The Fourth Sunday of Advent--Love

 


Love, love, love.
The word love appears over 700 times in the New Translation Bible. In the Good News Bible—the one my pastor back in Wisconsin gave me in 1997—it appears 850 times across both the Old and New Testaments.

That’s not just a number. That’s a rhythm. A heartbeat. A reminder that love is not a footnote in scripture—it’s the throughline. The refrain. The candle that never goes out.

When I think about love in the Bible, I think of John 3:16: “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, so that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” That, to me, is the heart of Advent and Christmas.

Yesterday I wrote about a bill in Congress that would take away essential rights from transgender youth and make it harder for their families to access healthcare. Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene may claim the Christian faith, but the impact of this bill raises a deeper question: How can anyone speak of loving God and following Jesus while supporting policies that harm vulnerable children and the families who care for them?

Jesus consistently centered compassion, protection, and dignity—especially for those pushed to the margins. Any policy that increases suffering for a vulnerable group stands in opposition to that core commandment to love.

Christians often wonder why the pews are empty. But wearing a cross, showing up on Sunday, or reciting the Apostles’ or Nicene Creed doesn’t make someone a Christian.  Living out love does.  Faith becomes real when you step beyond the sanctuaries and fight for the rights and dignity of your fellow human beings—especially those most at risk.

And that brings me back to the fourth candle of Advent: love.  When I light that candle, I’m not just remembering a story from long ago. I’m naming a truth that still demands something of us. Love is not passive. Love is not silent. Love is not a warm feeling we keep to ourselves inside a sanctuary.  Love moves. Love protects. Love shows up.

Lighting the fourth candle is a reminder that God’s love entered the world not as an idea, but as a life—a life that stood with the vulnerable, healed the hurting, and challenged every system that caused harm.  So when you light that candle, I think of transgender youth and their families. I think of every child pushed to the margins. I think of the people fighting every day just to be seen, safe, and whole.

If Advent means anything, it means this:  Love must become flesh again—through us.  That’s the work. That’s the calling. That’s the light that no bill, no politician, and no act of cruelty can extinguish.

May the light of love guide each of us back to the true meaning of Christmas. 

 

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