December 21, 2014
How do you show your
love?
May the words of my mouth and the meditations of all of our hearts
be pleasing in Your sight, O Lord our Rock and our Redeemer. AMEN.
It is intriguing that
every week in the Fall of the year, the networks carry football games that are
filled with clear expressions of brute strength. Last night my mother and I watched some of
one game where the trainers consistently were on the field because of injury. The players hit one another with a clear
sense of determination, intensity and strength that even some televisions
resonate with the hits through the stereo surround sound. But on the sidelines and up in the stands,
there are some who watch the event who hold up signs that are the polar
opposite of the at times seemingly brutal hits on the field. The signs are common place today that say,
“John 3:16”. It is one of the best known
passages, because it simply states the Gospel message clearly and can be shown and
recognized quickly. The passage reads, “For God so loved the world, that He
gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but
have eternal life.”
So well-known is this passage that I would venture it is the
most translated passage of the Bible.
But for we who gather here this morning, it has a different
meaning. In our series on the Advent
Wreath, we come to the last of the four candles. In previous weeks we have learned about the
Hope we have in Jesus Christ, Preparing Him room in our lives for Jesus and the
Joy we can find in His Gift to us of His life, but now we reach the last and greatest
of the four candles. The Candle of
Love. This candle clearly epitomizes the
feeling of this season of the Church Year.
For in Jesus Christ coming to the earth, His love is clearly manifest
and unmistakable of His willingness to come to save mankind.
This is why so many people not only gravitate to and memorize
John 3:16, but use it to tell the truth of the Gospel for all of mankind. This is why Jesus Christ came to earth over
2000 years ago. Jesus came because of
His great love for all of us. Jesus
Christ love for us cannot be measured because Jesus love for all of mankind is
limitless. In mathematical terms God’s
love would be represented by the infinity sign, the one that looks like an
eight on its side. For God, Who has no
beginning and no end, has a love for us that has no beginning and has no
end. If you would ask someone who has
lived surrounded by trees all their life and all of a sudden move to a place
like Montana or even here in Northwestern Kansas where trees are rare, they
would say they felt like they could see for miles or to the ends of the
earth. God’s love also will never end.
The last of the Advent Candles clearly sums up all of the
candles on the Advent Wreath in a simple four letter word of LOVE! God’s love overflows and overcomes all not
out of coercion, but out of the sheer reality that God’s love is clearly
manifest in Jesus Christ coming in the manger in Bethlehem. As we have seen throughout these four weeks
each candle has a different and unique meaning and understanding, but this week
we come to the center of God’s core, His love for all of mankind.
We see and experience today the mercy of God for mankind from
the Garden of Eden made manifest for each of us that is fulfilled and made
complete in the manger. When we see all
four candles lit and fully understand the significance of each of them and the
fullness we find with all of them aflame, we are overcome with the reality that
God loves each and every one of us so deeply and profoundly. God’s love is so complete we can only be
overcome by God’s grace and respond on bended knee at the manger where His Son
Jesus Christ lies wrapped in swaddling clothes.
For only on bended knee at the manger can we clearly see and
understand the depth to which our God will go to bring us home to be with Him
in His Kingdom. God’s sending His Son
into the world to save all of mankind has one goal in mind, our being with Him
to learn from Him the unconditional love He has for all of mankind. This especially includes all of us saints
gathered to light the Candle of Love on this the Fourth Sunday of Advent here
at Emmanuel. AMEN.
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