Advent Week 1: Love

We study through books of the Bible here at the Village Chapel, and it's my great joy and privilege to be leading us through the next four weeks, the season that in the church we call Advent.

It comes from the Latin word Adventus, meaning arrival or appearing, if you will.

The Latin word is translation of the Greek word parusia, which is often used when talking about the second coming of Christ.

And so we see that Advent is not merely just a ramp up to Christmas, but it's actually its own season.

It's a time of waiting, a time of reflection as we look back on the first appearance of Christ, and a time of eager anticipation as we look forward to the second appearance of Christ.

It goes all the way back, the season does, and the church's observance of Advent goes all the way back to the fourth century A.D.

And as I say, since that time, it has taken on a lot of different themes, and churches have set out in different directions in terms of the focus of their teaching and their reflection.

Here at the Village Chapel, what we're going to do is have four different uh foci or four different themes.

I'll put this up on the screen for you.

We'll be looking at Advent love this week, Advent Joy next week, Advent Hope the third week, and on the fourth week leading up to, as I say, Christmas, Advent peace.

The idea is that the love of God puts joy in our hearts and stirs hope and leads us to peace.

And I don't know about you, but I need all four of those in increasing measure, uh, given the last year and just given the way the world is right now, and uh so many folks feeling disoriented, uh disconnected.

And uh that's one of the reasons I'm so glad to be back in this room doing this, uh, in part looking back and remembering all of the wonderful times we've had here, and at the same time looking forward to hopefully the soon coming day when we'll all be back together in this room again.

I realize that some churches uh put a different order to those four themes love, joy, hope, and peace.

That's okay.

Uh again, the sequence, just like the end times, the sequence isn't the point, um, but the fact that Christ has come, that Christ died, that Christ has risen, and that Christ will come again.

That's the point, and that's what we'll be focusing on, and what impact that has on us in our own day and time, and what impact it has had on Christians down through the history of the church.

So let's look at our text.

I'll put that up on the screen for you, 1 John 4, 7 through 21.

And um I'm gonna read that.

I want to give you just a little bit of uh context for the overall book of 1 John.

What's really fascinated me when we study a book like this is we see some repeating words that help us understand the book's theme.

And there are any number of words you might find multiple times, but three of the words or terms that you see over and over and over again are God, the title God, which appears 41 times plus all the personal pronouns, the he's, the hymns that are sort of accompanying that, but at least 41 times we get the title God.

The word no, some form of the word no, 32 times.

And the word love 26 times.

It's as if John wants us to know that there's a real God who we can know and wants us to know that he really loves us.

And this is what he's driving home in this very reassuring text that we call the third letter, the third epistle of John.

And remember, it's good to kind of keep in mind, too, the context of the time.

John is probably writing during the reign of someone like Domitian, who would have been his emperor.

And uh it's a time of great persecution.

It's a time when the church is under a lot of pressure, and individual Christians are under a lot of pressure, often to worship the emperor, and often at the point of a sword, they're demanded, they're commanded to renounce Christ and to worship the emperor as Lord.

And so this causes a great deal of difficulty for the Christians of that time.

You can see that their day, their time, much more severe, much more difficult than our own slice of uh of space-time history.

Um, what does John mean?

He's going to talk about this real God who wants us to know that he loves us.

What does he mean by that word love?

Because we throw that word around all the time.

I use the same word love to talk about um Lou Malnati's pizza or working cow ice cream down in Florida.

Um, I use the same word to also say I love the mountains or I love the sunset at the at the shore, down at the shore.

Uh or we might use the same word to say, I love my wife, or I love God.

What does John mean by that word?

And it and in specific, when we're gonna be talking about the advent love of God in Christ for you and for me, what does it mean when it comes to God's love for you, God's love for me?

What does this word love mean?

So I'm gonna read the text and then we'll make a few comments along the way.

I've got four things that I want to amplify as we go through this.

Let me just say a prayer and we'll get right to the text.

Lord, God, you are so good, so faithful to us.

Uh, pray that you'd give us hearts that are faithful to you.

Pray, Lord, that you would uh open our eyes and give us a clearer vision of your truth, a greater faith in your power, and a more confident assurance of your love for us.

We pray this in Jesus' name and for his sake.

Amen and amen.

So, first John 4, verses 7 and following.

1 John 4:7

You'll recognize some of these verses.

They're amazing and rich.

Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God.

And everyone who loves is born of God and knows God.

The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love.

It's one of those four or five.

There might be uh a couple of statements that are in this book alone.

Uh, God is light, God is love.

Um, I think in John's Gospel we hear that God is spirit.

In the book of Hebrews, we hear that God is a consuming fire.

So God is love, that's true.

Uh, but in our own day and time, a lot of folks might re-reverse that and and and try to suggest that love is God, as if uh uh loving everybody simply means rubber stamping or approval of everything.

And that's just not the case.

Love is one of the attributes of God.

And does love win in the end?

Yes, it does, but all of the attributes of God win in the end.

And God is spirit, God is holy, God is light, God is love, and God is a consuming fire.

And it's his love that's behind all of that, of course, because he's the same yesterday, today, and forever.

And so all of his attributes are functioning perfectly all at the same time, which is so amazing about God.

And by this, the love of God was manifest in us, verse 9 says, that God has sent his only begotten Son into the world so that we might live through him.

So the love of God is actually manifest in us, that is, um, we experience it, we see it as we see that God sent his begotten, his only begotten Son into the world to bring us life, that we might live through him.

A favorite theme of the Apostle John, even in the Gospel of John, he writes, so that we may believe that Jesus is the Christ, that he's God's deliverer, God's rescuer, God's redeemer sent to us to bring us life, and that we find life in his name.

Verse 10.

In this is love, and I love this.

He's got a couple of by this statements, and now an in this statement.

In this is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his son to be the propitiation for our sins.

Now, what's propitiation?

Some of you are out there going, okay, man, he's already gone off the charts.

I don't know what that word means.

And it is, it's one of those words that we don't use every day.

It has to do with the satisfaction of God's wrath.

God's wrath, you say.

Yes, God's wrath.

God's wrath, motivated by God's love, is going to be satisfied.

Why?

Because God wants to do away with sin and every evil this world is experiencing.

God intends to set things right.

His love motivates him to want to do that.

And so we actually, as Bible believers, and taking the time to actually look at what motivates God in all of his actions and all of his acts and all of his dispositions, we look and we see that what motivates God's wrath is God's love.

Because he intends to set things right.

He intends to do away with injustice, with hatred.

He intends to do away with all of those things that are broken in his creation and set things right one day.

And he does that in the personal work of Jesus, who comes and dies on the cross, and his son becomes the propitiation for our sins.

He satisfies the wrath of God by dying in my place and in your place and paying the price for my sins, which is just mind-blowing when you think about it.

Propitiation, a really rich word.

Um, you know, I've I sometimes will jokingly say it's one of those words that theologians come up with so that they can have job security, that will always want to know and have to run to a theologian to ask him what it means.

When you get to start to see, when you begin to start to see the meaning of that word, it really is mind-blowing, isn't it?

That God would take on his wrath in the person of Jesus Christ on the cross, that he would do that for me, for you.

That's pretty amazing.

And he takes sin seriously by actually paying the price for it, not just sweeping it under the rug.

So we're so grateful that Christ has become the propitiation for our sins.

Verse 11, beloved, if and I love that John keeps using that term, beloved, as he addresses his first readers and us by extension.

Here's the heart of an apostle, but the heart of a pastor also.

Umone who loves those who are reading his letter.

And you are the beloved, and I am the beloved in Christ.

He says, Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.

In other words, this love that God has shown to us should transform us in such a way that we begin to love one another.

That is, that we Christians especially are marked by love for one another.

Now, when the watching world, the unbelieving world, sees the love of God not only upon one individual, but upon a collection, a group of people who are starting to experience that love of God in such a way that they have loving relationships, reconciled relationships, that their love for God and their love for Christ far exceeds what might divide them in this world.

That because Jesus is first, because his love is flowing through their hearts and their lives toward one another, the watching world looks at that and goes, how do those people get along?

They're natural enemies.

They might have voted a different way, they might have different yard signs, they might just be from completely different classes in the socioeconomic scale or in their educational background.

How can they possibly love one another?

And the answer is the love of God in Christ is just flowing through our lives for one another.

And beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.

Verse 12, no one has beheld God at any time.

And this is a fascinating verse to me, by the way.

No one has beheld God at any time.

So he's really, he brings in this idea of whether or not anyone's ever really been able to see God.

And the metaphor here, I think, will be the idea of experiencing God and seeing the visible imprint of God at work in people's lives.

He says, No one has beheld God at any time.

If we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us.

And it's almost, when he makes that statement, the negative statement that no one has beheld God, it's almost as if what he's saying is, but we can make God visible, we can make the love of God visible, okay, so that others can see God on the move.

You know, we we read in the Chronicles of Narnia, we about Aslan being on the move, the whole idea.

And there is the evidence of God in God's people as the love of God flows through God's people.

To each other, yes, that's true, but also to the watching world as well.

As we are called not only to love one another, but even Jesus calling us to love even our enemies, are those that would consider themselves our enemies, or those that look at us and are afraid of us for some reason, because we believe such and such a thing to be true, or because we have traditional ways, or whatever that might be, we see the world differently.

And yet we respond to them in love.

And this is one of the ways that we make God and his love visible.

Verse 13, by this, there it is, we gotta buy this again.

We know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given us of his spirit.

And we have beheld and bear witness that the Father has sent the Son to be the Savior of the world.

And boy, that's the kind of thing that we really do celebrate here in the Advent season, the incarnation of Christ.

That he was sent into the world to be the savior of the world, not just to be a good example, although there's none finer.

And you would do very well to follow Jesus as an example.

You won't be able to follow him completely, none of us can, but he's a great example.

No, none finer, right?

But he was sent here to be more than just an example.

He was sent here to be the savior of the world.

His name even portrays that, if you will.

Jesus, God is salvation.

And so this is the good news that God himself, in the person of Jesus, has come into the world and brought God's salvation to us.

And it's a it's a beautiful thing because it's an offer for you, it's an offer for me.

How will you respond to the offer of God?

His salvation on offer because he loves you, his salvation on offer for you as a gift through faith in Christ, the Savior of the world.

Verse 15 whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God.

And so here is this idea that our confession is that Jesus is the Son of God.

That is, he's capable, he's able to be our Savior.

Not only that, he's willing to be and eagerly willing to be our Savior.

Why?

How do I know that?

Because he came into the world.

He didn't have to, he didn't owe it to us.

We didn't deserve it.

It's not like we had a claim on him, and yet he still came, and that's mind-blowing, isn't it, when you think about it.

And whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God.

Verse 16.

And we have come to know and have believed the love which God has for us.

God is love.

There it is, verse 16.

And the one who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.

By this, there's another one of those, by this is, love is perfected with us, that we may have confidence in the day of judgment, because as he is, so also are we in this world.

Now, when I read that phrase, that we may have confidence in the time of judgment, I thought to myself, man, that is a mind blower.

What does that mean?

It means we'll have confidence in the time of judgment when we stand before God.

We'll all give an account to God for our lives at someday on that great day, that great judgment day at the end of space-time history, when he just we roll on into eternity and uh and we have to give an account of ourselves for God.

Now, what what the author here, what John is telling us, is that we can have confidence in that day of judgment.

I don't know if you've ever been before a judge I have when I was a high schooler.

I got a reckless driving ticket.

And I'll tell you what, there's a lot of fear and trembling that goes on when you stand before that judge.

And uh I had been foolish and I deserved that ticket, and I paid the fine, and I should have.

Um but what's amazing about this particular image here, as uh it's a judicial and a sort of a legal image, is that the Apostle John is telling us there's a God who knows us fully and loves us completely.

So now when we stand before Him in judgment, we can have confidence.

Why?

Because of what Christ has done.

Because Christ has loved us, come in, came into this world to be our Savior, to pay the price, to satisfy the wrath of God, so that we know the outcome of our facing the judgment is already settled.

See?

You can know that too.

I can know that too.

Your friends, your family members can know that too.

And that's why we call this good news.

Ah, it's just amazing, isn't it?

Um, we have come to know and believe that God is love.

The one who abides in his love has confidence in the day of judgment because uh as he is, so also are we in this world.

Verse 18 is amazing.

There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear.

And so fear, which is man, such a difficult thing for so many in this world, isn't it?

Um people are crippled by fear.

People are in the grasp of a fear that has just shut them down, caused them to um uh to hide, uh, to be embarrassed, to to to to be to be in the dark.

Um and here comes God saying that there's no fear in love.

Oh, wow.

Perfect love casts out fear.

Where do we find this perfect love?

We find it in Christ, of course.

While I was yet a sinner, Christ died for me.

In other words, I didn't have anything to offer him when he came to die for me.

He didn't owe me anything, and yet here he comes, loving me anyway, loving you, anyway, in spite of our being sinners, rebels, all of that.

It's just mind-blowing again.

Um, by this is love is perfected with us.

We may have confidence in the day of judgment, because this is a perfect love.

And then verse 19.

We love because he first loved us, and you know that old song.

I know that song too, you know?

Oh, how I love Jesus.

Oh, how I love Jesus, oh how I love Jesus because he first loved me.

That's where this song came from, right out of here, verse 19, man.

We love because he first loved us.

God was the initiator in this whole thing, you see.

And God is always the initiator, we are always the responder when we look all the way back to the beginning, and we will in the beginning of uh next year.

We're actually gonna begin a study in the book of Genesis, which opens up with those words.

In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth, which is awesome.

He initiated, he started everything, and he's the initiator in our relationship as well, and he's the initiator in our love relationship with God.

He started, he was loving me before I ever loved him.

Um And that's so important for us to see.

Even with our human loves, we recognize that sometimes somebody has to be the initiator, especially when there's been a separation or some kind of a rift or a break in trust.

Somebody has to be the first one to step forward and initiate love and reconciliation.

And in this particular case, I'm the one who's guilty, you're the one who's guilty.

We're the sinners.

And yet God is the one who initiates this love relationship.

We love because he first loved us.

If someone says, verse 20, I love God and hates his brother, he's a liar.

For the one who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen.

And this commandment we have from him, that the one who loves God should love his brother also.

And so you see that the love that the Apostle John is talking about, the love of God, it's no mere L-UV.

It's no trivialized, shorthand, uh, veneer kind of love that sort of is capricious or moody.

No, no, no, no, no, no.

The L-O-V-E of God is no L U V.

It is deep.

It is rich.

And there are four things I want to pull out of this passage, which I think are just really exciting.

I'll put them up on the screen for you.

The love of God for us in Christ, first of all, is surprising.

Secondly, it's mysterious.

Thirdly, it's contagious and it's compelling.

Say that with me.

The love of God for us in Christ is surprising.

It is mysterious.

It is contagious and it is compelling.

First, the love of God for us in Christ is surprising.

Why would I say it's surprising?

Well, it's because of who initiates this love.

It's the holy almighty God of the Bible.

Surprise! Look at who loves you.

Look at who loves me.

That's a surprise to me.

Look at who delights in you.

Look at whose heart treasures and values you and me.

This holy, righteous, almighty, God of the Bible, creator of the universe, the righteous judge of the whole world.

He loves you.

And he loves me.

And God has shown and made manifest his love among us here on this planet, when, as we celebrate at the Advent season, Christ has come.

And then Christ will die on the cross.

Christ will rise again.

Christ will ascend back to heaven.

And Christ has promised to return one day and set all things right.

What a surprise that that God would look at this dust ball-sized planet full of rebels and sinners and love us.

I'm getting ahead of myself, though.

What a surprise it is.

Now, John Stott and Basic Christianity, which by the way, that's one of those classics.

If you don't have a copy of that book, you need to get it.

You can never take God by surprise.

You can never anticipate him.

He always makes the first move.

He is always there in the beginning.

Before man existed, God acted.

Before man stirs himself to seek God, God has sought man.

In the Bible, we do not see a man groping after God.

We see God reaching after man.

Wow.

So not only is the love of God for us in Christ surprising, but notice this too, it's mysterious.

The burden of every religion, I think, is to answer at least two questions.

Who is God?

And how are sinful human beings reconciled to a holy and righteous God?

Well, the love of God for us in Christ is surprising.

And that's because of who it is that does the loving.

It's Almighty, Holy, Righteous God loving.

Wow.

But it's mysterious because of who it is, he's loving.

And that's why these two things are sort of this two sides of the same coin.

Who is it that's loving us?

And who is it that God is loving?

It's us.

And that's totally mind-blowing to me.

I mean, we've all asked the question when we've seen, especially, you know, a couple of sweethearts loving each other.

What in the world does she see in him?

You know, we've all asked that question before.

Maybe somebody asked that question about you.

Or what in the world does he see in her?

Well, if there was ever a time when that kind of a question applies, it's here.

What in the world does God see in us?

Really?

I mean, it's mind-blowing.

We're a bunch of self-centered, self-obsessed, obstinate, rebellious, indifferent to what matters, God ignoring sinners.

Why?

Why?

Why should God love us?

Why would God love us?

This is just mind-blowing to me.

All right, look, if if you're sitting there and you're thinking to yourself, that preacher's crazy, uh, I I don't feel I, you know, I'm a we're pretty good here.

We live in the South, you know?

God ought to love us.

You know, that's God's job to love us, all that sort of thing.

And if you just haven't seen it yet, if this hasn't dawned on you yet, listen to who I'll just give the short list of some of those that God loves.

And you're gonna find some of them surprising.

Why?

Because you won't find it in your heart to love some of these people.

What I hope that you'll see in this list is that you're on this list, because I'm on this list many times.

Here are just a short list of the people that God has surprisingly set his mysterious love on in the person and work of Christ.

And by the way, this is not a comprehensive list because it doesn't include everybody.

It's just a few of the more surprising and mysterious things about God's love.

All of the prodigal runaways, too embarrassed and ashamed to come home if that's you.

Come home to Christ.

It's a mystery.

It's surprising.

But he loves you.

He's eager for you to come home.

All the repeat sinners drowning in guilt, all the angry cynics who aren't sure what they believe anymore.

All those with broken hearts who had to say goodbye to someone they love during this last year.

All those who've had to reinvent themselves to make a living and provide for their household this year.

And they might be mad about it.

All those who just cannot find the discipline to say no to controlling habits like drugs or alcohol, pornography, or spending or eating.

All the parents who have to live with the angst of admitting they're not perfect parents.

All Republicans, all Democrats, all libertarians, the surprising love of God is mysteriously set on you in the person and work of Jesus Christ.

All those with exhausted hearts, souls, and minds who just aren't sure if there's a good reason to get out of bed tomorrow morning.

All those who have been used, abused, and cast aside.

The surprising, mysterious love of God has been set on you in the person and work of Jesus Christ.

All of those who have given everything they could, but just feel rejected and disrespected, love of God has been set on you in the person and work of Christ.

All those who see a giant ahead in the windshield, or perhaps a storm chasing heavily after them in the rear view mirror.

All those who are exhausted, overstretched, and strained, because they do the work of pastoring a church, or being on the staff of a church.

You are the ones that God loves in the person and work of Jesus Christ.

Surprise! How mysterious is that?

For God so loved the world, for God still loves the world, the cosmos, and all who are in it.

In seeing this love of God for us in Christ as mysterious, we take note of its objects, its cost, its scope, and its impact on all of us.

Yeah.

John Ortberg is a pastor out on the West Coast.

Who is this man is the name of a book he's written.

He says this Jesus is mysterious, not just because of what we don't know about him, but because of what we do know about him.

Why?

Why in the world would God come for us?

Why does God love us?

That's a mind blower to me.

I know there's a lot of people, and I talk about this all the time, I know there's a lot of people that, you know, their biggest objection to the Christian faith is the exclusivity of it.

You know, they get all mad and angry at God.

Why is there just one way?

And they'll ask that question.

And I am constantly asking a different question.

Because if there were a hundred ways, those people would be asking for 101 more.

They'd ask for one more all the time.

Why?

Because they just want God on their own terms.

That's what it really boils down to.

I, on the other hand, just constantly, my mind is blown all the time that there's even one way.

See, if there was just one cure for the common cold, one cure for cancer, one cure for COVID-19, you'd be a fool not to receive it, to accept it.

He wouldn't even ask the question unless you were just obstinate or a fool.

Here comes the love of God for that list of people, and I'm on that list multiple times.

You are too, whether you will admit it.

And here's that's what's so mysterious about God and this man Jesus who came into the world and whose birth we celebrate at this time of year.

Who did God do all of this for?

For you, for me.

For um just good people and good religious people, no, for sinners such as we are, for rebels such as we are.

So don't miss the scope of God's love, the gaps that are bridged by God's love.

Don't miss the impossible barriers that are broken down by God's love.

Notice the impact when you take note of just who the objects of God's love are.

From Dane Ortland's book, Gentle and Lowly, by the way, probably one of my favorite books of this year, 2020.

We love until we are betrayed.

Jesus continued to the cross despite betrayal.

We love until we are forsaken.

Jesus loved through forsakenness.

We love up to a limit.

Jesus loves to the end.

I've got to hurry.

I've got to move along.

The love of God for us in Christ is surprising and it is mysterious.

It's also contagious.

And we see this here in these chapters, uh, this these verses in this chapter of 1 John chapter 4.

1 John 4 · chapter mention

We see it over and over again.

Why?

Well, because of this love that we've received, it transforms us, it changes us, it sends us out into the world to begin loving as God has loved us.

You see?

And so it's contagious.

It's among the people of God, and then it even goes beyond that into the watching world.

Do you like Christmas movies?

I love Christmas movies.

I have some favorites.

I don't know what your favorite one is.

I mean, it's a wonderful life when you hear a bell ring and an angel gets their wings.

Or what about the one about the Daisy Air Rifle?

Or the one that tells us of how cousin Eddie shows up and everything seems to fall apart.

Yeah.

Perhaps you love the one about the albino beagle whose best friend is a quirky little yellow bird.

Or the reindeer that just doesn't seem to fit in and yet finds his place in the end.

Ah, yeah.

What about the one that is got that quartet of people I love so much?

Bing, Danny, uh, Rosemary, and Vera, and they're singing on the train about snow, snow, snow, snow.

You know that one too.

Is that one of your favorites?

A ton of people seem to love those Hallmark holiday movies.

You know the ones where somebody returns to a small town after their life has fallen apart and they fall in love again with their old high school flame, all while standing around a fireplace, wearing their Christmas sweaters, and sipping on some of that non-alcoholic hot apple cider.

I have to admit, I've watched a few of those myself.

But I want you to know the holidays, especially the Advent season and the Christmas season, they're good for more than just sentiment and nostalgia.

I'm a sentimental guy, I'm a nostalgic guy.

I'll weep at all those movies.

I'll be the one singing along.

I've got all the lines to White Christmas memorized, so you don't ever want to watch that with me.

I'll just annoy you.

But the season is about more than that.

We get to enjoy that.

I'm gonna, you know, decorate my house with lights.

I love these trees back here.

And and uh, you know, we're we're the kind of church that is fine with with Santa.

We're not worried about the fact that you can scramble the letters in the name Santa and spell a dark name if you want to.

We're not worried about that.

What we're concerned about is that you know the good news that the light of the world has come into the world, into this dark world, and shown us the love of God for us.

That's why Advent season reminds us of the love, joy, hope, and peace of God.

The love of God for us is surprising, it is mysterious, and it's contagious.

As we begin to show it, we begin to show it, not only share it with one another, but to show it to others.

And all of a sudden, the love that we have, that we know from God becomes the love that we show to others.

Those who receive it begin to pass it along, to pay it forward, if you will, to share it with others who have come in from the cold as well.

And then there are all those folks walking by who take a look through the windows of our chapel of our hearts.

And I guess the question I would ask is, what do they see?

C.S.

Lewis in Mere Christianity says, he came to this world and became a man in order to spread to other men the kind of life he has by what I call good infection.

Every Christian is to become a little Christ.

The whole purpose of becoming a Christian is simply nothing else.

And so you see, the love of God is surprising, mysterious, contagious, and finally it is compelling.

Advent means this great love of God for us in Christ has come to us to abide with us.

Our God, Emmanuel, has come to live among us.

He didn't just send an angel, he didn't just send a prophet, he sent those, but he also came himself.

That's how committed he is to you, that's how committed he is to me.

He came to show us the love of God by laying down his life for us, for you, and for me.

We look back in time and we give thanks for his first appearing.

We look forward eagerly to his second appearing.

Fleming Rutledge in her book on Advent says something ultimate has entered our world, something or someone that calls us to attention, calls us out of our daily preoccupations and our routine points of view.

That is what this season, with its special biblical readings, is designed to reveal.

So here it is.

God taking the initiative, surprisingly, to show us this mysterious love of God for us in Christ, for you, for me in Christ.

So that it might become a good infection that's contagious, that we spread, that the love of God might be made manifest in our relationships that maybe were broken and now begin to reconcile.

Where natural-born enemies learn how to love one another well because Christ has loved us first.

And then it becomes compelling, you see, doesn't it?

Yeah.

Dietrich Bonhoffer, in a testament to freedom, said, Advent creates new men and women.

Look up, you whose eyes are fixed on this earth, you who are captivated by the events and changes on the surface of this earth.

Look up, you who turned away from heaven to this ground because you had become disillusioned.

Look up, you whose eyes are laden with tears.

You who mourn the loss of all that the earth has snatched away.

Look up, you who cannot lift your eyes, because you are so laden with guilt.

Look up, your redemption draws near.

The advent love of God for us in Christ.

Surprising?

Yes.

Mysterious, oh yes.

Contagious?

May it be so compelling.

Yes, yes, yes.

And there's nothing that can separate us from the love of God in Christ.

The Apostle Paul put it this way in Romans 8.

I'm convinced that neither death nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing you could add in there, nor economic ruin, nor political change, nor pandemics, nothing will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

This Advent season, all of us here at the Village Chapel pray that God will reveal Himself to you, that He will surprise you, that you'll be overcome, overwhelmed by the mysterious love of God for you, that it would become contagious in your heart and through your life and your love that you show to others.

And that others would see how compelling is the love of God in Christ Jesus.

Amen.

Amen.