Love Came Down at Christmas

 

Text: Luke 3:2-6

Focus: Love, advent 2

Function: To help them see how love covers a multitude of sins

²during the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John son of Zechariah in the wilderness. ³He went into all the region around the Jordan, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins, ⁴as it is written in the book of the words of the prophet Isaiah,

“The voice of one crying out in the wilderness:
‘Prepare the way of the Lord,
    make his paths straight.
⁵Every valley shall be filled,
    and every mountain and hill shall be made low,
and the crooked shall be made straight,
    and the rough ways made smooth;
⁶and all flesh shall see the salvation of God.’”

Well, welcome to the second week of Advent. We are truly blessed to be such a part of such a loving community. I don’t know about you, but I experience God in community. Somehow, when we sit at the table in worship, or in the sanctuary in worship, or in the basement worshiping by our fellowship, when we are together, as Jesus said, He is in our midst.

Friday night was a beautiful worship experience for me. The fellowship of the gifts, first starting with the poem that brother Earl read, to the fantastic meal and the company there to the beauty of the setting and then to be able to take those beautiful gifts home with us was truly an act of worship.

I could tell that people put a lot of time and sacrifice into our worship service Friday night.

I love serving you as your pastor, and the main reason is because of the seriousness with which you take the time that we spend together. I notice that you do not come to church merely as a matter of habit, which is biblical. The author of Hebrews speaks of developing a habit of gathering together. What I notice though, goes beyond that. When we meet together, we are connecting with the divine in a way that nurtures and encourages our souls. We are feeding our spiritual bodies and preparing ourselves to be servants in the Kingdom of heaven. It makes my job easier because you are eager to participate in what God has for you when we gather.

Friday night’s Christmas dinner really drove that home for me. Thanks again for letting Kathy and I worship with you.

And that drives us toward today’s theme. Love. Our scripture today speaks of what God is doing to get us ready for the coming of the Savior into our lives.

At Christmas, we worship the coming of Jesus, but at the same time, we are continually inviting Jesus into our hearts as we strive to learn the lessons of advent as they renew our hope in the promises of God.

John preaches a baptism of repentance during the first advent as they were all waiting for the coming of the Messiah.

Preparation for the coming of Jesus includes repentance on our parts as well. We recognize that because of Christ Jesus’ presence in our lives through faith in the sacrifice of Christ for us, we also are different and new people. We have turned a new leaf and are living new lives of love for our neighbor. Jesus said that the love we have for others will be the defining character of our lives and the proof of our faith. John 13:35: By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”

As we are preparing for the coming of Jesus, again, as we are preparing our heats to be open to what God has for us this Christmas season, let us ask ourselves the question, “Is love the defining characteristic of our lives?”

Let me read 1 Peter 4:7-10 ⁷The end of all things is near; therefore be serious and discipline yourselves for the sake of your prayers. ⁸Above all, maintain constant love for one another, for love covers a multitude of sins. ⁹Be hospitable to one another without complaining. ¹⁰Like good stewards of the manifold grace of God, serve one another with whatever gift each of you has received.

Let me say that serving one another is one of the ways that the power of the Holy Spirit flows through us. Jesus said that life giving water (spiritual water) will flow out of us toward those around us.

Again, I saw the joy of the Lord fill the hearts of those who were serving us Friday night. They were using their gifts just as Christ intended and it brought joy and peace to me as it started out the Christmas season and helped to put me in the same frame of mind as those whose joy it was to serve.

And love will act out in genuine service toward others.

Let me go back to verse 8 from the 1 Peter text. “Above all maintain constant love for one another because love covers a multitude of sins.”

People some times ask me what else I do beside Uber driving and I get all kinds of reactions from people when I tell them I am a preacher.

Sometimes they ask, what do you preach? And I tell them that if they come to my church on any given Sunday, they are probably going to hear me tell them to love each other because that is really all that matters for us to be doing.

That is why Peter says, “Above all” maintain love for others.

For if we do, love covers a multitude of sins. There are a lot of ideas behind this. Which sins is the apostle talking about? Is he speaking of the sins of the person who is loving? Or, is he talking about how we can actually partner with God and facilitate the forgiveness of sins in another person as well as ourselves?

If he is speaking of our own acts of love balancing out our sins and somehow God is obligated to save us because we tipped the scale, then I think we do not understand the sacrifice of Christ.

Apparently, we cannot save ourselves. We need Jesus. Sin, I believe, in this scripture, is doing acts of evil. Acts where others are harmed by our actions either through greed, direct action or even our silence. We are called to be agents of God’s love to a world that certainly needs more love for others.

So, when he says we cover a multitude of sins, first we understand that Jesus’ love for us covers the entire multitude of error, failure and sins that we have committed simply by the act of faith in Christ. I believe that His Spirit comes in us when we confess that we have fallen short of God’s glory and turn around, repented from allowing evil to happen by standing against it through different actions, speech and our relationship to money and power.

We now belong to the family of God and God is the one who provides and cares for us. We can love like Jesus did, even when it cost us dearly, because we have the power of the Spirit inside of us to help us love others.

So, first we are loved and saved by God’s grace through Jesus Christ. Second, we love others as well because we know that love covers a multitude of sins and if we love, we too, will be loved and forgiven.

That is why I say, Love came down at Christmas. Jesus first appeared weak and vulnerable, and He appeared to have died the same way. But in both cases, His supernatural conception and then natural birth, coupled with His prayer at His death: “Father, forgive them…” demonstrates to us that living by faith gives us the power to love unconditionally because we trust in the justice of God.

God’s love came at Christmas, swaddled and laid in a feeding trough, God’s love resisted the hate that tried to kill Him several times until the time was right and His love could redeem us from our own brokenness.

So, this Christmas season, let us also love with Jesus’ love for others.