December 21, 2008 - "Re-gifting Love"

Crescent Hill Baptist Church
Louisville, Kentucky
The Fourth Sunday of Advent
December 21, 2008
W. Gregory Pope

Series: Re-Gifting God’s Gifts

RE-GIFTING LOVE
A Pastoral Meditation

2 Samuel 7:1-11, 16; Luke 1:47-55; Romans 16:25-27; Luke 1:26-38

This Advent season we are re-gifting. We are opening our hearts to receive God’s gifts of hope, peace, joy, and love and then re-gifting them to the world around us.

Today we take a moment to ponder the gift of love.

God’s Love For Us

The psalmist says, “I will sing of your steadfast love, O Lord.”

God’s love for each us is forever faithful.

Though our specific calling is different than that of Mary’s, God would want us to hear the same words Mary heard from the angel: “You have found favor with God.” God’s love and grace are here for each of us to receive.

For God so loved the world God gave us Jesus Christ, God’s only Son, through whom we receive the gift of eternal life. For God so loved the world, God gave.

Giving is what love does. Giving is how love expresses itself. The heart of love is giving, therefore giving is at the heart of God.

What we learn about God at Christmas is that God is not a taker, but a giver.

The biblical story teaches us that God has been giving from the very beginning.

The God of scripture is a God who creates with beauty and generosity and creativity.

In the book of James we are told that every good and perfect gift comes from above, from the Father of light.

In the book of Lamentations the writer proclaims of God: “Your mercies are new every morning. Great is your faithfulness.” Every morning God is saying, “Did you like that sunrise yesterday? Here’s another one. Here is food for your body. Here is air for your lungs. Here is beauty for your eyes. Here is music for your ears. Here is strength for your needs. Here are friends for your heart. Here is a purpose for your day. God is giving and giving and giving all the time.

And that first Christmas, God finally got to give the best gift of all. It’s like God had been giving and giving since the beginning of creation, but he had this one gift he had been saving up all these years. For God so loved the world he gave his only Son so that you and I might know once and for all that we are God’s Beloved, that God’s love is forever ours.

The Re-gifting of Our Love to God and God’s Love to the World

We are all of us called to receive God’s love and then re-gift that love to God and to the world.

God has loved us and is faithful toward us, therefore, we love God and others and embody God’s faithfulness for the world to see.

We re-gift love to God like Mary - in obedience and in the willingness to do what God asks of us.

And what does God ask of us? To love one another and to share God’s love in acts of compassion.

Who do you know in need of God’s love this Christmas season?

What gift of love can you share?

As we ponder the gift of God’s love to us this Christmas, may we also consider how that love can be re-gifted through us.