This week we close out our four-week sermon series.  We’ve been following the Advent liturgical calendar which takes a particular facet of God shown to us in and through our Lord Jesus Christ.  Thus far we’ve talked about Hope, Peace and Joy.  This week we’ll dive into the biggest one of them all – LOVE.

  We all love, love, don’t we? 

  Now look, I’m painfully aware that many of us have had difficulty with love and I’m not here to diminish a bit of any of that.  We live in a broken world and sometimes our love of other people or our misunderstanding of it, even, can lead us to the worst pains of all.  But even after those bad experiences, I don’t think that there’s anyone here that dislikes the idea of what love should be, right?

  In fact, I think that to deny the primacy of love in our lives is in some small way a denial of God.  Why would I say that?  First John 4:8 tells us point blank, “Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.” 

  And I think that the overwhelming emphasis on God’s love comes shining through in our Bibles, especially as we learn about Jesus Christ.  Most of us here, even if we’re not particularly Christian know John 3:16, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.”

  This one verse encapsulates the Gospel message probably more succinctly than any other verse in the Bible.  But I want you to notice something. 

  Now what do you think about when you hear the word LOVE?  Is it that warm feeling when you’re with people you trust entirely?  Perhaps you think about being giddy, schoolgirl, head-over-heels in romantic love?

  Now those are absolutely experiences of love.  But what is love itself?

  Let me tell you a story.   

  Just the other day, my wife was feeling bad.  Nothing serious thankfully, just a sinus headache but it had her curled up in bed.  Literally surrounding her, one even on top of her, were all three of our cats.  Now this is a surprising occurrence in that while two of them get along really well, one of them seems to not be so fond of either of the others.  But there they all were in the same room, in close proximity, all of them huddled around Natalie. 

  You know me, sometimes I get to thinking the world really does revolve around me.  So instead of thinking “how cute is that,” I gotta tell you, my first thought was, “they’ve never done that for me.”  In fact, I was sick just a few weeks back and laying on the exact same bed and yet I struck the cats as little more compelling to hang out with than the downstairs couch. 

  But then I realized something. 

  I say I love the cats, and I do, y’all, I’m a borderline crazy cat-person but my care of the cats is, well, limited.  My wife, she’s a veterinarian she’s dedicated her life to animals.  Not only that she’s the one who feeds them wet food, I just dump a cup of kibbles into their bowl with half-bleary eyes when I first wake up.  My wife is the one who gives them treats, who cares for their wounds.  Given her training, she even heals their sicknesses.  In fact, 9 times out of 10 it’s my wife who scoops out their litterbox. 

  So maybe it’s safer to say I really like the cats while Natalie really loves the cats.  After all, she’s the one taking the actions.  I’m convinced now that here’s a reason the cats wanted to be with Natalie.  They may like me, but they LOVE Natalie. 

  You see, we can only really know of another persons’ love for us by their actions.  Anyone can say the words but the proof is in the pudding, isn’t it?

  When we look in our Bibles, we see that God’s love is invariably an action.  In fact, the word love itself is used in the Bible far more often as a verb than a noun. 

  This Christmas, as we look at the LOVE of God in Christ, we need to recognize that God’s love towards us is an ongoing action (not feeling) that stretches back even before Creation itself.