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Words From the Middle

At the intersection of Sacred and Profane

2022/12/18

The Fourth Sunday of Advent

If it seems fitting to begin Advent with Hope, it seems equally fitting to finish Advent with Love. This is the Sunday of Love.

One of the things I can forget about, if I’m not careful, is that while God acts in loving ways, we don’t have a God who is occasionally loving, we have a God who is Love.

This Sunday I was trying to think about some of the implications of what it means that God is love. Our Old Testament Lesson doesn’t explicitly address this but Isaiah’s words make much more sense when we remind ourselves that God is love. Our Gospel Lesson doesn’t make any sense if we don’t consider love–Joseph’s for Mary, God’s for us and the creation. It is in our Epistle Lesson that everything becomes completely obvious. Paul is writing to “I am writing to all of you in Rome who are loved by God and are called to be his own holy people.” (Rom 1:7a New Living Translation) Paul isn’t just writing to people in Rome. Through the mystery of inspiration, Paul is writing to all of us. We could paraphrase the sentence to say, “I am writing to everyone, wherever you are, who is loved by God.”

PS I’m sorry I didn’t provide a clearer heads up that there would be no recorded sermons last Sunday,

“It’s all about love” Knox Presbyterian (to download, right-click and select “Save Link As . . .”)

“It’s all about love” St. Mark’s Presbyterian (to download, right-click and select “Save Link As . . .”)

Blessings,

Article by Barry / Advent, Preaching, Sunday, Year A / advent, Advent 4, love, preaching Leave a Comment

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