Each Sunday of Advent this year, we have taken note of the troubles that beset our times – and there are so many, all kinds of troubles – and we have said: we need to sing and we need to sing now. And so we did. We sang for hope, we sang of peace and we sang with joy. But now we sing the ultimate song. Today we sing because of love, because of God’s eternal love for us.

The familiar words of John 3:16 come easily to mind: For 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. God’s eternal love is made manifest in the human being Jesus Christ, whose birth into the world we will soon celebrate. Yet even as we celebrate his birth, we should not fail to remember what will be the end of his life thirty-three years hence, the purpose for his coming into the world, which is the salvation of humanity.

 

God has always loved us and always will. Everything God has done – from creation to the birth of Christ – has been because God loves us. Even when we have gone wrong, out of love, God has sought to forgive us and to bring us back to the right path. Even when we are assailed by difficulties and disappointments and troubles of all kinds, because of love, God’s compassionate presence brings comfort and hope.

The scripture passages for today speak of God’s eternal love...

First, as embedded in the history of the people of Israel. In 2 Samuel, speaking through the prophet Nathan, God establishes a covenant with King David: I took you from the pasture, from following the sheep to be prince over my people Israel; and I have been with you wherever you went... And I will appoint a place for my people and will plant them... the Lord will make you a house. Your house and your kingdom will be made sure forever before me...

And then Mary... Mary agreed to be taken over by God’s eternal love, to be overwhelmed by God’s love. When Gabriel announced that the Holy Spirit will come upon you and the power of the Most High will overshadow you...and you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you will name him Jesus. He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give to him the throne of his ancestor David. AndMary responded: “Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word.”

In both David and Mary, God chooses particular people who are otherwise of no account in society. And because of God’s powerful love, each of them becomes a blessing to a whole nation, indeed to the whole world. Likewise, each one of us can be open to feel and experience God’s love in our lives any day – perhaps every day, if we pay attention.

 

That passage from the Gospel of John that I quoted earlier continues with Verse 17: Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.

Often, over the course of time, the church seems to have forgotten what Jesus was born into the world to do, namely, promulgate God’s powerful eternal love, not God’s condemnation.

Interestingly, a new study conducted by the Baylor University Religion Survey reveals the very practical value of letting go of the idea that God is a harsh judge and embracing a God who loves and forgives. As reported recently –

 

...the survey shows believers in a [fiercely] judgmental God have more, not fewer, anxieties than believers in an engaged, loving God.

Turning to an authoritarian God who will protect you against hostile forces may seem the way to control your anxieties, but preachers who pound the pulpit about evil and God vanquishing opponents may [actually] heighten...worries.

According to Baylor’s researchers, those who believe in a very judgmental God have 45% more concerns related to social anxiety. They have 37% more concerns related to paranoia. And they have 33% more concerns related to compulsions.

The degree of anxieties among such believers contrasts sharply to the lesser worries found among those who draw upon a loving, warm relationship with God and are more likely to attend churches that reflect those ideas. In those congregations...you’ll hear about God’s embrace of his creation; you’ll learn about his love for each of his children; and you’ll be reminded about God’s concern for those who are poor and outcast. (McKenzie 5)

 

 

 

McKenzie, William. “Some healthy thinking about the Almighty” Star-Ledger

11 Dec. 2011: Sect. 2, p. 5.

 

Rev. Kathryn Henry

Peapack Reformed Church

Gladstone, NJ

December 18, 2011