Advent 3c Texts for Worship
December 17, 2006
LOVE

This coming Sunday is the 3rd Sunday of Advent - the theme of which is LOVE. I googled LOVE and saw a stream-of-consciousness collection of images of and about love - marriage, babies, puppy love, a picasso painting of "Love and War," art, roses, all the cliche stuff - as well as dozens of photos of Jennifer Love Hewitt. But what is LOVE - is it weak? strong? Who gives it to who? - parents to children, children to parents, lovers to each other, neighbors when they're feeling neighborly, work colleagues when they need something? How can you see love - to know if it's the real thing? How can you tell how much another loves you? How can they tell that they love you? Where do we even learn the capacity or the tendency to love another besides just loving ourselves?



The scriptures for the day are Zephaniah 3:14-20, Isaiah 12:2-6, and Luke 3:7-18.

Zephaniah writes about God's love - God's presence in the midst of the people - like a warrior that changes the people's shame into praise, their un-knowness into renown throughout all the nations, brining Home the outcast and lame. It's a total transformation of the state of God's people from nothing, on the margins, easily-forgotten people into the people of the way, in the center, proclaiming and making life-meaning for others. God does it for them.

Isaiah is a song of joy, praise, and love. God is to poet's salvation - saving love that he knows here and know - saving love that changes everything - reframing everything - opening new doors - giving new energy - creating new life from the old (like a phoenix rising from her ashes).

Luke 3 tells of the preaching of John the Baptist calling his audience to radical transformation because of God's love for them. It's a transformation that doesn't have to do with simplistic morality or politeness, but an invitation to an awesomely different way-of-living-ethic, to the extent that what the people are called to become and do can only open the eyes of those they encounter to the miraculous transforming power of love. John is calling folks to discover and deepen their practice of sacrifical love - a love that Jesus will teach them about in his words, actions, and life-giving-death.

So what is LOVE - where did you learn it? Who taught you to love? How do you love? Does it even matter? Do we have to love like James Kim in order to truly know love? What does sacrific have to do with love? Can you love with out sacrifice?