Love Came Down at Christmas

In our hymnal are many amazing songs. Some are deep in theology, some have catchy tunes, and some have complicated and beautiful harmonies. There are some songs that we only generally sing at one particular time of year, like the Christmas section. I love it when we sing Christmas songs – there is something about the familiarity of these favorite hymns. One year I had the church in New Knoxville sing “Joy to the World” on Easter, partly to confuse the people who only come to church twice a year, partly to be obnoxious, but mostly because if you want something to bring joy, Jesus’ resurrection is the ultimate joy bringer! But there are plenty of songs that I have never heard (and some I don’t ever want to hear again – God of the Sparrow, God of the Whale, for one). One year, the musicians decided we would do a “Christmas carol hymn sing” during the Sundays of Advent. Congregation members would pick a song and we’d sing the first verse. Someone chose a song I’d never heard: In the Bleak Midwinter, and listen to this uplifting first verse:

In the bleak midwinter, frosty wind made moan,

earth stood hard as iron, water like a stone;

snow had fallen, snow on snow, snow on snow,

in the bleak midwinter, long ago.

Yeah, I decided we’d better sing the second verse as well. One Christmas song I’ve never heard is called “Love Came Down at Christmas.” Listen to the simple lyrics:

Love came down at Christmas
Love all lovely, love divine
Love was born at Christmas
Star and angels gave the sign.

Worship we the Godhead
Love incarnate, love divine
Worship we our Jesus
But wherewith for sacred sign?

Love shall be our token
Love be yours and love be mine
Love to God and to all men
Love for plea and gift and sign.

The theme of the second Sunday of Advent is love. When I looked over the lectionary readings for this Sunday, I was hoping for something obvious, like 1 John 4, but instead I got the story of John the Baptist calling the Pharisees and Sadducees a “brood of vipers” and a prophecy from Isaiah. That works well for our theme of Be Prepared, but it doesn’t sound all that loving.

Our culture looks at love as a romantic emotional response. We feel tingly and sappy and the operative word is “feel.” We have expressions like “love at first sight” and “fall in love,” when the Bible describes something different, something deeper.

One of the most popular scriptures on love comes in 1 Corinthians 13. It is often read at weddings (in fact, we even had it printed up on bookmarks to give to those who attended our wedding), but it’s not really about the love of a married couple. This scripture is about how Christians are supposed to get along with one another. Paul has been talking about the church, one body with many parts, each given different gifts to use for the church. Then Paul gets to “the most excellent way.” [And now I will show you the most excellent way…]

Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails. (1 Corinthians 13:4-8a)

The word “love” that Paul uses here is not phileo – brotherly love – or eros – romantic love. It is agape – unconditional love. It describes nothing short of God’s love. God loves us so much that he is patient with us as, by the Holy Spirit, he pours out his grace on us, wooing us toward repentance. 2 Peter 3:8-10 describes this: But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day. The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance. But the day of the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything done in it will be laid bare.

But did you notice that even in a verse that is positively dripping with God’s love, Peter puts in the reminder: God is patient, wanting everyone to come to him, but be prepared, because, just like Jesus said, the day of the Lord will come like a thief. You don’t know when. So be prepared.

Some 730 years before Jesus’ birth, Isaiah prophesied to a people in captivity. Their hope was gone. They were conquered and exiled. But in the midst of this, God says: here is my love for you. (Isaiah 11:1)

A shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse; from his roots a Branch will bear fruit.

The “stump of Jesse” refers to King David’s family line. If you remember, Jesse was David’s father. Their monarchy had been conquered and cut down. Yet from the stump, a shoot will arise a branch will bear fruit. This is not just any “branch” – listen to how this branch is described:

The Spirit of the Lord will rest on him – the Spirit of wisdom and of understanding, the Spirit of counsel and of power, the Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord – and he will delight in the fear of the Lord. He will not judge by what he sees with his eyes, or decide by what he hears with his ears; but with righteousness he will judge the needy, with justice he will give decisions for the poor of the earth. He will strike the earth with the rod of his mouth; with the breath of his lips he will slay the wicked. Righteousness will be his belt and faithfulness the sash around his waist. (Isaiah 11:2-5)

There is so much in this passage, way too much for one sermon, but did you notice that right in the midst of a prophecy of hope for the exiles, Isaiah brings up judgment? Here is where things get difficult: judgment is a necessary aspect of God’s love. Why? Our culture likes to remind us that God is love, which is true, but God is also just. Justice requires payment for sin. God does not force us to love him, because God has given us free will and has given us the choice to love him or not. Since we have this choice, and since we sin, justice requires judgment. If you don’t like the idea of justice, then try to live without it. But don’t come complaining when someone breaks into your house and nobody does anything about it. We generally want justice for us, not on us. In other words, we want justice for those who have wronged us, but we want mercy when we are the ones who have done wrong. In God’s mercy, he gives both. And the judgment is not only of what is seen and heard, but on motive. Remember the Sermon on the Mount? Where Jesus comes out and says, “It’s not about just following the rules; it’s all about your heart.” This isn’t a new concept that Jesus came up with in time to give a sermon. It’s what God has been saying all along.

So God judges by his Word. In college I had some classes where the professor gave us a copy of the essay questions we would be tested on. Once a professor gave us two possible questions: one was very specific about one little aspect of the readings and the other was an overview of the entire philosophy behind everything we had studied. I bet the farm on the second question. The professor asked the first. I didn’t have any excuse for my poor performance.

Likewise, we have no excuse for not knowing God’s expectations.

What are God’s expectations? Are you prepared to be judged based on them? When Jesus was asked about God’s expectations, namely, “which is the greatest commandment in the Law?” here is how Jesus answered: “‘Love the Lord your God will all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” (Matthew 22:37-40)

As we prepare for Christmas we prepare with love. And love is also the way to prepare for Christ’s return. Are we ready for judgment? The only way we can answer that is to ask: is my heart full of love? Do I love God with everything I am? Do I love my neighbor as myself?

This love is the greatest commandment, because everything else rides on it. It controls our motives and our actions. In his “love chapter” that we spoke of earlier, Paul concludes with this statement: and now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love. (1 Corinthians 13:13) Without love, nothing else matters.

The big question is how do we love with this kind of love? There are times when it is easy to love – at least certain people. But other times it is impossible to love. So how do we love? We have to understand that Love comes from God.

1 John 4:7-10: Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God because God is love. Here is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.

As we prepare for Christmas we have to get beyond the baby in the manger and realize that love came down at Christmas, an atoning sacrifice for our sins. When we recognize what this means and all of its ramifications, this should have a profound impact on us. God loved us, not because we were loveable, but in spite of the fact that we weren’t loveable. As Paul puts it in Romans 5:8: But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

God loves us like this, and it is God’s love that even enables us to love at all. So because God loves us, love one another. 1 John 4:11: Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.

God gives us the incentive; because of God’s great love for us, while we were sinners, and because of the transformation God enacts in our hearts, we are able to love other people. If you need help loving other people, ask the Holy Spirit to allow you to see them with his eyes. It’s hard to hate, especially groups of people, when you see them through God’s eyes. Beware, however; if you say this prayer, be prepared for your heart to break.

But when we love one another – this is really cool – not only are we rewarded with the pleasure of having loved someone, but God lives in us and makes his love complete in us. [see 1 John 4:12] John Wesley talked about this in terms of “perfect love.” He understood that everything the Christian does is motivated by love and that this love comes from God. Sometimes we as pastors can fall into a trap. We know how important works of service are and how vital it is to demonstrate love to one another, but we bypass proper Christian motivation, which is simply God’s love for us. And as we accept God’s love, God actually lives in us in the Person of the Holy Spirit. Thus we receive God’s perfect love and are characterized by that same perfect love. And our motivation changes – from selfish to loving and we actually begin to behave like Jesus, not because we’re trying harder and harder, but because the Holy Spirit, living in us, is motivating us to good deeds.

But there’s more. Love prepares us for Christmas and for Christ’s return, because love prepares us for judgment. As 1 John 4 continues, God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him. In this way, love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment, because in this world we are like him. There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love. (1 John 4:16b-18)

There is no fear in love. A little bit of John Wesley history, and a personal note: I never had any intention of becoming Methodist, even at a predominantly Methodist seminary. Going to Asbury wasn’t about its Methodist or holiness roots, it was a seminary with a great reputation and when I stepped on the campus, I knew that was where I was supposed to go. It wasn’t until I took a required course on John Wesley’s theology that it clicked – his theology is so solid and I realized that I’d found a theological home in Wesley. His emphasis on God’s grace… his emphasis on personal and social holiness going hand-in-hand… But anyway, John Wesley went on a mission trip to Georgia, back before Georgia was in the Bible Belt – before there was a Bible Belt – back when Georgia was a colony. It was a terrible experience, and Wesley went home with his tail firmly between his legs. But on the way there, the ship met a terrible storm, and John Wesley feared for his life. There was a group of Moravian Christian missionaries who demonstrated godly living and service, but more telling, during the storm, they were singing hymns calmly. They were not afraid. John Wesley realized that his fear was more than just fear. His fear was an indication that he was not yet perfect in love.

The reality is that true love casts out all fear, and (follow me here) God is love, and Jesus is God, so true love is incarnate in Jesus Christ, in other words, Jesus is love in the flesh. And it is Jesus, true love, who won the last and greatest battle when he defeated sin and death.

And so love is how we prepare for Christmas. We prepare by receiving the love that came down at Christmas, allowing that love, in the Person of the Holy Spirit, to transform us, to change us, to perfect our love, to make us Christlike and make us into loving people. So what is one way you can live out that love as you prepare for Christmas?

Remember that loving the unlovely is Christlikeness, so if you know someone who you have a hard time loving, it’s time to let God love that person through you. You’re going to have to ask Him to do it, though, and be patient as God gives you opportunities to love. And don’t expect some great happy story out of it; it will be difficult. Loving with God’s love isn’t easy. But allow God to do it through you.