Can you spot the love song titles in the sermon? The ones hidden are listed at the end.

Sermon for 22 December 2024, Advent 4 – Love Year C, Luke 1.39-55

Let us pray : Love divine, all loves excelling, Joy of heaven, to earth come down. Lord, help us remember that your love is all around us.

Today, we lit the four candles: hope, peace, joy and the fourth one, love. There are so many traditions about this Advent wreath, and there are only suggestions, not rules, about how to arrange the candles and what they represent. Even the order of hope, peace, and joy are arbitrary, although the candle labelled ‘love’ is most commonly the one lit on Advent 4. So, let’s keep love in our minds.

 

The season of Christmas and these last few weeks are times when, if we let ourselves, we will see the Power of Love both in church and, more particularly, in society. People try hard to do kind things for each other, which is good. But it would be nice if they could stretch their thoughtfulness a little more each year. Next week, we will remember the earth-changing moment When Love Came down at Christmas, when God so loved the world that he gave his only Son. A son sent with a message of love and forgiveness to all who would listen.

But you can’t hurry love, and Micah reminded us that this coming of a Saviour was long promised. The Prophet Micah wrote: ‘And he shall stand and feed his flock in the strength of the Lord, in the majesty of the name of the Lord his God. And they shall live secure, for now he shall be great to the ends of the earth; and he shall be the one of peace.’

Surely this is a Vision of Love? What a curious mix, what wide expectations. It promised the arrival of someone who could support and defend us, God’s poor, hungry and helpless sheep, from the world’s dangers by God’s power. It is fair to anticipate that to achieve such a sense of safety, then and now, would require at least a show of force, or a flexing of military might, but Micah promised a man of peace. What a promise!

You can imagine how many people were assessed by this prophetic measure through the centuries, and the gospel tells of the followers of John the Baptist wondering about him before he put them straight on the matter. The 12 disciples asked themselves, ‘ Is this the one? The one we have waited for?’ At first, the answer might have been a hesitant. “Maybe” or ” There’s a chance.” And then after a few signs of divine activity, you know, walking on water, feeding thousands, and raising the dead, the disciples turned to each other, wide eyed. “He really is the Messiah! It is our Lord!”

Wow! What a moment! Can you imagine their hearts burning within them and turning to each other ‘This is the Glory of Love’, they might have exclaimed!

What do you think? What do you believe? Did Jesus fulfill Micah’s prophesy? Think of the gospel, of moments when Jesus fed, healed or stood up to the threats of this world. There are so many. And then think of the man of peace. Moments of Jesus telling his disciples to put away their swords, or drawing in the sand while people regained their calm, or even having the bravery to simply walk away from an outraged crowd intent on killing him. Truly, when we follow Jesus’actions, these are the things we do for love.

We and all the generations are called to share God’s message of love that Jesus brought, and we continue to work for peace.

We are called to recognise the presence of God and then act upon it. Consider the image of Elizabeth greeting Mary, who had made a lengthy and urgent journey to her relative, Elizabeth. Was she hoping for a safe place to gather her wits? Was she hoping that the sight of the miraculously pregnant Elizabeth would confirm what the Angel Gabriel had promised would happen to her as well? At that moment of greeting, four persons were present: the two expectant mothers and their remarkable sons.

 

Elizabeth joyfully recognised the presence of God’s son, her Lord, in their midst. She really couldn’t help falling in love, as she cried out with joy at both the presence of Mary with child and the divine wee miracle of her own. ‘Blessed are those’, said Jesus, ‘who believe without seeing.’ Elizabeth revealed herself as a prophet in her understanding and awareness, and yet she was just like us, who sense rather than see God’s presence among us.

Mary sang her song, which we referred to earlier this month, the Magnificat. Anyone curious and wanting to know what love is needs to listen to her words. It is not a promise or a prophecy, though, it is a statement of what God has achieved. We called it social levelling before, the fulfilment of a promise that all might find something to eat and be treated fairly. So if the promise has already been achieved, what are we to make of the situations today where people are indeed still hungry, still treated with disdain or made to live as slaves?

If we are the present incarnation, that is, of God’s spirit in flesh then isn’t it up to us to love? To feed and clothe and shout for equality? It is. It sometimes feels that we have failed, that God could look at us and say ‘you give love a bad name’. But we need to take a look at this situation. The need is so overwhelming, it is well beyond any single agency to feed or clothe all those hands who ask for it. It never stops and so we end up feeling that we are not doing or giving enough, that we are part-time lovers. Let’s rethink this as we try hard to follow God’s instructions to love our neighbours. We must assist in addressing the root cause of that misery. By working for peace and assisting developing countries to pay for the health and education of their people, instead of using their income to pay the huge debts they have incurred with the West. It may seem like a long shot, but supporting our child in South America is a way to get money to where it may do a lot of heavy lifting on our behalf.

Perhaps that is why so many charities have Christmas fundraising campaigns. They are asking us ‘Can you feel the love, tonight?’and if you can, then they challenge, perhaps guilt, us into acting upon it.

But I am getting ahead of myself, this is still Advent and not quite Christmas! Although even I am failing to hold back the overwhelming tide of Christmas, myself. I succumbed to my first real Christmas tree in 30 years last week, and I have hung a Christmas wreath on my door – even the car has been decorated.

This final half week of Advent feels like a moment to catch our breath. Last week, I walked up from St Ninians to Portpatrick Primary School twice to assist at their Christmas play while leaving parking close by for those who needed it. The slope is misleading. I started at a fair pace, but the gradient increased so steeply that I arrived as a gasping, asthmatic mess, rather than as a calm and collected priest (okay, we can all dream!) ready for action in God’s name. It’s the same with Advent; if you get all excited on the first of December, you will probably peak too soon and feel exhausted by Christmas Day. No wonder we have no energy for the official 12 days of Christmas celebrations. Don’t worry, take heart, for the most important message I hope you will receive this week is the assurance that God will always love you.

So today, the pink day, take a chance to catch your breath before we plunge into Christmas proper. I hope you make the most of it, otherwise your joy might be missing, never mind your hope. I encourage you to go and find a little peace and quiet with the help of the Holy Spirit. And remember that all you need is love.

The Lord be with you.

Song Titles Search

1. You give love a bad name – Bon Jovi
2. You can’t hurry love – Supremes
3. The Power of Love – Huey Lewis and the news
4. [I] will always love you. – Whitney Houston
5. Love is all around us – Wet wet wet
6. All you need is love. – The Beetles
7. Part-time lover[s] – Stevie Wonder
8. [I] want [s] to know what love is – Foreigner
9. Glory of Love – Peter Cetera
10. Can you feel the love tonight? – Elton John
11. Vision of Love – Maria Carey
12. Love divine, all loves excelling  – Charles Wesley
13. [couldn’t] Can’t help falling in love – Elvis
14. The things we do for love – 10CC
15. Love Came Down at Christmas – Christina Rosetti