A Christmas Dictionary: Love
John 3:16
In the dictionary there are synonyms to love; adoration, fervor, and soft spot to name a few. Then of course there are the words we confuse with love; lust and infatuation top this list. Other languages of course have words for love in Eskimo you say “Nagligivaget,” in Italian its, “Ti amo” and in Creole you say “Mi aime jou.” Yet surely love is more than a word. Language is only a sign of something deeper, words convey are feelings. This of course is the power of the spoken word, once spoken it triggers a feeling and the feeling then leads us somewhere.
A parent says to a child, “I love you.” Then the parent plays ball with the son or helps with homework and the child connects that love means being there. Another parent says to a child, “I love you.” Then they can’t pick them up on their week to have custody or they tell them they are going to have a special weekend and instead they decide to go with friends to a ballgame or to work late and now the child connects love with empty promises. For one love becomes a sure foundation for another it is nothing more than an empty word.
The Greeks had several words to describe love. Lovers practiced eros, friends have phila, then there is a form which is sacrificial and giving called agape. These designations make it easier to define but no easier to practice.
Of all the powers, love is the most powerful and the most powerless. It is the most powerful because it alone can conquer that final stronghold the human heart. It is the most powerless because it can do nothing without consent.
Of course love takes center stage in February not December. We celebrate romantic love. We send cards to those we love, two lovers walking on a beach hand in hand as the sun sets, this is our version of love, this is what we remember. It might be more appropriate to send a card with a picture of someone doing laundry or a husband sitting by a hospital bed, or a parent putting together a bicycle at Christmas. December love remembers the kind of love that drags a pregnant couple on a journey to a distant city. Or the type of love that sends a son to an alien nation, not for the son’s good but for the good of the rebellious nation. December does what is necessary not what feels good, it may not feel like love, but true love is more than a feeling.
When Jesus grew up he spoke to the Pharisees, he didn’t say, “There, there. Everything’s going to be fine.” He said, “You brood of vipers! How can you speak good when you are evil?” Here’s the irony, he said it because he loved them. So love’s not about doing the romantic thing, it’s about doing the right thing.
Christmas reminds of such a love. A God who didn’t take the easy road, but instead sent his son to us, to save us from ourselves and our sin. Here’s the irony, he did it because he loved us.
Language is always shaping us. We have misused and overused the word love that whatever meaning it have we have corrupted. The translators of the KJV have done a great favor. Often they refused to translate the Greek agape as love. Instead they offered another word, a word that offers a back door into understanding love. “Charity suffereth long and is kind, charity envieth not.” Instead of love they translated it “charity.” Charity conveys giving. Opening our hands and our heart, and this seems an accurate description of love. God opened heaven and this is love. To loose yourself in the arms of another. To work to provide for those you care about. To open your heart and hands to help another, this is charity. Where we see charity we see love. When we see people giving it away, whatever it is, we see love.
So God so loved the world that he gave his son away. The world needed him more than God did. Jesus came and lost himself among us, he cherished the arms of his mother, he held the hand of his father, he offered his hand to the hurting, he lost himself in our world so that we might find our way to his world. This is Christmas love, a love that gives because it is more fulfilling to give than receive.
Let us Pray
We love, but not like we should. We are not nearly as giving as we think, but we are not nearly as selfish as we once were. When we give we look at the price tag, we count the cost of giving, and oddly enough we want the return gift to be of equal or greater value. We are sadly calculators not lovers. Forgive us father for being more influenced by Fifth Avenue than Bethlehem. Forgive us for turning love into lust. Forgive us for knowing the price of everything and the value of nothing. Cleanse us from turning charity into infatuation.
We stand in need of Christmas love. The type of love that gives. Thank you for your Christmas gift. May we learn from your example to fill our life with love and we want need to fill out with clothes, jewelry, playstations, or ipods. Amen