Heart of Advent “Love Beyond Fear” 1 John 4:17-18(MSG)
We are in Advent and as we are preparing for Christ’s arrival, I am not certain where you are but I know where I am spiritually. Within me I have this frustration that I should not have especially during this season of anticipation. Maybe you do and you are just like me, frustrated and a bit fearful of what is next for us in the church, the country, and our very lives. I get in these moments in my life that I am not sure of the words to say, and I live in a place of fear wondering how or whether to even respond.
I find myself looking at people differently and looking at the news differently and in me there is a fear of “oh great what’s next?” Maybe for a lot of us this is a constant fear, and it is not just what is going on in the world today but maybe this season brings out these kinds of emotions and fears within you. In this season of Advent, a season of waiting and anticipation, do we get stuck waiting and anticipating what to fear next or what Christ really brings into our lives? I used to hate Christmas. Yes, I am saying it, I used to hate Christmas and that is because I worked in retail management. For those of you who have never worked in retail management here is what it looked like. It was anywhere from 70 to 100 plus hours a week, constant working to make sure a store looked full and presentable, customer service was top notch, and by the way your family was a distant 4th or 5th on the list.
The fear was that in this season that if you didn’t get your holiday budgeted numbers, the people who were above you would reprimand you for not doing what it took to make sure you got the sales numbers and also kept the expenses under control at the same time. So, I come back to it, like the Grinch, “hate, hate, hate…loathe entirely…the holiday season.” This is why I worked so many hours and so long was because I was in a constant state of fear for what could happen.
This season however is a place for us to prepare, to open up our hearts, and clear out space to experience the love of Jesus in us and for the world around us. 1 John 4:17-18 in the Message version says this, “God is love. When we take up permanent residence in a life of love, we live in God and God lives in us. This way, love has the run of the house, becomes at home and mature in us, so that we’re free of worry on Judgment Day—our standing in the world is identical with Christ’s. There is no room in love for fear. Well-formed love banishes fear. Since fear is crippling, a fearful life—fear of death, fear of judgment—is one not yet fully formed in love.”
Rev. Anna Woofenden says this about the season, “The preparation is one of intention and purpose, noticing where crooked ways in us need to be made straight, where mountains and hills need to be leveled, where rough places can be gently smoothed.”[1] This is the removal of fear that resides in us and replacing it with God’s love in Christ. It is about the preparation piece. We have to prepare our hearts to receive what Christ has to offer and that is love and then in that love, “love has the run of the house… There is no room in love for fear. Well-formed love banishes fear.”
Jesus, Emmanuel, comes to us to help change our identity and rather than being identified by our fears we are now identified by our love. Love is much more powerful than fear! 1 Corinthians 13:4-7 reveals to power of love by saying this;
“Love is patient, love is kind, it isn’t jealous, it doesn’t brag, it isn’t arrogant, 5 it isn’t rude, it doesn’t seek its own advantage, it isn’t irritable, it doesn’t keep a record of complaints, 6 it isn’t happy with injustice, but it is happy with the truth. 7 Love puts up with all things, trusts in all things, hopes for all things, endures all things.” (CEB)
Great theologian John Lennon from the Beatles says this "There are two basic motivating forces: fear and love. When we are afraid, we pull back from life. When we are in love, we open to all that life has to offer with passion, excitement, and acceptance. We need to learn to love ourselves first, in all our glory and our imperfections. If we cannot love ourselves, we cannot fully open to our ability to love others or our potential to create. Evolution and all hopes for a better world rest in the fearlessness and open-hearted vision of people who embrace life."[2]
It’s about admitting that we have fears, and then choosing to stand in love. The way of Emmanuel, the God with us, was not to avoid the dark and difficult places of our world, it was not to stay far away up in a heaven, Emmanuel came to earth born as a baby, in the middle of a world that was struggling with powers of oppression and terror. Emmanuel come to earth in this state of utter and complete vulnerability, and calls us not to ignore our fears, but to name them and see God coming to us in them, so that we won’t be defined by them.[3]
If fear does not define us and we are defined by this love, then we are called to share this love in the midst of the oppression and the darkness of this world around us. Emmanuel came so that we would not stay the same and we would not stay silent. We are not to have any fear because the same God is the same God in the darkness that is in the light. Isaiah 41:10 says, “Don’t fear, because I am with you; don’t be afraid, for I am your God. I will strengthen you; I will surely help you; I will hold you with my righteous strong hand.” (CEB)
This love that casts out all fear that comes from Emmanuel is a perfect love. Perfect love is love that does not die on the vine. It’s love that comes to fruition. We have been loved. The source of our confidence without fear arises out of the love relationship we share with God. It is a confidence in knowing that we are loved and that we do not have to fear what lies ahead. Remember Romans 8:15 says, “For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons and daughters, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!” (ESV)
I think this is where we as a faith community in this understanding of fear and love need to collide with community. We can share this concept of love and fear with others like retail works, people in healthcare, first responders, and others that have to work so many hours and fear if they will have the time to rest, see family, or even experience the holidays. It is knowing what we know about the love of Christ that is best shared with us.
So, when the storms rage and the fear comes into our lives, this is when we go deeper—we go deeper into ourselves to the love that lies deep within, that casts out all fear. The love that leaves no room for fear—to the Light that is to be found in the midst of the darkness, to Emmanuel, God with us, to a faith that will sustain us, and to our God who is found in the midst of the fear. God comes to us in our fears, not to pretend they are not there or masquerade everything, not even always to take them away, but rather, to assure us that life still happens, and Christ’s love is much greater. Amen.
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