BCE - 4 - Love

Best Christmas Ever – Love

Week 4

John 3:16-17

Love

Good morning and welcome to worship today! Merry Christmas! Welcome into the sanctuary to all of you who usually worship in Common Ground. Next week, we will be gathering together in Common Ground for another combined service. But before that, we will be gathering for our Christmas Eve Candlelight services tonight as we recite the story of Christmas, light the Christ candle, and share the light of Christ.

Christmas eve is just one of those special times of year isn’t it. The traditions that come along with it… I know there are some in this room that have been to the Christmas Eve services of this church every year since birth. Some of you, it has been a tradition for generations to gather here on Christmas Eve! And this year, we get to gather a couple of times, right? Not only is today Christmas Eve, it is also the 4th Sunday of Advent.

So, this morning, we celebrate the 4thSunday of Advent, the Sunday where we focus on love, then gather again tonight to celebrate the birth of our Savior.

Over the past weeks of Advent, we have looked at a new theme each week. We know that…

We have eternal hope in the promise of God made alive in Jesus Christ. Christmas is Emmanuel, God is with us.

We have unshakable peace in Jesus Christ who walked among us, teaching us to live and to love; who died for us and rose again and we know that he will return for His church.

Last week we saw that we have the gift of deep, abiding, and resilient joythrough our love for and understanding of Jesus.

As we get started, looking at Love, I want to read the Christmas story to you. Now, it’s not the version of the Christmas story you are accustomed to, but it is the story of what Christmas is all about.

So, to start, The Christmas story according to the Gospel of John.

John 3:16-17 (NIV)

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.

That is the Christmas Story

PRAYER

Love

We love the songs of Christmas don’t we. I’ve written a little something about these songs of Christmas for you. See if you recognize any of the titles…

“Where are you this Christmas?” We watch the news and all that is in the world and ask, “Do they Know it’s Christmas” or at least “Christmas Eve?”

“It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year,” even if we think the season is all about “Rocking Around the “Holly Jolly Christmas” Tree.” Every year the sales seem to get earlier and earlier as we “Deck the Halls” in October. We break out the “Jingle Bells” at Wal Mart and hear that “Santa Clause is Coming to Town” before the kids even buy their Halloween Costumes. By the time we get to Thanksgiving it’s already “Beginning to Look a lot Like Christmas.”

So many of us are just looking for “Santa Baby” as we dream of a “White Christmas” and wonder what will be “Underneath the Tree” even though we can’t remember what we got “Last Christmas.” We keep singing “Run, Run, “Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer” because “We Need a Little Christmas.” But, let us “Step into Christmas,” the real Christmas.

“Do You Hear What I Hear?” No, not “Sleigh Bells” or even a “Jingle Bell Rock.” Maybe it begins with the “Carol of the “Silver Bells”” but in the end we hear the “Little Drummer Boy” sharing the story of that “Silent Night”, the “First Noel” where God brought “Joy to the World” as we are now able to say to Jesus, God incarnate, “Welcome to our World.”

I invite you to “Come, All Ye Faithful” “This Christmas”. It isn’t about what Christmas means to the world, it’s about what “Christmas Means to Me” and You. “God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen,” the “Savior of the Nations, (has) Come.” It is “To a Maid Engaged to Joseph” that the real story of Christmas began. “It Came Upon a Midnight Clear” that the “Angels from the Realms of Glory” sang, “What Child is this” the “Child so Lovely.” “Good Christian Friends Rejoice,” “While Shepherds watched their Flocks” “He is Born” in the “Little Town of Bethlehem.” “There’s a Song in the Air” that we must “Go, Tell It on the Mountain.”

“Hark, (just as) the Herald Angels Sing”, “Love Came Down at Christmas.” The “Sweet Little Jesus Boy,” the “Sweet Holy Child” is “The Greatest Gift of All.” So, “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas.” Most of all, “I Wish You Love” and that you may “Give Love on Christmas Day.” “Hallelujah” and “Merry Christmas.”

There were more than 50 Christmas songs listed in that little piece of prose. What is interesting is that most of the songs of Christmas are love songs. I’m not talking about the traditional carols, but the songs of Andy Williams and Nat King Kole and even the modern ones with Wham, Celo Green, and Mariah Carey are all songs about love.

There is just something about Christmas that draws love out of us, and I don’t think it’s hearing the songs on the radio or all the adds on TV. I think it has to do with the fact that the heart of Christmas is the heart of God and the heart of God is love.

That’s what Jesus’ time with Nicodemus was all about… God is love.

I can just see Nicodemus sneaking through the streets to get to Jesus. He’s been following his healing ministry, he’s heard him teach, he’s seen the other Pharisees berate him and question him… but something about this man intrigues him. He has to know more, but he doesn’t want others to know he’s coming to Jesus.

I can just imagine Nicodemus, anxiously coming into the room lit only by a small oil lamp and met by the love and grace that only Jesus could offer.

Nicodemus came for answers, he was accustomed to being in charge, the one asking the questions, the one guiding the conversation… so he starts out complimenting Jesus, “We know you are wise and a Godly man. I have seen your miracles and I know that God is with you!”

But Jesus doesn’t reply with pleasantries and formalities, he gets right to the point…

“You have to be born again to experience the Kingdom of God.”

One sentence from Jesus blows Nicodemus’ mind and he was filled with more questions than he started with.

Nicodemus asks, “How is this possible, I can’t crawl into my mother’s womb again…”

But Jesus tells him to stop thinking so much about the physical world, he is a teacher of the things of God, he should be focusing more on the spiritual life. “Just as we are physically born, we also need to be born of the Spirit.”

Again, Nic’s mind is blown, so Jesus keeps explaining, and it is in this explanation that we learn why Jesus came in the first place. He tells Nicodemus that the “son of man” must be lifted up on the pole so that all who believe can have eternal life. Then, we get the reason:

John 3:16

For God so loved…

That’s really all we need to know isn’t it. God loved you… and God loved me… God loved all of creation.

It is out of God’s tremendous love that he gave.

This time of year we give and receive all kinds of gifts don’t we… and yes, we love getting the gifts, but doesn’t it feel so much better to be the one that can give the gift. That’s because we are made in the image of God, we were made to give.

But God didn’t just give us just any gift, God gave us his Son. Renee and I have had numerous conversations trying to think of the perfect gift for our family… we want to give well… I bet you do too. I bet you want to give your loved ones something that they can use, something that will help them, something that will impact their life in a positive way. But there is no greater gift than the one given some 2000 years ago.

God sent his Son wrapped in the flesh of humanity… fully human and divine – God became flesh, Emmanuel, God is with us.

God loved us so much that he gave his one and only son, not to condemn the world, but that we, the world, the cosmos, all of creation could be saved… that we could have eternal life.

That is the story of Christmas.

At His core, God is love. Every action God takes part in is motivated and sustained by love. John’s Gospel tells us the very reason God came to earth in the form of Jesus Christ is because of His great love for us.

In the midst of the hate and anger of this world… when we turn on the news and see the wars and rumors of wars… when we experience the struggles of this life… It is God’s love that we need. That is why God gave himself… God gave love in the form of Jesus Christ.

The Best Christmas Ever will be marked with the love of God and the gift of Jesus Christ!

You know, we can’t have Christmas without Easter, and we wouldn’t have Easter without Christmas. That’s why, today, we are going to celebrate Communion together. One body of Christ gathered together on this Christmas Eve, remembering

- not only the gift of the child wrapped in swaddling clothes lying in a manger…

- not only remember the gift of Jesus who lived and loved, teaching us how to live in relationship with one another

- Not only remembering the gift of the sacrifice of Jesus on the Cross that we might have eternal life…

But also remembering that just as Jesus was born, lived and died, rose again, and ascended into heaven… we know that it is because of God’s love that Jesus will return for you and me, His Church.

Ladies and gentlemen, “God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.”

That is the message of Christmas, Easter, and our life.

Would you pray with me?