Becoming People of LOVE:
“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only son ...”
Both Frank Sinatra and the Four Aces sang and made famous the song “Love Is a Many Splendored Thing.” In the first verse, we hear:
“Love is nature’s way of giving
A reason to be living…”
Sinatra croons of what appears to be romantic love. Yet the meaning of these brief words speak deeply about a much larger emotion we celebrate this time of year. Love certainly can be romantic. And love simultaneously represents the deepest of our reasons to be living. Whether friendship, romance, appreciation of beauty, enjoyment of taste sensations, or deeper calls to compassion, empathy, justice and abiding commitment to and with others, the love we hear about in the Bible is all of those things and much more.
In the love we celebrate in this week of Advent, we experience mystery, majesty and indescribable movements of the heart and spirit motivated as response, not initiative.
That is, the love we feel and the love we share comes from within only because that love originates from without. We do not initiate it. We respond to it. We participate in it and are called to it from a source beyond ourselves, outside of our own self-seeking and personal desires.
It is God’s love that makes possible our ability to love and to be loved. As recipients of God’s loving initiative, we love because God first loved us. From the blessing of creation to the calling and blessing of Abraham and Sarah, to the protection and guidance of the Hebrews in times of trouble, to the prophetic calls for compassion, justice, kindness, humility – each of these is motivated by and culminates in love: the love of God, neighbor, alien and self. And these biblical elements are finally lived out best and most fully in Jesus.
Throughout the troubled and tumultuous history of those who have gone before us, the love of God remains that “many splendored thing,” that golden thread of grace and truth that binds us together, joins us with our past, roots us in our present and calls us to our future – God’s people, blessed to be a blessing – and loved so that we might love others, even as God has loved us.
Though Webster’s lyrics of Sinatra’s song express the love of romance, these words could just as well describe what God is doing in us:
“Your fingers touched
My silent heart, and taught it how to sing;
Yes, true love’s a many splendored thing.”
Now, for this final week of the Advent season may your heart, too, be touched. May you be taught how to sing, and filled with true love – the one true love that God gives to us. For this ultimate love in Jesus is indeed a many splendored thing. May it come alive – in you!
David Jordan
Senior Pastor