~ Lessons and Carols ~
Readings: Isaiah 7:10-14 | 1 John 4:7-16 | Luke 2:1-20
Text: 1 John 4:7-16
So much of Christmas tradition has become alienated from what this holy day actually commemorates.
Some of it comes from past Christian influence, like Paradise Trees laden with fruit and the Eucharist’s food of immortality, like lights that echo the prophecy of Isaiah that the people sitting in darkness have seen a great light, like gathering in feasts with family or recognizing the need of those who are unsupported and forgotten.
Some of it is just has to do with it being the winter season in the northern hemisphere. To this belong the influences of Nordic & northern European traditions—fat characterizations of men in fur suits, reindeer with mythical features, fires, liquor, and the mysterious unseen world that is cloaked in the darkness of this time of year.
But when you get down to the root, you can see Christmas for the actual cause for celebration. This is why it’s become a tradition to read and ponder the account of Jesus’ birth, with the announcement of the angels, and the godly shepherds who were the first visitors to worship at the manger.
In a similar way, the Epistle reading from 1 John 4 has so much freight that needs to be unpacked before we can better understand it. There’s a lot that is built upon the Apostle’s words which depends on firmly holding to what God did at Christmas, rather than what people did to make themselves ready.
Another way to talk about this is the distinction between salvation and sanctification—the faith in this Christ and the good which flows from it.
“7Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. 8Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. 9In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. 10In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. 11Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 12No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us. 13By this we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit. 14And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. 15Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. 16So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.”
(1 John 4:7–16)
One of the sentiments of the Christmas season is that we should be kind and charitable to one another. But if that’s what we encounter as the primary message of Christmas, then we end up with the moralism of pop Christmas jingles that say, “Someday at Christmas, man will not fail / Hate will be gone and love will prevail / Someday a new world that we can start / With hope in every heart”
But there is a great gulf in between people left to their own devices, whose “hearts’ intentions are evil from [their] youth” (Genesis 8:21) and a people who love one another. Like a recalcitrant brat, the cynical heart says, “Why should I love others? They don’t treat me that well. What’s in it for me?” Such a one needs more than corrective action, more than being forced to go through the motions of charity.
They need to die. Not as in capital punishment, but die and be born anew from God. The natural birth we all share was flesh giving birth to flesh, and that’s more of the same problem. St. Paul writes in Romans 8, “For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; indeed, it cannot. 8 Those who are in the flesh cannot please God” (Rom. 8:7-8). What needs to happen? “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.” (John 3:5) Only one experiences this dying to sin and being born of God, will actually understand what it means when it says, “God is love.”
“16So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.”
This is the very foundation for Christmas, for those who confess themselves to be Christians. God’s love is far, far from what people are generally taught to call love. Man says that love is acceptance. Man says love is a strong feeling toward another. Man says love is enabling another to make the choice for dishonoring, degrading, or destroying oneself. Man has been sold a bill of goods by the chief Liar, Satan himself, whom the Lord says has been a liar and a murderer from the beginning [John 8:44].
God’s love comes with unpolluted goodness, since He is the one who created each of us. He actually does desire good for all humanity, that we should be rescued from the darkness and death we have dwelt in. We should renounce the devil with all his works and all his ways. We should confess Jesus Christ as the Savior of the world and that He was raised up on the cross for all of our sins too.
9In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him.10In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.
This brings us back to the root of all goodness: Not that we loved God (or thought we were loving our fellow man), but that He sent His Son into the world through the virgin womb of Mary to teach us what love really is, how it acts, and what it accomplishes. Certainly there are many noble examples of devotion and self-sacrifice, but none of them equals the love of God. If we are born anew and taught by the love of God, the way we live will show forth something different than the love of man. Rather than asking “What’s in it for me?” A godly love will put the needs of another before our own comfort or satisfaction. And whatever we have left undone, we commend to our loving God and the blood of His Son. You see, the change of heart is not from us, but from God at work in a person, no matter how lowly.
If you study the Gospels, you will see the sorts of people the Gospel brought out of darkness: people unclean from years of their sin unchecked, demon-possessed, women who sold their bodies, thieves, soldiers ashamed of what they had done in the name of duty, and even filthy herdsmen who were watching their flocks all night long.
11Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 12No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us.
This sits at the heart of John’s discourse: Since God has so loved us—whoever we are and whatever we have been—it is good and right for us to extend that love to the souls around us. Why? Because this is what God has given new birth for, that being changed from people in darkness and the shadow of death, we should be His people who know Him and have the same love for others whom He has made and ransomed through the blood of Jesus.
In the Name + of Jesus. Amen.
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