Advent: Love
We light the final candle of the four weeks of Advent: Love. I often find myself looking around the world and thinking hate is everywhere and people can be so mean, but then something reminds me in little ways of the unfailing love God has for us and I am grateful.
In this Advent study we have seen Love in several places already. We have seen Elizabeth show Mary God’s love by blessing her and reminding us our words should be used to show love. We have learned that God loves us no matter who we are or what the world thinks of us. So, what might we see in the message in the chapter today?
Today’s Chapter is Wrestling with Mystery: How can this be? Well, God’s love is a mystery, because God loves and accepts people I would question. I doubt that is what the chapter is about, but more likely the fact we as humans can’t believe in the mysterious, the unexplainable, anymore.
In church this year as we have lit our Advent candles, we have been using a liturgy that focuses on the words “Do Not Be Afraid” and how the angels speak those words repeatedly in the Christmas story. When I read in the first paragraph, “Many times when angels appear in the bible, the first words they speak are, ‘Fear not,’” (73) I thought to myself that I would need to hear whatever comes next. Redding goes on to write that when angels come, God is moving, and what is asked or shared by the angels often terrifies us. God moving means things are changing, and we humans don’t like change, so of course we would be terrified (scared or upset). We forget things of God are good and never done out of our fear.
The part of the Christmas story focused on love is when Mary is visited by Gabriel, for it is the one time the conversation is not started with a command not to fear something. However, a conversation happens where Mary asks questions and Gabriel, a representative of God (and his love), listens. Mary’s freedom to ask questions as well as the reality of being heard are both needed for her to say yes to her call.
God loves us so much we are allowed to ask questions as we explore and understand our faith. I love how Redding summarizes listening and questioning (from this story):
“You and I have the opportunity to fulfill holy roles by honestly exploring our own questions and by being present, on God’s behalf, with those who are going through times of questioning. By facing rather than burying or running from our questions, we may become able to say yes, finally, to what God asks of us. Sometimes we may be the one asking the questions, and sometimes we may be the messenger sent to be present on God’s behalf with others as they explore their questions.” (75)
The key is you must listen and let someone speak open and honestly with you.
I love here in the Christmas story we see it is okay to have questions, because when hard things in life happen, how many times do we have questions or doubts that shake us. In the end, when we know that God’s love says it’s okay to ask questions, we feel like we can actually draw closer to God.
We live in a time of science, and people want to know how things work. I have been told by some people you can’t believe in both (science and God). Here is the thing: those questions are good and some of the most important scientists are actually the strongest in faith because the more we learn the less we know, or basically the more you can tell about how our world is ordered, the more evident it is that something else had to create (design) everything. And it is through questions they are understanding this reality.
Explore, ask questions, and dig deeper in your faith, for God loves us so much this is what God wants for us. God wants a close relationship where we feel comfortable to ask and listen in our relationship with God.
