Fourth Sunday in Advent: LOVE

 

Photo by Richard Prinsen, December 20/22

 

On this fourth Sunday of Advent, the theme is LOVE.

Have you ever heard someone say "God is a God of love," only to have someone else quickly reply,"But He's also a God of justice"? Or "But He's also a holy God"?

I have. This approach seems to suggest that love is just one of many characteristics God possesses. Sometimes He'll need to emphasize one characteristic more than the other (like a worker choosing one tool over another depending on the task), but we should never lose sight of the other side: "God is loving but just." "God is merciful but also righteous." 

The deeper implication, I think, is that love is kind of flabby and indulgent and must always be balanced by something more strict. If we focus too much on love, the idea goes, we give people the idea that they can do whatever they want without consequences, so we need a corrective of justice or righteousness to keep things under control. Thinking about it, I can honestly say I've never heard anyone say we can swing too far in the direction of God's holiness -- but I've definitely heard that we can swing too far in the direction of His love.

Pastor/teacher Brad Jersak describes love in an entirely different way: it is not one of God's many characteristics, but rather it is God's essence.

God’s nature or essence is simple, boiled down for us in the fourth chapter of John’s epistle: “God is love…” God is not love plus anything. Love is the essence of the Triune nature and every attribute of God is a facet of that one Diamond or flows from that one infinite Spring. Anything we say about God’s holiness, justice or wrath can only be said with reference to God’s love. The “holiness” or “justice” or “wrath” that is not love is not God’s.

- Brad Jersak, "Does God Punish?"

I like this explanation so much (though I can't pretend I completely comprehend it). Love is who God is. These other things are expressions of who God is. 

So we don't need to say "Yes, He's love, but He's also..." But doesn't enter into it. Everything God does expresses who He is: love. Love isn't a weight placed on one side of a scale; rather, as Jersak puts it, the love that God is is more like a diamond with many facets or a spring from which everything else flows.

That means of course that Jesus -- who is "the exact representation of [God's] being" (Heb. 1:3) -- fully embodies that love too. Jesus didn't just do loving things like healing the sick or feeding the hungry or even dying on the cross; Jesus was Love. Jesus is Love.

If that's true, then even the tiny baby wriggling in the manger, in all his vulnerability and innocence, was -- is -- Love. The one whose birth we anticipate and celebrate at Christmas is Love.

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The Risk of Birth
- Madeleine L'Engle

This is no time for a child to be born,
With the earth betrayed by war and hate
And a comet slashing the sky to warn
That time runs out & the sun burns late.

That was no time for a child to be born,
In a land in the crushing grip of Rome;
Honor & truth were trampled to scorn—
Yet here did the Savior make His home.

When is the time for love to be born?
The inn is full on the planet earth,
And by a comet the sky is torn—
Yet Love still takes the risk of birth.

 

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You can read my previous Advent posts here at these links: HOPE, PEACE, JOY.