Homily Pastor
Celebration
of Advent: Love
One of
the greatest theologians that ever lived, Karl Barth, was asked to be a guest
lecturer at the University of Chicago Divinity School. At the end of a captivating closing lecture,
the president of the seminary announced that Dr. Barth was not well and was
quite tired, and though he thought that Dr. Barth would like to be open for
questions, he shouldn't be expected to handle the strain. Then he said,
"Therefore, I will ask just one question on behalf of all of us."
He
turned to the renowned theologian and asked, "Of all the theological
insights you have ever had, which do you consider to be the greatest of them
all?
It was
the perfect question for a man who had written literally tens of thousands of pages
of some of the most sophisticated theology ever put into print. The students held pencils right up against
their writing pads, ready to take down verbatim the premier insight of the
greatest theologian of their time.
Karl
Barth closed his tired eyes, and he thought for a moment, and then he half
smiled, opened his eyes, and said to those young seminarians, "The
greatest theological insight that I have ever had is this:
"Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me
so."
On
this fourth Sunday of Advent know this:
The
Gospel is the best love story ever written…
And
the Savior is the best gift ever given.
This
gift is ours and we gladly receive it, especially at Christmas.
God
loves us. God loves you.
I
should tell you a funny story from this week.
It is
good to have a friend like Christian… because if you learn how to provoke him
just the right way, he’ll get your work done for you (sort of a Tom Sawyer and
the fence that needed white-washing story). So… I left him a voice mail as I
was driving to work early this week. I explained that I wasn’t thrilled with
the Old Testament passage I had picked for the proclamation. All the good “God
loves us” passages, I told him, were in the New Testament. I was beginning to
wonder if this relationship that we had with God was dysfunctional… did he wait
to tell us he loves us ‘til the New Testament? By the time I got to the office,
I had a page of email with passages that expressed God’s love for us! Thanks
Christian.
One of
the greatest passages was the Hosea passage that was read this morning.
That
passage is actually quoted, as well, in Romans 9. (Romans 9:22-25)
In the
original context these passages from Hosea refer to the spiritual restoration
of
God
loves us. He always has and always will.
This
morning I’d like to put this message of God’s love in the context of these four
Advent Sundays.
On the
first Sunday we celebrated Hope. God is our Hope.
On the
second, we celebrated Peace. God is the source of Peace.
And
last Sunday, we celebrated Joy. Joy that our Savior was Born.
Hope
to Us
Peace
to Us
Joy to
Us
Love
to Us
Love
through Us
Why do
I want to make this break today? We certainly could simply dwell today on this
great truth: God loves us.
But
Luke 2 pesters me… specifically, that which the angels said pesters me.
First the one angel said, “I bring you good news of great joy that will be for
all the people. A Savior has been born to you: he is Christ the Lord!”
Great
joy for all people.
Suddenly,
without a break, then the great company of heavenly host appeared saying,
“Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom his favor
rests.”
On
whom his favor rests? Does God play favorites? Peace only for the favorites?
This
is actually a sticky theological point for many.
Churches have split and denominations have been born out of stuff like this.
The
argument goes something like this…
Because
we are so depraved that we cannot even take one step toward God ourselves…
God
takes all the steps himself and elects some to be His chosen people.
He
demonstrates irresistible grace to the elect who are saved
Who
persevere in this life to eternity
A good
Calvinist would look at this passage and say, “See, peace on whom
His favor rests.” God has favor-ites. Election!
Baloney.
They
err when they read into the passage that the reason there is peace only “on
whom His favor rests” is that God has favorites. But what about “good news of
great joy for all people?” There
must be a better explanation.
Karl
Barth went to a simple children’s song, “Jesus Loves Me.”
I’ll
go to what we understand to be a simple passage of Scripture, John
3:16
“For
God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him
should not perish but have eternal life.”
The
Good News for all people is that God gave His Son…
and when we believe we will have
eternal life.
When we believe we are free to receive God’s favor.
When we believe, we receive Peace.
God’s
gift of His Son is the greatest gift ever given.
It is the greatest expression of love, and it is available to all people.
How then? How does he express His love?
We’re back to this idea of love through
us.
By
this we know love, that he laid down his life for us;
and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.
Every
once in a while I stumble into a big idea.
(I
know, I know… even a blind squirrel eventually finds a nut.)
We
stumbled into this idea when I preached the message on the feeding of the
5,000. We talked about a Theology of Work and used this as an example of how
Jesus often follows this pattern of taking what we have, blessing it, and then
giving us work to disperse what He blesses. This idea keeps coming back to me
and is illustrated in Scripture over and over again.
This
passage is along the same lines.
Christ
does the blessing (the heavy-lifting if you will). He laid down His life.
Remember Christian’s sermon last week? A Son was born and Savior died; it could
work no other way!
But
now He gives us a part in the plan that follows.
What
He demonstrated in His love, we replicate (in a comparatively small way, of
course) in our service to Him.
Jesus
glorified God by spending His life for us.
We
glorify God by spending our lives for others.
Let’s
go on to the passage in chapter 4.
4:7 Dear
friends, let us love one another, because love is from God, and everyone who
loves has been born of God and knows God.
4:8 The
one who does not love does not know God, because God is love.
Love is evidence that we are His.
4:9 God's
love was revealed among us in this way: God sent His only Son into the world so
that we might live through Him.
Love’s greatest expression is in
the gift of His Son.
4:10 Love
consists in this: not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son
to be the propitiation for our sins.
Love’s greatest work is that He
paid for our sins.
2:2 He Himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not only for ours,
but also for those of the whole world.
Love’s demand is that we love one
another.
Love is
displayed by those who are loved.
Love’s deposit is His Holy
Spirit.
So
what?
Re-gift!
You
all know what I mean, especially at this time of the year.
There
are some gifts that you receive that you’re really not quite sure how to enjoy.
So you
scheme, and decide that there is somebody else that would enjoy it.
So you
re-gift.
This
year, for example, there’s been a run on Manheim Steamroller Christmas CDs…
there must have been a sale at Costco.
I have
a Manheim Steamroller Christmas CD… and I got a few more this year.
Somebody’s
getting a Manheim Steamroller Christmas CD in their stocking!
We all
need to be about the business of re-gifting Jesus!
That
may sound just a bit cheap… it isn’t the same.
When I
give away a CD, I don’t have it anymore.
When I
“give away” Jesus, I don’t have any less of Jesus.
In
some ways it seems like I have more.
We
have so much.
Materially?
Sure, look around the world.
Spiritually?
How much more.
We
have been given the greatest gift, God’s love in Jesus.
Now it
is given to us to express this gift by loving others.
So for
family members who will test our patience this season: Love one another.
For
the friends who are inconsiderate: Love one another.
For
the co-workers who take much more than they give: Love one another.
May
you not only experience God’s gift of Love this Christmas.
May
you express God’s gift of Love through your life.
Let us
pray.