Fourth Sunday in Advent - LOVE

On the fourth Sunday in Advent we think of the Spirit of Christmas as the Spirit of Love. It was the love of God for his world and his people that brought about the miracle of the incarnation. Deity became flesh and lived among the people of the earth and it was a life of love that found its expression in the Son both emptying and humbling himself and maintaining that he had come, not to be served, but to serve and give his life for the salvation of the world. It was a sacrificial love that saw him lifted up and given a name above every other name; a name at which we are forced to bow.

The reality of the Christmas story is that it has eternal significance for each of us and it demands a response because we can be an on-going part of the story. We are the next chapter of a never ending story and the immeasurable value of Christmas means we are called to see our place in it

At Christmas we see God demonstrating reckless extravagance for you and me and in turn we need to risk our reputation if necessary, in order to love, to give, to care, to feed, to help a loveless world.  As Christ bridged the gulf to meet us, we are called to scale the barriers of our society and meet people where they are.  Christ demanded, ‘lay down your life for my sake’ or put another way, ’let my love take over your life’

In 1965 Hal David and Burt Bacharach wrote a song in the form of a prayer. The words of the chorus read,

 

What the world needs now is love, sweet love,

It’s the only thing that there’s just too little of,
What he world needs now is love, sweet love,
No, not just for some but for everyone

Throughout Christmas 2014 and the New Year of 2015, let us, through Christ, be that love to the world

 

Read; Philippians 2:1-18

Thanks to Lieut-Colonel Robert McIntyre for these Sunday in Advent posts.