December 25, 2018
 
 
 
 
 RECTOR'S PEN
 
 
 
 
 
 
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Led by the Holy Spirit,
St. John's mission is to inspire people to grow into the heart and mind of Christ by engaging together in worshiping, serving, and spiritual formation.

 
 
 
 
 
3

The fourth & fifth candles of the Advent Wreath:

Love and Christ

 
 
 
 
During the season of Advent, I offer reflections on hope, peace, joy, and love as the candles of the Advent Wreath are lit.


The season of Advent seems to accelerate now as the fourth candle (symbolizing love, or the Virgin Mary) was lit on Sunday and yesterday (the Eve of the Incarnation) and today (the Feast of the Incarnation) the fifth and final candle (the white candle symbolizing the Christ, the light of the world) is lit. The labor of the cosmos grows faster and more intense. Advent transitions into Christmas, and with a final push light is born.

The light came to earth in a small and helpless package, contained in frail human flesh. To survive, the light was utterly dependent upon the compassion and care of others. The light arrived here with a bang: the heavens lit up, and a strange and blazing star appeared in the night sky.You’d think the light would have shown itself first of all to the most faithful—to the Jews who tended the Temple and taught the law—but it did not, choosing instead to show itself to uneducated itinerant workers (the shepherds) and to people whose religion was likely not monotheistic (the magi). In this way, the light declared itself the light of all people and not just some.

Even so, most folks didn’t connect the strange and blazing star with the infant born in a stable. If they had, the stable would have been surrounded by curious crowds. Instead, the night was largely silent.

The light came to drive out the darkness and to bring the love which would drive out hate. Millenia later, a follower of the light said this: “Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that.” [1] Love and light have always been intimately woven together. Perhaps light is love that can be seen with the eyes. Perhaps the rising of the sun each day on this planet is God’s quiet reminder that—for this day at least—we are loved. Perhaps when the early morning sky roars with color—red, orange, mango, pink—it is evidence of God’s urgency, God raising the volume of the divine voice: “Hey! Listen up! I love you!”

This Christmas may you be reminded of how much you are loved. Family and friends will gather round and you will feel loved, certainly, but all human love is but a pale reflection of the divine love that came down from heaven—for you. It is a love that has surrounded and attended you from the day of your own birth, and it will attend you when the time comes for you to leave this mortal live and step into the light and life to come. Remembering this love that surrounds you, living with the awareness of this love that holds you, resting in the comfort of this love that accepts and celebrates you exactly as you are—this is the gift I wish for you this Christmas.

[1] Martin Luther King Jr., A Testament of Hope: The Essential Writings and Speeches