Prepared to Love

Introduction

Today is the fourth Sunday of Advent. For all you children out there...younger and older children...that means before next Sunday...Christmas day will be here! If you don’t know...it’s Thursday this week...so finish you shopping and prepare your hearts to celebrate God with us! Christ the savior is born!

Today after worship everyone is invited to a “happy birthday Jesus pitch in lunch” complete with cake and ice cream. I do hope you’ll join us downstairs...

The fourth Sunday of advent does not just tell us Christmas will come in the next 6 days...it has a theme all it’s own. The Theme of the fourth Sunday of advent is Love.

Last night at the blue Christmas service...we sang “Love has Come” G2G #110. Lyrics by Ken Bible and the third stanza reads:

Love has come, He never will leave us! Love is life everlasting and free. Love is Jesus within and among us. Love is the peace our hearts are seeking. Love! Love! Love is the gift of Christmas. Love! Love! Praise to You, God on high!

That is what we celebrate at Christmas...love come down.

OT / NT Love

The Bible has much to say about God’s love… (on Screen)

These scriptures are promises...truths...about who God is...what true love is all about. Jesus said “no one has greater love than this...that one lay down his life for his friends.” (John 15:13)

Yes...at Christmas...love came down...creator...came as a creature...to save us from our sins.

We are still in Advent, however...a season of waiting...of looking forward to Christ’s return when real everlasting love will pervade the earth and cosmos...as we wait...we are to prepare our hearts to recieve him now...and at his second coming.

So are you “prepared to love”?

Joseph

Two people who were preapred to love and whom God chose to use when he came into this world...were Mary and Joseph.

We rightly focus a lot on Mary and the miraculous virgin birth...by the Holy Spirit...and as I mentioned last week Mary’s Magnificat in Luke 1 where Mary says her soul magnifies the Lord becuase HE lifts up the poor and lowly and brings down the haughty and wealthy. God’s great reversal. Mary was faithful to recieve the angle’s word about Jesus and follows what the angle declared with faith and trust in God.

Matthew’s gospel from which our reading comes this morning...is unique amont the birth narratives...it focuses on the faith and trust of Joseph. Who finds that his bride is pregnant...and he and her had not had sexual realtions yet...so he assumed...as we all would...that Mary had been unfaithful.

Joseph clearly loved Mary. We are told… Matthew 1:18-19

Matthew 1:18–19 MSG

The birth of Jesus took place like this. His mother, Mary, was engaged to be married to Joseph. Before they came to the marriage bed, Joseph discovered she was pregnant. (It was by the Holy Spirit, but he didn’t know that.) Joseph, chagrined but noble, determined to take care of things quietly so Mary would not be disgraced.

That’s love. The law of Moses (Torah) is clear. Leviticus 20:10 / Deut. 22:23-24 make clear that Death (capital punishment) is the perscription for infidelity. Joseph, however, love Mary, and is described as righteous...and decides to have mercy on her.

Humanity in relatinoship...menas there will be confrontation...always. We will wrong one another. We will be within our rights...not for capital punishment...but maybe for a night or two on the couch...a time of being ostricized from that relationship when we’ve wronged the other person.

But what did we read about God? He is merciful...and gracious...abounding in steadfast love. When love is in the driver seat...many wrongs can be forgiven (not abuse; get to safety and get the help you need)...but in everday wrongs or slights...we should have a wide-birth of grace for one another.

That’s what Joseph had for Mary.

Matthew 1:20–25 ESV

But as he considered these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.” All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet: “Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel” (which means, God with us). When Joseph woke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him: he took his wife, but knew her not until she had given birth to a son. And he called his name Jesus.

Closing

Isn’t that beautiful? Like Mary in Luke’s gospel...Joseph was obobedientdient to the heavenly messenger. His godly heart of love for Mary...was prepared to not disgrace or harm her...but to have mercy on her.

His heart was prepared to recieve from God in a dream...the confirmation that Mary had not been unfaithul to him...but had been faithful to God and the child in her womb...is the fulfillment of ancient prophescy from Isaiah 7:14...

“A virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel...which means God with us.”

By naming the child...as directed by the angel...Joseph is willingly participating and adopting God’s plan. He adopts Jesus as his own son. It is said when we name something...we own it. God told Joseph to name him Jesus...in Hebrew...Yeshua...which literally means the Lord saves. And the angel connects this concept to Isaiah 7:14 which says the child will be IMmanuel...God with us.

God had prepared for Jesus’ birth since the time of Isaiah. Matthew connects the dots for the reader and we are to recognize that in this baby...Jesus...the Lord will save...God is with us.

Quite interesting information to take in. But Joseph had a heart prepared to love...and when we love...we are prepared to obey.

John 14:15 ESV

“If you love me, you will keep my commandments.

Joseph not only had a heart preapred to love Mary, but also God. Joseph obeyed the angel...took Mary as his wife...named the baby Jesus...and God and salvation through him...came to humanity.

Is your heart prepared to love today? To forgive wrongs...to receive the message of hope and salvation from God? To listen to how God is directing and commanding you to go as individuals and as his church at BPC?

May our lives be marked by our deep love of God...and those He has given us to love...which is to say...the whole world.

Thanks be to God...AMEN.