Christmas

Steadfast love and faithfulness will meet; righteousness and peace will kiss each other. — Psalm 85:10

… and you shall come here, and I will light in your heart the lamp of understanding. — 2 Esdras 14:25

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As you kindle the four primary candles that dance a circle around the final unlit candle—the long-awaited Christ candle—you are creating a network of light. You are preparing the way for the coming of ultimate light.

Agape, mentioned at the beginning of this week, is a holy love to which humans aspire, but which humans cannot actually attain.  Its nature is so inclusive and comprehensive, so absolutely gracious and abundantly overflowing, humans as individuals and even as communities seek to model that ideal. Yet over and over, humans also miss the mark.

Should you be discouraged because agape is a form of love you might admire, and yet not be able to fully reach, to holistically practice? Alone or in community?

What Jesus’ lesson of the Beatitudes taught his followers was that while you cannot touch Godself, or fully love Godself, you can choose to love what God loves. And God loves all people and all of creation.

Thus, to strive toward agape, you are invited to have compassion for and connection with the recipients of holy love: humanity, all living beings and elements of creation, as well as the fullness of creation itself. If such an aspiration overwhelms you, then take it step by step. Choose one cause or corner of creation, one stranger or one neighbor, one part of your local community, where you can act on the principles of love for others and creation, as a reflection of your love for Godself.

One light at a time, the world is changed. One life at a time, love moves through the world.

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The best love is the kind that awakens the soul;
that makes us reach for more,
that plants the fire in our hearts
and brings peace to our minds.
— Nicholas Sparks

We cannot hold a torch to light another’s path
without brightening our own. – Ben Sweetland

‘… you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength. — Mark 12:30-31

The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it. — John 1:5

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The flame of a candle is modest and manageable by comparison to the burning tempest of a forest fire or the impossible mass and gravity of the sun. You kindle four small flames that, if supervised, provide light and warmth. They do not, unless neglected, threaten destruction. Rather they add comfort, brightness, and ambience: they change the environment in meaningful, positive ways.  

            Love also has other expressions. It can involve partners with whom you achieve eros: passionate love. Over time, it is also found as a more mature love that endures through long-term relationships, and is called pragma.

            As one commentator explained, “Unlike the other types of love, pragma is the result of effort on both sides. It’s the love between people who’ve learned to make compromises, have demonstrated patience and tolerance to make the relationship work.” These forms of love, both the passionate and spicy eros and the seasoned and abiding pragma, hold significance in the spectrum of human experiences of love, all of which echo the greatest love: agape.

            Is the light kindled within you this Advent season new and passionate or mature and familiar? — Rev Gail

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We are shaped and fashioned by those we love. — Goethe

If light is in your heart, you will find your way home. – Rumi

As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you; abide in my love. — John 15:9

All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being in him was life, and the life was the light of all people. — John 1:3-4

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Lights spring into being, one after the other, because you ignite them. Each feeds the neighboring candle. Each flame take life from the lit before it and contains a spark of its antecedents.

            Similarly, every form of love reflects some aspect of the greatest love: agape. Take friendship, for instance, which can also denote kinship. It has been called storge or filios.

            In these days, you have reason to cherish friendship more than ever. The past eighteen months made people aware of how precious relationships have become.

            Friendships endure. Grow and change. Expect much from you and yet allows for your mistakes and mishaps as you who try to get it right, but sometimes get it wrong. Friends are sometimes as close as family: they may even become the kindred you choose, as opposed to the families into which you are born.

            Friendship fulfills part of the Gospel commandment to love your neighbors as yourself. When you look at people as friends, they stop seeming ‘other’ and become someone with whom you share respect and recognition.

             Can you feel the heat from the four candles, which leap and flicker together, lean toward each other and spring apart, dancing, moving? Everything they touch is lovingly revealed and rendered by such intimate light. — Rev Gail

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Being deeply loved by someone gives you strength, while loving someone deeply gives you courage. — Lao Tzu

I will love the light for it shows me the way. – Og Mandino