"A Love Not Bound by Rules"

"The 4th Sunday of Advent is Love" 

A Spiritual Master said to his young student: "Rule # 1, Do not physically touch or look directly into the eyes of a women lest your human nature get the best of you"  Just then a rain storm turns a ditch into a river.  On the other side of the rushing waters, a beautiful young lady is pleading for help.  The Master carefully wades across the now river and picks the young lady up in his arms carries her to the other side, sets her down, looks straight into her eyes and tells her everything will be all right.  As the Master and his new student continue their walk, the student finally asks.  "Master rule # 1, I do not understand?"  The Master replies, "There are no rules when Love Calls." 

Dec 23, 2018 Readings:  1 Corinthians 13: 4-7   Luke 1: 26- 38

One great thing about Christmas morning for both children and parents are the surprises.   When else in life do you get to pile 10 or 20 surprises all together at one time, then sit for an hour enjoying each of them? One after another, surprise after surprise.   Even though it is a material Christmas it is wonderful in that way. I can still remember how I felt as a child, the amazement, the astonishment of Christmas morning.  Even the tree seemed different, more alive, bigger and brighter.
Chuck Swindoll writes, “surprises come in many forms and disguises: some good, some borderline, some are amazing, some awful, some tragic, some hilarious.  But there's one thing they all have in common, surprises aren't boring.”   Let me tell you a true story about how God sometimes springs surprises on our lives.   It is a story about a professor who sat at his desk one evening working on the next day's lectures.   His housekeeper had place the day’s mail on his desk and he began to shuffle through them, discarding most to the wastebasket.  He then noticed a magazine, which was not even addressed to him but delivered to his post box by mistake.  When he opened it, there facing him was an article titled "The Needs of the Congo Mission".   Casually he began to read when he was suddenly consumed by these words: "The need here is great.”   We have no one to work the northern province of Gabon in the central Congo.  The writer went on to say “And it is my prayer as I write this article, God will lay His hand on one - one on whom, already, the Master's eyes have been cast - that he or she shall be called to this place to help us."   Well!  As Paul Harvey would say, now for the rest of the story.  That Professor name was Albert Schweitzer, and after closing the magazine, he wrote this in his diary: "My search is over." I shall give myself to the Congo.  In 1913, Albert Schweitzer opened his hospital, bringing modern medicine to the French Congo.    Now here in lies the surprise:  The magazine was not addressed to Albert, but somehow landed in his mail box, and then somehow fell open to that particular article.  That little article, hidden in a magazine which was intended for someone else, OR WAS IT!!!  It was meant for him.   Now I Ask You could that have been by Chance?  No, I believe it was it truly one of God's surprises.   Sometimes surprises have happen to us like this but in smaller ways, has that ever happen to you?   What mission has God been placed upon your heart, what mission or task are you being called to.    

This morning we heard another one of God’s great surprises, when an angel by the name of Gabriel appeared to a young teenager by the name of Mary.  Through Gabriel with the help of Mary and Joseph, God gave the whole world a surprise, by fulfilling an ancient prophecy.    A miracle was to be preformed through Mary and a convenient of unconditional love was to be made known to the world.  The surprise was that this love would be unlike any other kind of love the world had ever known.  Many today struggle to understand the difference between human love and God’s love.  In our world, human love is often confused with infatuation, personal pleasure, we sometimes have even been know to love things.  And most generally we look for confirmation that we are loved by a return.   This kind of love is fragile and in many cases similar to happiness because it doesn’t last long, let alone be forever.   Quite often People fall in and out of love quite easily.   The reason for and the difficulty with this kind of love is its tailings, meaning it has conditions.  In order to keep this love exciting and alive we need to have it reinforced, I love you and you should then in return, love me.  Often one of us needs to do something, to prove or to remind us how precious we are to them.  As strange as it may sound the need for acknowledgement becomes the flaw.  But there is other kind of love, God’s love, it is a love without conditions.  Here in lay the magic that makes it flawless, having no strings or tailings attached to it.  Here is another strange thing about God’s love.  The only way you know you have it, is when you share it.  It doesn’t come from others nor does it need reinforcement.  It is already within you.  It was placed in you when you were conceived, you were made in its image.  All you need is just to accept it, trust it, and believe in it and then share it.  Do you know why it makes you feel so good!  It’s not because the other person loves you, it is because of your love, love coming out of you.  Being the lovable person you were meant to be, even when and if others rejected it.  Rejection has no power over this love.   We know from 1 Corinthians 13:  that this kind of love isn’t like our human love, because it is always patient, always kind.  It does not envy, or boast nor is it proud, it is not rude, nor self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs, never delights in evil, but rejoices with the truth.  It always protects, trusts, hopes and always perseveres.  You do not have to say or do anything physical to win it or retain it, it is already in you, in fact you are its truth when you share it.   This love was made visible for the world to see through Mary’s boy child.    This love is much harder to understand but much easier to accept and hold on to.  Here is another one of its surprises, if you accept yourself as the gift and embrace it, it can change the love you offer others and it makes it impossible for conditions to steal it away.  It also has the power to make other forms of human love tolerable, forgivable and workable.

It is pretty hard for us to conceive and live a love that only loves.   A love that says:

 I love you NO MATTER WHAT.  And here is another on of God’s surprises. When we examine the story of Mary and Joseph we can see the struggle with the conditional love of family and community.  You can imagine Joseph’s doubt with Mary’s pregnancy, how could she be with child, the Shame brought to their families.    It would also be shown to us through 12 disciples who struggle with their conditional human love for the Master.  Jesus’ love for them didn’t change when they rejected him in his final hour, nor did he stop loving those who were threatened by his love, those who hurt him, and even those who put his body to death on a cross.   Then in a super surprise this tragedy turns into the greatest act of unconditional love the world would ever know.   How did He do it?  He truly was God’s love incarnate.

We must begin to understand that this love is different.   Those who try to exist on human love alone will never see the flaw, nor gain the gift.  This year let Christ be birthed in you. Let that be your surprise gift, that you too are love, accept it now, it is what you are meant to be, you will never be the same again as it has the power to turn your human love into something beautiful.