Faith, Hope, and Love, but the greatest of these is Love. 1 Corinthians 13:13.

We’ve reflected on the following so far: our faith is our solid and fixed belief system, and our hope originates not in our circumstances, but in whom Christ is and we are moving to make love our action. When we have these three concepts fully engaged in our lives: God moves on our behalf to give us the precious gift of peace.

Peace is the focus for our 4th week of Advent.

Jesus said:” “I am leaving you with a gift—peace of mind and heart. And the peace I give is a gift the world cannot give. So don’t be troubled or afraid. Remember what I told you: I am going away, but I will come back to you again. That promise is found in John 14 (NLT).

Advent means “the waiting” which should be a season of preparation and anticipation: we wait for Christ’s imminent return. We should live daily with the spirit of Advent within us.

Imagine  Mary’s season of preparation and anticipation in the 9 months she carried Jesus in her womb, imagine her raising her Christ-son, imagine her waiting after they buried her sweet boy in the tomb.

Peace is a byproduct on our faith, hope, and love. It is a gift given to us because we are no longer citizens of this world. As our names are recorded in the Book of Life, we become sojourners here. If heaven is our home, then what can the world do to us? No pain, disease, heartache, or ill can trump the hope of heaven.

And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God’s love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow—not even the powers of hell can separate us from God’s love. 39No power in the sky above or in the earth below—indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 8: 38-39

We have God’s peace because We have been given his great Love.

Today we are celebrating the third week of Advent. We have reflected on hope and faith in the prior two weeks and today’s focus is love.

If hope stems from our head and faith our hearts, then love’s anatomy is the feet. Love is action.

For God so loved the world….He sent us His son. If we could ever actually fathom what it means for the Almighty God, Creator and Sustain-er of the universe to become fully man, I think we would all be the most energetic, passionate, evangelists the world as ever seen. It is the wildest truth that can ever be told!

But, alas we are finite beings and can’t really grasp that type of sacrifice or love (and doesn’t even take into account Jesus’ sacrificial work on the cross).

We become accustomed to the idea and even reduce the concept down to tiny ceramic figures that we traditionally display like the ones we have here. There is nothing wrong with a nativity set, but it’s also beneficial to remember the powerful truth behind those little figurines. GOD moved on our behalf in a huge way by sending Jesus– love is action. We celebrate this love today.

Emmanuel is a name that we use to describe the Christ child during this time of year: “God with us”      Emmanuel… God is with us– oh how He loves!

If love is action, then we too need to be people of action. I believe loving well involves 2 things: empathy and work. This year “loving” one another may look different than it ever has before. In some cases, love may mean not gathering together in the same ways as we typically would. And yet again, maybe this year love means we must gather. It may mean showing grace to people we disagree with and forgiving when things just aren’t what we’d hoped they be. Either way, couple empathy and action to love others well this season.

No one has been untouched by this pandemic. We all need the love of God.

The second candle of Advent is the Faith candle.

If hope is a construct built primarily on our thoughts, then faith is taking those thoughts and molding them into a fixed and solid belief system. As the writer of Hebrews shared: “Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.

You are in or out with faith—there is no middle ground with Christ. Faith says “yes”

Mary is an example of such faith in action. Mary said “yes” when she was greeted by Gabriel’s message of her virgin birth. Joseph also said yes when faced with the delicate task of supporting Mary through his miraculous but difficult journey. Even the Shepherds responded in faith when visited by the Angel Gabriel. They all declared, “we believe” and then moved their feet” (which we will look at a bit more next week.) Faith is not about ease.

It’s okay to be uneasy about responding to God’s call in your life. It’s not always our emotions that are sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see. It’ is our faith–our fixed and solid belief system that says “yes” to Christ as we understand him through His Word.

But, Mary exemplifies what our response should always be:

“I am the Lord’s servant. May Your word to me be fulfilled.”

And today–we celebrate–God does what He says He will do. Mary, the virgin mother, did indeed bring forth a child, and she named him Jesus—The Hope of the world. And you can put your faith in that.

The first week of Advent we are focusing on the concept of Hope. I believe this year has been a divine opportunity to refine our perspective and to re-examine from whom our HOPE dwells.

I hope you feel better soon. I hope to be there by noon. I hope this pandemic is over by Easter, August, by 2022! I hope I have enough toilet paper. I hope we don’t lose any one we love… I hope—I hope—I hope—

As disciples of Christ- we learned this year where our hope does not come from. It is not bound in tradition, routine, the government, or within ourselves. It’s not positive thinking or peppy optimism. Our Hope is found in Christ alone.

Romans 5 puts it this way:

Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we[a] have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, 2 through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we[b] boast in the hope of the glory of God. 3 Not only so, but we[c] also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; 4 perseverance, character; and character, hope. 5 And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.

We can put our hope in our Lord Jesus Christ and we will not be put to shame. As our world has been rattled this year…nothing looks like we want it to. Things feel alien, and our plans lay in the wreckage of this nasty virus. We can find comfort in the truth that the change to our world and our plans have not surprised our Lord. He is today as He been and forever more will be. We do not need to fear- when our Hope is Christ.