ADVENT WEEK FOUR: LOVE
December 21 Rev. Allie Utley, PhD
The Origins of Love Incarnate
John 1:1-18
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word
was God.” John 1:1
The poetic first verse of the Gospel is something of an origin story. We often
read this passage on or around Christmas as we celebrate the birth of Jesus:
God taking the form of a baby. Christ comes to us, fragile, small, dependent.
But the writer of John reminds us that Jesus’ life doesn’t begin at Christmas;
it reaches all the way back to the beginning of the cosmos. His very being is
eternally woven together in the very being of God our creator.
In advent, we wait for the coming of the Son of God through whom the love of
God was, is, and will be revealed. That doesn’t mean the Hebrew people didn’t
know God’s love, or that Jesus is the only way God makes love known. But
one reason I claim Christianity as my faith is that I am moved by this mystery:
that God would become human, that God would take on vulnerability, tempta-
tion, even suffering.
In Christ’s coming, God draws close not only to reveal love, but to know our
lives fully. There is no part of you, no part of me, that is hidden from that
knowing love. This knowing can make us feel loved, but it can also make us
feel vulnerable and exposed.
Advent is a season of anticipation and preparation. What might it look like to
open ourselves to that love and to allow ourselves to be truly known?
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