Isaiah 7.10-14; Matthew 1.18-25
What the world needs now is love, sweet love
It's the only thing that there's just too little of
What the world needs now is love, sweet love
No not just for some, but for everyone
The power and goodness of Advent …
It’s quite the journey.
Some years back, I was asked, “Why do we spend all this time preparing for the birth of Christ. He’s already been born. He’s here,” she said to me, “and he lives within my heart.”
Well, true enough … but even the best dancers rehearse the basic steps.
The finest pianists warm up before a concert.
Opera singers do voice exercises and sing the scales.
The basics, the essentials, the rudiments of faith, where it all begins.
Yes, Christ is born … 2000 years ago, in that little Bethlehem manger … in the midst of a difficult time … when the Empire of the Day was cruel and cunning, when life was cheap, and death ruled the day.
Yes, Christ lives in our hearts … we know that, and we take comfort in God’s love!
And when it comes to the practice of love, we’re always experimenting - are we not? Is there anyone here, or anywhere, who has a clear and definitive idea as to what love should look like all the time, anywhere, in every situation?
Like good dancers, pianists, and singers, we rehearse the essentials - the basic things of our faith, the rudiments … the ABCs, and the 2+2s … to keep the mind limber, the soul alert, our lives rededicated … to be reborn, again and again … not that we’re starting over … we’re not starting over … but we’re going over the basic articles of our faith. We hold them before ourselves - we look at them from different angles - we ponder the great themes of life: hope, peace, joy, and love.
What is new is the times in we live …
The church of yesteryear is behind us.
The church of tomorrow isn’t here yet.
All we have right right now is right now.
And the stories of our faith:
The basic steps … laid out by Moses and the Prophets.
The essential tools … set before us by the Apostle Paul.
Generations of Christians who’ve gone before us.
They did their best …
They did it right,
And sometimes they did it wrong.
They loved, and loved well,
and sometimes loved poorly.
They served Christ with distinction.
And sometimes they served themselves for the sake of power and glory.
From them, we learn …
We rehearse, we practice.
Folks will look back at us and give thanks for our efforts … and sometimes, I’m sure, they’ll look back at us and shake their heads.
We receive what is given … and make it our own …
We take the basic steps … and then we improvise …
We look at what others did, or didn’t do … then set out to make our own way in the kingdom of God …
Every dancer practices night and day, and will never say, “I’ve arrived; no more practice is needed.”
Pianists and opera singers are always striving for a little bit more … artists and poets work at their craft with sweat, blood, and tears … and parents, too - how in the world to raise a child? And along the way, how to get along with one another, what does the LORD require of us? What is justice, and what is kindness, what is humility?
We’re a work in progress.
What I may have known yesterday needs revision today … what I knew twenty years ago, well, let’s just say, it belongs mostly on the shelf.
All my life, I have striven to give fresh expression to the gospel, to understand the times in which we live, the flow of history, and what does the LORD require of us.
The whole narrative of Christ, his birth, his words, his death, speak of new things God is doing … the traditionalists of his time couldn’t stand it; they dug in their heels and said, “that’s that” - they turned from the future; they hid themselves in the past.
Even as I speak, God’s people are discovering new ways of living the life of faith … books are still being written … theology is still evolving; ethics are being revised; preachers still preach, and people still scratch their heads … and, btw, head-scratching is a good spiritual practice … I mean it … sometimes the most important three words we can ever say, “I. don’t. know!”
And then we can add: “But I’ll find out, and we’ll get it put together. We’ll figure it out.”
Until the next round of change and transition comes upon us … the process never stops, the process always requires inventiveness, ingenuity, innovation, not to mention patience, with trial and error … learning the new, forgetting the old … willing to take some chances, risks, in order to find the new thing God is doing.
Advent, you see, is our practice session … every year, we go through the basics:
What does it mean to be people of Hope?
What does it mean to be those who practice Peace?
Last week, we centered ourselves in joy … and learned that happiness is one thing, and joy is another, and sometimes they run hand-in-hand, and sometimes they go their separate ways.
Today, the word is love.
What does it mean to love God with all that we are, and to love our neighbor as we love ourselves?
What is love?
Elizabeth Barrett Browning wrote:
How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.
I love thee to the depth and breadth and height
My soul can reach …
Dr. Scott Peck wrote:
“… in attempting to examine love we will be attempting to toy with mystery…. Love is too large, too deep ever to be truly understood or measured or limited within the framework of words.”
What is love?
The LORD is my shepherd, I shall not want …
The earth is the LORD’s and all that is in it …
Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful …
Love one another with mutual affection; outdo one another in showing honor …
Owe no one anything, except to love one another, for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law.
Above all, clothe yourselves with love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony.
For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son …
At the end of the Advent Road - love … to love fiercely, deeply, passionately, the things of God … to love God’s creation, and all of its creatures, great and small … to pay attention to the cries of help that come our way … to seek the welfare of all, and not just the few … to follow Christ with all that we are, and all that we hope to be … and then some … and so it is, that we come to the end of the Advent Road … it’s taken us on quite the journey … all the way to Bethlehem.
Hallelujah and Amen!
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