Third Sunday of Advent
12 December 2021
Readings
And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them.
– 1 John 4:16 (NIVUK)
22 And the Lord God said, ‘The man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil. He must not be allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat, and live for ever.’ 23 So the Lord God banished him from the Garden of Eden to work the ground from which he had been taken.
– Genesis 3:22-23 (NIVUK)
12 As the sun was setting, Abram fell into a deep sleep, and a thick and dreadful darkness came over him. 13 Then the Lord said to him, ‘Know for certain that for four hundred years your descendants will be strangers in a country not their own and that they will be enslaved and ill-treated there. 14 But I will punish the nation they serve as slaves, and afterwards they will come out with great possessions. 15 You, however, will go to your ancestors in peace and be buried at a good old age. 16 In the fourth generation your descendants will come back here, for the sin of the Amorites has not yet reached its full measure.’
17 When the sun had set and darkness had fallen, a smoking brazier with a blazing torch appeared and passed between the pieces. 18 On that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram and said, ‘To your descendants I give this land, from the Wadi of Egypt to the great river, the Euphrates.
– Genesis 15:12-18 (NIVUK)
1 The Lord had said to Abram, ‘Go from your country, your people and your father’s household to the land I will show you.
2 ‘I will make you into a great nation,
and I will bless you;
I will make your name great,
and you will be a blessing.
3 I will bless those who bless you,
and whoever curses you I will curse;
and all peoples on earth
will be blessed through you.’
– Genesis 12:1-3 (NIVUK)
12 As she kept on praying to the Lord, Eli observed her mouth. 13 Hannah was praying in her heart, and her lips were moving but her voice was not heard. Eli thought she was drunk 14 and said to her, ‘How long are you going to stay drunk? Put away your wine.’
15 ‘Not so, my lord,’ Hannah replied, ‘I am a woman who is deeply troubled. I have not been drinking wine or beer; I was pouring out my soul to the Lord. 16 Do not take your servant for a wicked woman; I have been praying here out of my great anguish and grief.’
17 Eli answered, ‘Go in peace, and may the God of Israel grant you what you have asked of him.’
18 She said, ‘May your servant find favour in your eyes.’ Then she went her way and ate something, and her face was no longer downcast.
19 Early the next morning they arose and worshipped before the Lord and then went back to their home at Ramah. Elkanah made love to his wife Hannah, and the Lord remembered her. 20 So in the course of time Hannah became pregnant and gave birth to a son. She named him Samuel, saying, ‘Because I asked the Lord for him.’
– 1 Samuel 1:12-20 (NIVUK)
The Lord watches over the foreigner and sustains the fatherless and the widow, but he frustrates the ways of the wicked.
– Psalm 146:9 (NIVUK)
Those whom I love I rebuke and discipline. So be earnest and repent.
– Revelation 3:19 (NIVUK)
5 In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus:
6 who, being in very nature God,
did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage;
7 rather, he made himself nothing
by taking the very nature of a servant,
being made in human likeness.
8 And being found in appearance as a man,
he humbled himself
by becoming obedient to death –
even death on a cross!
– Philippians 2:5-8 (NIVUK)
4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5 It does not dishonour others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
8 Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. 9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10 but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears. 11 When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. 12 For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.
13 And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.
– 1 Corinthians 13:4-13 (NIVUK)
This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.
– 1 John 4:10 (NIVUK)
Reflection
What does it mean to love? We use “love” in so many different situations and for the most banal things that I wonder if it hasn’t lost its meaning for us! We loved that movie we saw the other day; we love that pair of shoes we saw at the mall; we loved the supper we had in the restaurant; we love our friends, our families, our pets… we “love” just about everything! So, what does it mean to really love? What is it that we are longing for? Hoping for? Waiting for? Willing to die for? Maybe even willing to kill for? What is love?
The Bible simplifies love; love is person – God is love. No one has stood before God face to face, and lived and so how do we understand what love is? We understand love by what it does!
It was Love that removed Adam and Eve from the garden because of their rebellion and it was Love that guarded the tree of life so that they couldn’t eat from it again, thus forever separating them from God.
It was Love that spoke to Abraham and showed him the future he was going to have. It was love that would not allow Abraham to make a covenant he couldn’t keep while God(Love?) bound himself by oath to a human.
It was Love that rescued Israel from Egypt where they lived as slaves. It was Love that brought the nation into the Promised Land, a place they could finally call home. It was Love that established them as a nation so that they would be a light to other nations around them.
It is Love that cares for the barren woman; and Love that watches over the orphan and the foreigner.
Love does what is not easy, popular or comfortable; Love rebukes, Love disciplines, Love corrects, and Love does not give up.
Love plans and acts on His plan regardless of our worthiness. Love looked down on humankind with compassion and, after looking around Him, still decided that He would leave His heavenly home to dwell among us. Love didn’t come as a conquering king, nor did He come in his heavenly form that would have terrified us. He came as a baby, like one of us. Love identified himself with us, learned from us, walked beside us, healed us, provided for us, restored our sons and daughters to us, was abused for us, hated for us, beaten for us, and gave His life for us. Love sacrificed everything for us so that we could know real life and real love.
“Three things remain: faith, hope and love but the greatest of these is love.”
As we light the candle of love this week, we remember who Love is and what Love does. Love is not cheap, love is not easy, love gives itself for the well-being of the other. “This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.”
– Connie Main Duarte
Each Sunday of Advent and at Christmas we will reflect about Jesus first coming and what that means to us:
Hope – Peace – Love – Joy – Jesus
These reflections are available in Portuguese and in English.