We’ve been taking a close look at the themes of Advent – those of Hope, Peace, and Joy. The theme of this Fourth Sunday of Advent is Love.
Love is an interesting word in our language. We use love to describe deep emotions, as a synonym for like, as a term of respect, and in a bunch of other ways too numerous to mention. I love my wife. I loved how my three previous bishops handled business. I loved the pizza we used to get from a particular restaurant when we were in Montana. I love it when the Dallas Cowboys lose. I love the Episcopal church. I love white chocolate raspberry ice cream from Tillamook. I love my daughter.
So we can see that the term “love” is used and meant in vastly different ways. Sometimes they can be hard to quantify. Sometimes they can be hard to order. For instance, would I place a bowl of white chocolate raspberry ice cream above watching the Cowboys lose? Those two things are very different, yet we still use the same term.
But for this Fourth Sunday of Advent, for this Sunday of Love, we have to look at love more deeply. The love expressed in today’s gospel is multifaceted and profound.
First, we have Joseph, someone who Matthew describes as a righteous man. This means that he lived his faith on a daily basis – not just when it was convenient or when people were watching. He strove to obey the Law to the best of his ability. But what made him righteous was that he understood the difference between the legalistic letter of the law and the underlying heart of the law.
Legally he could have had Mary stoned to death for conceiving a child he knew wasn’t his. But because he loved her, and because he understood the heart of the law, he chose a more loving option – to quietly dismiss her. There was a risk in doing this, though, because he could have been accused of breaking God’s law and he himself could have been removed or shunned by the religious authorities. Living life by prioritizing love over law, however, is scandalous in some people’s eyes, and sometimes also dangerous. Joseph chose love over law. He chose the inclusive and scandalous love of God over the legal interpretations of humans.
In our eyes quietly dismissing Mary is not very compassionate; but at that time, and in that place, that was probably the most compassionate and righteous thing Joseph could do. But it wasn’t enough. So into this mix God sends the angel Gabriel to deliver a message basically saying, “Do not be afraid to stay with her; it’ll be okay.” And he does. Once again he places love over law.
Second, we have the love of God that chose to become Incarnate in the person of Jesus.
My friend Mtr. Ann Tillman from that other Buffalo, and with whom I do the Wednesday Night BBQ, sent me a link to a great sermon delivered by the Rev. Dr. Sam Wells, Vicar of St. Martin’s in the Fields, London, which he preached at Trinity Church, Boston. In that sermon he says that there was always going to be a Jesus because there always has been a Jesus since before the foundation of the world. The Incarnation happens, he says, because God wants to be with us.
What Fr. Wells reminds us of is that God chose to be Incarnate, to be with us, before there was a creation. Which then means that God’s intention to be Incarnate in the person of Jesus was the reason for creation. The whole story of humanity and creation is about God being with us in every aspect of our life – including being with us through sin and death. In the Incarnation, in God being present with us through sin, death, and everything in between, love lives. This is a self-sacrificial form of love that is almost incomprehensible.
And third, within the love of the Incarnation is the love that God wants to be with us. Matthew’s gospel quotes from Isaiah when he writes that the child shall be called Immanuel, God with us. Again, God with us is almost incomprehensible.
We get an idea of it when we choose to be with our partner in sickness and in health, for richer, for poorer, and in all sorts of other conditions. This is also God’s promise to us – that God will be with us from birth to death and will never forsake us no matter what may come. Unlike people whose love grows cold, or who break the bonds of trust causing love to end, or who are just plain fickle, God with us means just that – God is with us. Always. To borrow from the baptismal service, God with us is an indissoluble bond.
On this Fourth Sunday of Advent which is focused on Love, we need to look at love more deeply. The love we are talking about is more than pizza or white chocolate raspberry ice cream. It’s deeper and stronger than our love of spouse or children.
The love of God drives us to place morality over legalism. This love allows, AND REQUIRES, us to question and disobey morally bankrupt laws and laws designed to hurt rather than aid.
This is the love of God that set creation in motion from before time so that God and humanity could be joined together.
This is the love that declares God is with us. At the end of Matthew when Jesus says, “I am with you to the end of the age,” this isn’t something Jesus throws out to make the disciples feel better. It’s a fulfillment of what God planned from the very beginning. As my favorite Christmas carol says, “of the things that are, that have been, and that future years will see, evermore and evermore.”
This is the love of this Fourth Sunday of Advent. This is the love we hope to attain to. This is the love we hope people will see lives in us.
May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with us all evermore and evermore.
Amen.
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