One of my favorite ice cream shops uses the phrase, “Got to Have It” when you want their largest ice cream cone size. The name for a medium size cone is “Love It.” And the small size is, “Like It.”
Christmas is definitely a “Gotta Have It” type of holiday. The Christmas story reminds us of a God who was willing to go to all of the trouble and risk of sending his only Son into the world to be our Savior.
And if we really want to appreciate the true meaning of the Christmas story, we also need to keep in mind the bigger story of what God did for us by sending his only Son.
Through his life, death, and resurrection, Jesus offers us four eternal gifts that the Season of Advent invites us to receive. Jesus offers us hope, love, joy, and peace. God went to great lengths to offer us these eternal gifts.
This 2nd Sunday of Advent is about lighting the Advent Candle of love. During this holy season, it’s important for us to pause and consider the costly love that God poured out for us by sending us Jesus.
In our Gospel reading for today, Joseph is visited by an angel who explains to him that he is to name Mary’s son, “Jesus” for he will save his people from their sins. This costly love led Jesus to go so far as to die on a cross so that we might have the hope, love, joy, and peace that God intends for us to have.
God’s love is a “Got to Have It” kind of love. It’s a love that accepts us just as we are. It’s a love that assures us that death is not the end. It’s a love that reminds us that with God, new life can begin.
It’s a love that reassures us and comforts us, especially during the dark times of life. It’s a love that reminds us that we are never alone for God is our Emmanuel, our God who is always with us.
Christmas is about love. The word that the bible uses to describe God’s love is the Greek word, “agape.” Agape love is an unconditional love. It’s a love that is offered with no strings attached. It’s a love that is offered to us regardless of who we are or what we have done.
When we receive the love of Christmas, we can’t help but to want to share this love with the people around us. This love is so wonderful that we just can’t keep it to ourselves.
A while back, I had a really bad dream. It was a strange dream. I was driving my car late at night through a narrow dirt road in a very remote area. I was scared, because for some reason, I couldn’t get my headlights to turn on.
I was beginning to panic because I was afraid that I was going off the side of the road and would crash. All of the sudden, I woke up, noticed that my heart was racing, but so thankful that it was only a dream.
I was reminded of this dream this past week, because I’ve been thinking about how important it is for us to have the light that we need to help us see our way forward during those dark times that we face in life.
The candles around the Advent Wreath might not seem like they give off that much light during this daylight hour, but just think how dark this sanctuary can be at 2 or 3 in the morning. That’s when we would really notice how much light these candles of hope, love, joy, and peace can provide.
I think that this is a great image for us to always keep in mind. The image of these candles always shining upon our darkness is why this Season of Advent, and the Advent Wreath is so important.
Recently, Penny and I were shopping in a specialty store that had a lot of holiday items for sale like Advent Calendars. But these Advent calendars had nothing to do with lighting the candles of hope, love, joy, and peace and preparing for the birth of Jesus who is the light of the world.
Instead, these calendars were actually kits that contained different small gifts for each day of the month of December like a jar of jelly, a small bottle of wine or you might get a special kind of hot tea or some fancy Christmas cookies.
I started complaining to Penny about it. “This isn’t really an Advent calendar. It’s just a way for people to get some early Christmas presents. They don’t even know the difference between Advent and Christmas or the meaning of the Advent Season.”
I said, “I guess it’s not enough that we have already been commercializing Christmas. Now we’re using the word, ‘Advent’ as another marketing tool for people to sound religious.” I am not fun to shop with!
On and on I went in my little rant as Penny patiently listened. And then I interrupted myself and asked her, even though I already knew the answer, “Am I overthinking this?” And without any hesitation, she said, “Uh, yeah!”
I think I’m over it. But just one last thing. Those gifts can be fun but please don’t call them Advent Calendars. There, I’m done.
The reason that I feel called by God to be the Advent police is because, we all are in need of these weeks of Advent where we light the candles of hope, love, joy and peace.
And when we shine even a little bit of God’s hope, peace, joy, and love, it can make a huge difference in our homes, in our community, not to mention in our own lives.
In our Romans scripture this morning, the Apostle Paul explains that he has been called to be an apostle, set apart for the gospel, the good news of God, concerning his Son, Jesus. Paul was willing to share this good news because it was too good to keep to himself. God’s love becomes even more meaningful to us when we share it with others.
In a world that would have us believe that the true meaning of this season is “What’s in it for me?” our scripture readings remind us that the true gift of Christmas is when we share the gift of God’s Son with others.
This is what brings us the most joy and happiness. A “Gotta Have It” kind of Christmas love is a love that is always meant to be shared with others.
Every year, pastors meet with the District Superintendent to go over our annual evaluation. In one of the districts I was serving, I was meeting with my District Superintendent and in the course of my evaluation she said to me, “I don’t think you know this because you were away on vacation, but my husband and I visited your church for worship not too long ago.”
Now, when pastors hear that, we panic and we just hope and pray that it was one of our better Sundays. And then she told me which Sunday it was.
Of all the luck, she came during one of our lowest attendance Sundays because it was in the middle of the summer and then there were a lot of people who were on vacation including myself and only one person from our music team was there.
The air conditioner had broken down earlier that week, so it was uncomfortably hot in the church that day. It was also a Sunday where a couple of people became ill during the worship services that Sunday which brought in the emergency squads.
And so, I said to my District Superintendent with a bit of a shaky voice, “Oh, you came on that Sunday.” I braced myself for what she was going to say next.
And here is what she said about her experience in my church that Sunday morning. She said, “Since I’m still new to the district, we weren’t really that familiar with the church but when we got to the door, someone was there to greet us and welcome us with a smile. The person introduced himself to us and asked if we were new to the church. When we said that we were visiting, he invited us to pick up a gift at the information desk in the entry way and said that they would be able to answer any questions about our church.”
“When the person fainted during the service, one of your members immediately jumped out of the pew to be of assistance and helped care for this situation in a loving way. And during this whole time, the person you had leading the service, was calm and invited the congregation to be in prayer for this person. It was all handled very well. I just want you to know that we were really impressed with your congregation.”
I silently said a quick little prayer in that moment, “Thank you, Jesus.” Thank you, Jesus for churches who are more than ready to shine the love of Jesus especially when people are facing times of darkness.
Christmas is a “Gotta Have It” kind of love. It’s a love that led God to send us his only Son to free us from our sins and offer us the wonderful light of hope, love, joy, and peace.
These gifts are so much more valuable than a jar of jelly, or some fancy hot tea, or even a small bottle of wine. These are gifts that are eternal, cannot be extinguished, and are available to each one of us in any given moment even as we await Christmas Day.
Our Advent Candle today, that 2nd candle around the Advent wreath is inviting us to light the candle of God’s love and shine it brightly for all to see.
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