ADVENT 1 – Lighting The Candle Of Love
The promise of the coming Messiah, Saviour and King, is woven throughout the biblical
story. This promise is perceptible evidence of God’s love for humanity, “for God so loved
the world.”
In the chaos and uncertainty of our reality, God’s love continues to lead forward.
This love is our call, our anchor, and our certain guide. In the middle point of Advent, we
pause to reflect on this reminder of God’s love for us and our call to love others in return.
The arrival of Jesus is a joyous, hopeful celebration of this love, the fulfillment of this
long-held promise. From God’s perfect love, the very Son of God is born in humility,
a servant of human flesh, living among his people, pointing them to the grace and
mercy of God.
The love of God is evident in the life of Jesus, always pointing toward the here but not yet
kingdom, ministering to a hurting, marginalized and broken people. In Jesus’ death,
resurrection and assurance of return, this ultimate act of love provides a new way forward
toward the final and complete fulfillment of the arrival of the Kingdom of God.
We are called to love by proclaiming and participating in, the sacrificial love of Jesus.
John makes it clear that our participation does not preclude suffering, but out of love God
does promise that the Lamb’s victory and promise of restoration extends to God’s people.
In the darkness of waiting, of a future that feels precarious and unsure, God’s deep love for
us provides a way forward, a way to navigate through the uncertainty, to live out the certain
promise of the here, but not yet kingdom of God. We are invited to not only love God, but
also to join in Jesus’s kingdom work with the exhortation to live out the truth of God’s love
for us by generously loving others. We pass on our future hope of the culmination of the
kingdom when our love points forward to the kingdom that his here through Jesus’ death,
and resurrection.
To celebrate and honour God’s love we must accept the truth of God’s love into our lives,
but also give it to others. This Advent we remember that we are part of God’s story of love
that is for all people. We look back at the evidence of God’s love in the birth of Jesus.
Because of God’s love we look forward in anticipation to the culmination of this love, when
Jesus will return to complete the work of restoration and redemption that began with the
death and resurrection of Jesus.
We live out this truth in the present by extending God’s love to others. We recognize
that we face a lot of challenges as we choose love. Yet we celebrate the power and depth
of God’s love that enables us, in God’s strength, to point the way to Jesus through love