Advent 2022 - Week 4
Jesus, Our Love
For this last week of Advent we will be reflecting on the biblical meaning of love—agape. This is just one of the words the Bible uses for love.
Agape doesn’t refer primarily to the romantic feelings that can come and go, or generalized love and care for a person. Agape is a powerful word that help us to understand the depth, the consistency, and the sacrificial nature of love. Agape is a choice that you make to seek the well-being of people other than yourself. Besides the fact that Agape involves emotion and care, it’s a deliberate choice to act in the best interest of another person.
Agape love is extended even to those who reject us. It’s the kind of love that puts another person’s good above our own. That’s the kind of love that God always has for us, even before the beginning of the world. It’s the same love that led Jesus to the cross for the sake of all humanity.
God showed how much he loved us by sending his one and only Son. Anyone who loves is a child of God and knows God. But anyone who does not love does not know God, for God is Love. God showed how much he loved us by sending his one and only Son into the world so that we might have eternal life through him. This is real love–not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins.
—1 John 4:9-10
Read
13 After the wise men were gone, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream. “Get up! Flee to Egypt with the child and his mother,” the angel said. “Stay there until I tell you to return, because Herod is going to search for the child to kill him.”
14 That night Joseph left for Egypt with the child and Mary, his mother, 15 and they stayed there until Herod’s death. This fulfilled what the Lord had spoken through the prophet: “I called my Son out of Egypt.”
16 Herod was furious when he realized that the wise men had outwitted him. He sent soldiers to kill all the boys in and around Bethlehem who were two years old and under, based on the wise men’s report of the star’s first appearance. 17 Herod’s brutal action fulfilled what God had spoken through the prophet Jeremiah:
18 “A cry was heard in Ramah—
weeping and great mourning.
Rachel weeps for her children,
refusing to be comforted,
for they are dead.”19 When Herod died, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt. 20 “Get up!” the angel said. “Take the child and his mother back to the land of Israel, because those who were trying to kill the child are dead.”
21 So Joseph got up and returned to the land of Israel with Jesus and his mother. 22 But when he learned that the new ruler of Judea was Herod’s son Archelaus, he was afraid to go there. Then, after being warned in a dream, he left for the region of Galilee. 23 So the family went and lived in a town called Nazareth. This fulfilled what the prophets had said: “He will be called a Nazarene.”
—Matthew 2:13-23
Candle Ceremony
Love (Joseph) by Poor Bishop Hooper
In the middle of the night
That’s always been when You set me right Sometimes
I’m weary to close my eyes
I tremble at the thought of all that You could want this time
So come on Spirit, would you get right to it
Oh I think I’ve dreamed of this
Before seen glimpses in the mist
'Oh son of David do not be afraid
Let this love befriend you like a desert to the rain
For the girl before you is one I’ve made
The simple beauty that you’ve seen is still the one you’ll take
It's not at all what your diffidence is telling you to think
'Oh I think you’ve dreamed of this
Before you just didn’t have the score
To the symphony of love that God’s been drawing up and from
His overflowing heart a piece that never ends yet ends in eternity
And He’s folding you into a fatherhood like no one could
To take a son that isn’t yours adopt the One who will adopt the world
There will be no glory for you all the glory will be given
To the Son you’ll raise up but I hate to say you’ll never see it His love...'
I know I’ve heard this too many times to tell
Isaiah said it ‘call him Immanuel’ He’ll be with everyone
But I'll have Him somehow more
My hand shall feed his mouth as I partner with your favor
Be a father to the One who’s father is You
Who knew I'd get to watch perfection grow up
I've built things all my life but never built love
I'll do everything you command, and I thank you
God I thank you
Watch
REFLECT
What surprises you about this definition of love?
How have you been experience God’s love recently?
“We know how much God loves us, and we have put our trust in his love. God is love, and all who live in love live in God, and God lives in them.” Share your experience of receiving and trusting his love, even in the midst of challenging circumstances.
God’s life can be seen through people who choose to express it. How have you been experiencing God’s love about you through people? How have you seen God’s love been manifested to others through your life or others?
How can I be an expression of God’s love to those who don’t love me as Jesus does? How can I be an expression of God’s love to those who challenge me to love them, by paying the price implied in the situation ?