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The Fourth Sunday in Advent has as its theme “love.”  Very appropriate, because in the Scriptures we read that “God is love.”  And that most well-know verse from the New Testament is “For God so loved the world. . . . “  Jesus commented on love when he said in Mark 12, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.  The second [commandment] is this, ‘You shall love our neighbor as yourself.’”

What’s so difficult about this, you might ask?  The issue is that love in the Bible is based far less upon the emotion of love than it is on deeds or actions done on behalf of the neighbor (who might be your closest family member.)  Jesus’ acts of healing, for instance, were acts done for the benefit of the recipient in order to demonstrate the nature of God.

What does this have to do with Advent and Christmas?  “Love came down at Christmas” is truth---God GAVE us the Son.  We are called to continue this godly action of being there for the neighbor.  This is why Christmas for the believer is far more than a one-day shebang (nothing wrong with that day of celebration and rejoicing); Christmas is a year-long, life-long response of gratitude to the God who continually blesses us, and calls us to bless others.

In Jesus’ Name.