she rejoiced:
Luke 1: 46 - 55:
My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord,
my spirit rejoices in God my Saviour
for he has looked with favour on his lowly servant.
From this day all generations will call me blessed:
the Almighty has done great things for me,
and holy is his Name.
He has mercy on those who fear him
in every generation....

May God grant you this joy. Whatever your circumstances! May you find God’s will for your life and assurance of his protection and love.

Advent – part 3: PEACE

The theme for the Second Sunday of Advent is Peace. The first Advent Sunday focused on hope and that we bear the responsibility to live as agents of hope in a world plagued by despondency. As we consider peace this Sunday, 4 December, we see that we can bring hope into the world by being peacemakers.

We sing a lot about peace in our Christmas carols. It was after all the core message of the angel choir on the night that Jesus was born: “Peace on earth and goodwill towards men on whom God’s favour rests.”

Yet, how often do we do everything within our power to bring peace where it is direly needed.
Are we peacemakers within our own families?
Do we work to heal our marriages and family bonds or do we let our prejudices or anger bring discord?
Do we work towards unity within our congregation or are we the instigators of divisive gossip and lead deconstructive cliques, sowing conflict with no desire to bring about the peace amongst his people Christ lived and died for?
Do we refer to people that look and act differently than ourselves with disrespect, contempt and ridicule and stereotype them?

Peace on earth starts with us and our attitudes towards others. If we hold people, and especially other Christians and fellow church members and family members, dear to our heart, our words and actions will mirror this love and respect. There really is no point in speaking about peace on national and global levels as long as we in our personal sphere of influence are agents of war, hurt and conflict.

Let’s remember the definition Jesus gave to love: “Do unto others as you want them to do unto you.” Let’s stop singing about peace until we made peace and became peacemakers.
“Peace” is no true and sincere Christmas card decoration or Christmas carol when it does not come from a changed heart and compassionate soul.

The Season of Advent teaches us to be peace makers as it will restore the hope on Christ, the King. As we expect the coming of the Kingdom of the Prince of Peace born to be our Redeemer and as we make straight the road for the Second Coming, let’s live as true ambassadors of the Peace Kingdom the Messiah came to establish.

Yes, we must be the peacemakers. We who are followers of Christ and we who love Jesus! But we will not be until peace conquered our hearts. This always means that we make peace with ourselves first, with whom we are and what our calling in God’s work is. It then also means making peace with those closest to us. It means that we do earnestly mean it when we call our fellow Christians “brothers and sisters”.

God’s children can bring about peace on earth if we are filled with the Holy Spirit and if we received the peace of God through the Spirit in prayer and reflection of God’s Word.

A good place to start may be to pray the popular prayer of the 13th century St Francis of Assisi and mean every word that we say:

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace.
Where there is hatred, let me sow love.
Where there is injury, pardon.
Where there is doubt, faith.
Where there is despair, hope.
Where there is darkness, light.
Where there is sadness, joy.
O Divine Master,
grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled, as to console;
to be understood, as to understand;
to be loved, as to love.
For it is in giving that we receive.
It is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
and it is in dying that we are born to Eternal Life.
Amen.