What Does Love Look Like? - Sermon for the Fourth Sunday of Advent (December 22, 2024)

Scripture Readings: Micah 5:2–5a | Psalm 80:1–7 | Hebrews 10:5–10 | Luke 1:39–55

“And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her by the Lord.” (Luke 1:45).

What does love look like? 

The Christmas season is full of things that our society associates with love: gifts are offered and received. Time is spent together with friends and family. People share in special meals, and take part in all sorts of traditions, and celebrations. And all of these practices are seen to affirm our affections, and strengthen the bonds between us.

But even though Christmas is just one short season of the year… these practices are intended to point towards a deeper reality that we hope exists year-round. In short, we’re not only loved during Christmas, but always… even without all the gifts. Even when we are far away from our family and friends. Even when we find ourselves hungry, or a bit lost, or burdened by sadness or grief. 

Our outward experiences… be they gifts, get-togethers, or celebrations… can help us remember that we are loved… but we can be and are loved even without them. But in order for that love to take root and shape us inside and out… day in and day out… whether we feel it or not… whether our circumstances confirm it or not… we have to actually believe it. We have to trust that we are loved. 

As we know, throughout the four weeks of Advent, we are called to contemplate and to share in four important themes that are all central to the Christian life: Hope, Peace, Joy, and Love. 

And while we all have our own ideas about what these things are, and how they fit into our lives… Advent asks for our attention… for our openness to new ways of understanding… and participating in the Christian story. 

And so, while we all have our own ideas about what love is, and how we share in it, this Sunday we are reminded that the Christian story points us in a particular direction when it comes to love… inviting us to reevaluate all our ideas about love from this starting point… to learn to trust… to believe in this kind of love, so that we can then begin to put it into practice.  

In our reading this morning, from St. Luke’s Gospel, we heard about a joyous family reunion: Mary, the soon to be mother of our Lord meets up with her cousin Elizabeth.

Right before our reading today, St. Luke tells of how the angel Gabriel had visited Mary, and announced that the Lord had chosen her to give birth to the Messiah, the long awaited the Saviour King sent to set His people free. 

And while Mary was trying to wrap her head around what this all means… and how this could even be possible… Gabriel assures her that she won’t have to believe this wonderous news all on her own: he tells Mary that her cousin Elizabeth has also received a miracle child. Like Abraham and Sarah, their people’s ancestors, God was giving Zechariah and Elizabeth a son who would share in the story of God’s great rescue mission… even though they were both quite old, and well past the years of natural parenting. And Gabriel says that this is a sign for Mary, to remember that nothing is impossible with the Living God. 

And so Mary races off to Zechariah’s house, where she is greeted by her very pregnant cousin Elizabeth, who joyfully confirms the gift that God had given to Mary. 

Luke 1:41-45, “When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the child leaped in her womb. And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit and exclaimed with a loud cry, ‘Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb. And why has this happened to me, that the mother of my Lord comes to me? For as soon as I heard the sound of your greeting, the child in my womb leaped for joy. And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her by the Lord.” 

“Blessed is the one who believed… that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her by the Lord.” Mary trusted God’s word to her, and her life was changed forever.

St. Luke goes on to tell us how Mary responds to this greeting: with some powerful words of her own. Echoing the prophetic hopes and convictions of God’s people throughout the centuries, Mary starts to speak of the great things God has done, and will do to set things right at last. 

Luke 1:50-51,
“His mercy is for those who fear him 
from generation to generation. 
He has shown strength with his arm; 
he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts. 
He has brought down the powerful from their thrones, 
and lifted up the lowly; 
he has filled the hungry with good things, 
and sent the rich away empty. 
He has helped his servant Israel, 
in remembrance of his mercy, 
according to the promise he made to our ancestors, 
to Abraham and to his descendants forever.” 
 
A lot can be said about Mary’s words, and the hope, and peace, and joy that they inspire. But today, I want us to think about how these words help us to understand God’s love… how God has committed to put His love into action in our world.

Mary believes that the Living God has drawn her into the story of His great rescue mission: acting to end the oppression of His covenant people, by overthrowing the unjust tyrants of the world, and rescuing those in dire need.
She speaks of mercy, strength, and faithfulness shown to the lowly, the hungry, and the lost… lifting up the humble to new heights they had never dreamed of. And she speaks of God scattering the proud… bringing down those in power… and sending away those who are rich with nothing… completely turning the tables on those who use their positions and possessions to abuse others.   

And Mary was right. This is what the Lord was up to, and would do through this Child that Mary carried within her. But Mary would not get to see all this take place… at least, not in the ways that she first imagined. 

She had to share in this story by faith… by believing what the Lord had told her… trusting Him to be true to His word, and that He would truly bring to a good end all that He had begun in her womb.
 
For her son Jesus would come to overthrow not the powerful sinners who were ruling in the world, but rather striking at the powers of sin itself at the source, disarming them once and for all. And He would come to bring down the greatest foes that hold people everywhere in fear and bondage… the enemies of death and the demonic rebels that seek to ruin God’s good world. And Jesus came to send away all that is in us… the self-centredness, and greed, that keeps us from walking in God’s holy ways… in order to lift up those who are lost… to reach out and embrace the broken, and the broken-hearted… to share His saving love not just with Israel… but with His whole world.

This is of course, the Good News of God’s Kingdom. The Good News of God’s King, Christ Jesus our Lord… that “God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.” (John 3:16).

Advent calls us to remember that God’s love is a Christ-shaped love. That Jesus is Himself the love of God in the flesh. And that, if we want to know what God’s love looks like… if we want it to transform our lives, inside and out, than we must look to Jesus, and believe.

To believe in Him: in God’s Son, who laid down His life at the cross to give us sinners the gift of forgiveness, and who rose again to give us God’s blessed New Life.

We are to believe in what He is doing: gathering together a new world-wide family, the Church… who, despite our differences, and struggles, are bound together in Jesus as God’s own sons and daughters… drawn together by His grace to care for each other… comfort each other... challenge each other… and encourage each other.

We are to draw near with faith to Christ’s table, and sharing in the sacred meal of Christ’s own body and blood… saying yes to all that He has done for us, and longs to do within us… taking part week after week, in this meal shared with generations of believers… and celebrating God’s great saving love for us, and for everyone.

In Jesus Christ, God’s love has truly come among us… raising up all that is lowly within us… and bringing down all those areas of our lives that still stand against His holy, life-giving ways. And God’s love is at work in and through us Christ’s people today, drawing us into the story of His saving love, not just for our own sake, but for our world… challenging oppression, injustice, and evil… reaching out to bring help to the hurting, the hungry, and all those that God puts in our path… learning what real love looks like, so that we can share it with everyone around us.

Our part is to believe, to trust in what Jesus’s story tell us… to believe the story of God’s self-giving love… and to live it out along with our Christian sisters and brothers… especially when we’re tempted to listen to all of those other stories being told around us: Stories that tell us that we’re unloved. Stories that try to get us to turn against our neighbours. Stories that would have us fixated on our circumstances, fears, and doubts… and forget Jesus, our Saviour King and everything that He has done for us… especially at the cross.

And so, as Christians we look to the cross, and see there what God’s love truly looks like. We look to the cross, and remember the wonderous lengths Jesus went to embrace us and to heal our broken world. We look to the cross, and we can believe that no matter what may come, nothing “will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 8:39). 

And so as Advent draws to a close, and the season of Christmas draws near, how can we help one another to believe… to truly trust in the story of God’s saving love? Not just as an abstract idea, but as our lived reality… as the story that shapes our minds, and hearts, and all that we say and do?

And how might we then help those around us to hear and hopefully believe this story too? How can we help them to come to know that they are loved by the Living God? And that Jesus Christ gave His life to rescue them? To forgive them? And to set them free? How can we bring down the obstacles that keep our friends and neighbours from understanding the Good News? How can we help lift them up in their times of need so they can experience God’s love at work in their lives?

However we might respond to these questions this Advent and Christmas season, may the Holy Spirit of God guard our hearts and minds, and guide our words and actions… and fill us with the life-changing love of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.