CHRIST AT THE CENTER –

LOVE IS SOMETHING WE DO

Scripture: Isaiah 40:1-11; John 3:16-21

INTRODUCTION

As we began our Advent journey three weeks ago, the front cover of our Chimes newsletter pointed us in the right direction with these words from a poem by the Presbyterian author Ann Weems:

In Search of Our Kneeling Places

“This Advent, let’s go to Bethlehem,

and see this thing which the Lord has made

known to us.

In the midst of shopping sprees

let’s ponder in our hearts the gift of gifts.

Through the tinsel

let’s look for the gold of the Christmas star.

In the excitement and confusion,

In the merry chaos,

let’s listen for the brush of angels’ wings.

This Advent, let’s go to Bethlehem

and find our kneeling places.”

Since that first Sunday in the Advent season, the prophet Isaiah and John the Baptist have helped to show us the way to Bethlehem, and now there are just six days remaining until we arrive at our destination.

The question, of course, which most of us have been asking one another during this month of December is “What do you want for Christmas?” But today, I’m going to suggest that we try to imagine how God would ask that question, and I think it might sound something like this: “What do you really need for Christmas?”

The answer, my friends, cannot be bought in a store, ordered from a catalog or purchased online through Amazon.com. The answer won’t arrive at your door by Federal Express, neither will it be wrapped in a package under the tree. Because, the answer to the question “What do you really need for Christmas?” has already been given, once and for all. John said that was so a long time ago when he wrote these words which come echoing, echoing, echoing down through the ages of time and speak to us today: For God so loved the world that He gave us His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life (John 3:16). That is what we really need for Christmas – the greatest gift ever given – God’s love in person, in the human for of a child named Jesus. We know that His birth is the reason for this season, and yet, how many of us have included the gift of love on our Christmas lists?

I

Helen Keller, who lost her sight and hearing before she was two years old and thus was unable to speak, was cut off from the world until she turned five. At that time, her father took little Helen to the Perkins Institution for the Blind in Boston, and shortly thereafter, a young woman named Ann Sullivan entered Helen Keller’s life.

Miss Sullivan was able to make contact with Helen’s mind through the sense of touch. She worked out a sort of alphabet which she used to spell words on Helen’s hand, and just before her seventh birthday, this is what happened:

“My teacher led me into her room and gave me a doll,” wrote Keller. “When I had played with it a while, Miss Sullivan slowly spelled into my hand the word D-O-L-L. I was excited when I finally spelled the word myself and I ran downstairs to show my mother…Several days later, Miss Sullivan pumped cold water on my hand and spelled out W-A-T-E-R.”

After learning to spell hundreds of words, one day, Miss Sullivan spelled out the word L-O-V-E in Helen’s hand. Perplexed and yet eager to understand, Helen spelled back “W-H-A-T-I-S-L-O-V-E?”

It took more than fifteen years for Helen Keller to find the real answer to that question. Ann Sullivan took her to meet Philips Brooks, the greatest preacher of his generation, who also wrote the Christmas Carol “O Little Town of Bethlehem.” As Dr. Brooks and Helen Keller visited together, with Miss Sullivan acting as the translator, the preacher told the blind young woman the story of salvation, going all the way back to the birth of the Christ Child.

Helen Keller suddenly had a joyful look on her face, and through the interpreter, she exclaimed “All these years, I knew there must be somebody like that. I just didn’t know his name was Jesus!” (Story told by Dr. Frank Harrington, former pastor of Peachtree Presbyterian Church).

W-H-A-T-I-S-L-O-V-E? Helen Keller found the answer through faith in Jesus Christ, and she devoted the rest of her life to helping thousands of blind, deaf and verbally disabled persons across this country and throughout the world. What that remarkable woman discovered in reaching out to others is that Love Is Something We Do.

II

Now, if we were asked that question, “What is love?” most of us would probably describe something we feel deep down inside toward someone else.

I can remember like yesterday when it first happened to me. Her name was Nancy, we were in the 6^th grade and our families lived around the corner from each other. I was short and pudgy with a flat-top haircut, she was tall and pretty and dazzling to me. Walking Nancy home from school one day, I stepped up to kiss her and thought that I had discovered electricity! The romance lasted for one week, until a friend told me that Nancy was in love with Michael Breezes, who was the roughest, toughest guy in our class, and I decided it was better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all.

As we get older, those feelings grow deeper and develop into relationships which draw us closer to those whom we love. But sometimes, oftentimes, we make the mistake of taking that love for granted.

In his book 40 Ways to Say I Love You, James Bjorge tells the story of a middle-aged couple named Ole and Olga. Their marriage was like most marriages – they had their ups and downs, their joys and sorrows. They raised three children and did their best to make a living.

But Olga was barely surviving on a starvation diet for affection. Her husband never gave her any signs of love or appreciation. And finally, at her wits end, Olga blurted out one morning at the breakfast table, “Ole, why don’t you ever tell me that you love me?”

Ole was quiet for a moment, looked down at his bran flakes, and then looked up at his wife and replied, “Olga, when we were married, I told you that I loved you, and if I ever change my mind, you will be the first to know.”

Wrong answer! And if I were their pastor, I’m not sure whether I’d recommend a two by four over his head or a good marriage counselor. However, of this I am absolutely certain: authentic love, if we want it to last, if we want it to grow, depends not only on what we feel, but more importantly, on the words we speak and the way we let it show. That is especially true at this time of year, as we exchange our gifts and express our care and commitment to the people whom we love the most in our families and among our circle of friends. Don’t miss it this Christmas! Pay attention to them, and remember that Love Is Something We Do.

III

Before we close, I want to lift up the lives of those whom it seems that nobody loves. They are the ones who walk our city streets, begging for money and food with no place to sleep. They are the ones who have been incarcerated in jails and prisons, often forgotten by their families and friends. They are the ones in shabby nursing homes, waiting, hoping for somebody to come. They are the ones who have been left behind and cast aside and it would appear that nobody really loves them.

I think they are the ones whom Isaiah had in mind when he prophesied long ago, offering three words of hope to those people who were trying to survive in the city of Jerusalem. The first was a word of comfort: Comfort, comfort my people says your God. Speak tenderly to Jerusalem (Isaiah 40:1). The second was a word of courage: Lift up your voice with strength, O Jerusalem, lift it up and fear not…for behold, the Lord your God will come (verses 9-10). And the third was a word of compassion: He will feed His flock like a shepherd and gather the lambs in His arms. He will carry them in His bosom and gently lead those that are with young (verses 11-12).

Comfort, courage and compassion – those were the words of hope which God spoke through Isaiah to the people whom it seemed that nobody loved, pointing toward the day when the Messiah would come. As Christians, we believe that happened when Jesus was born in Bethlehem, and once again, this is the way that John described it: For God so loved the world, that He gave us His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life.

That is the greatest gift ever given – the love of God in person – and that gift has been offered to everyone, even and especially to those who seem to have been left out and forgotten. They were here early this morning, almost a thousand of them – homeless men, women and children – to enjoy breakfast and receive the stockings that so many of you put together for them.

The smiles on their faces, the ray of hope in their eyes, the expression of gratitude in their open arms and the sound of joy in their voices – all of that happened in this church today, and we sent them on their way with comfort, courage and compassion deep down in their hearts.

That is what all of us need for Christmas – the love of God in person, given to us through the birth of His Son, our Savior Jesus. Open your hearts to receive Him – to believe in Him, and He will reveal to you that love isn’t only what we feel – LOVE IS SOMETHING WE DO!

In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.