Wednesday, December 16, 2020 – Thoughts for Advent Four

“I’ve loved you the way my Father has loved me. Make yourselves at home in my love. If you keep my commands, you’ll remain intimately at home in my love. That’s what I’ve done—kept my Father’s commands and made myself at home in his love.” (John 15: 9 – 10, The Message Bible)

                 Forgive me if I have shared this story before. I am at that stage in life… repeating  myself.

                After my first year at McMaster Divinity College, I found summer employment at the youth correctional institute in Cobourg, Ontario as a student chaplain. One of my tasks was to lead the mid-week chapel service.  My text was some modern version of the famous Love passage out of Corinthians. I thought I was being clever, I suppose, by using a fresh, hipper version of the familiar words with images that I had hoped the youth would more readily relate to. My short sermonette was based on those words. If anybody needed to hear the good news of God’s love it had to be these incarcerated children and youth.

                What I will always remember is the effect the text and my words had on one young boy, maybe 12 years old at the most. Not repentance. Not salvation. Not an outpouring of love. But anger, bitterness and frustration. I don’t remember his exact words but at the end of chapel time, he loudly and vehemently denounced the whole concept of “love” as being a great load of hooey and he was tired of hearing preachers talking about it in chapel times. He was a world-weary boy already at his age and his worldliness did not include the rich experience of love.

                It was a reminder that mere words, no matter how pious and even truthful they may be, are of little benefit if there are not actions which strongly back them up. “If I could speak all the languages of earth and of angels, but didn’t love others, I would only be a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.” (1 Corinthians 13:2. The New Living Translation)

                What this child wanted was to truly and deeply experience some form of  tangible, real and unconditional love. But he was far from home, far from those few he cared about who gave him what love he could find,  far from the warmth and comfort of being surrounded by something or someone which cared deeply for his welfare and well-being. Words were useless; didn’t even scratch the surface.

                Although they certainly scratched at his soul!

                Christmas is a season full of Love. One might say that Love is the very essence of Christmas whether one is religious, spiritual or secular in its celebration. That Love is  often expressed through “hearth and kin”,  the practice and experience of homecomings and gatherings and family. It is finding the place where we belong, where we find shelter from what is going on in the big world, a place which beckons, welcomes and includes us without judgment or unrealistic expectations.  A Loving Home is where we kick off our dusty shoes, pull up to the kitchen table and share laughter, joy and blessing over memories, food and drink.

                But this Love has got to be more than words – it must be expressed in our actions, behaviour, and practice. It must be evidenced in the way we treat one another, respect each other, care for one another and embrace not only the shared similarities of “family” life, but have compassionate understanding and inclusivity of our differences.

                “Make yourself at home in my Love,” Jesus tells his disciples.  We rightfully portray the Christmas Message about how Jesus came and made his home among us, the Word made flesh which dwelt among us. But like all family reunions, it works both ways. His Advent became the offer of a homecoming of our own, finding ourselves at the very centre of God’s Love, with God’s arms opened wide like a father greeting his prodigal children. Against all odds, we are intimately at home in God’s Love.

                Not just words. Actions – from manger to cross to empty grave.

 

Dale