The law of gravity is real whether you believe it or not.
We can argue about it and
you can choose to not believe it
but it still is real.
If you walk out the window of a 10-story building,
you will experience the law of gravity whether you believe it or not.
That is just reality.
The same is true with the law of love.
The law of love is true whether you believe it or not.
Love changes us.
When we are loved, we are transformed.
We become different.
When we genuinely love somebody else for their goodness
then we are transformed in that process
as well as the one who is loved.
The law of love is fundamentally what Christmas is all about;
that God so loved the world that
he became one of us in the incarnation.
He became Christ Jesus in the flesh.
And that is a reality whether you believe it or not.
That law of love is demonstrated in the incarnation
and in the birth of Christ, becoming one of us, is very real.
It transforms and changes the whole human race.
That is reality whether we believe it or not.
I understand there are those for a multiple of different reasons
who choose to not believe the incarnation.
But it does not make it any less real
anymore than those who choose to not believe the law of gravity.
Their lack of belief in gravity does not change the reality of gravity.
God became one of us, that is God’s law of love made manifest.
We may not even be aware of it consciously
much like the way we walk around and we are not aware of gravity.
Yet that is holding us to the earth.
If we did not have gravity, we would all just be floating around.
The same is true of the law of love.
It grounds us.
It is what we are surrounded by all the time.
Without God’s love itself, we would not even exist.
I get why people might not acknowledge it,
might not believe it as they do not take time to see it
but it is nonetheless a reality.
Advent is a preparation time for this Christmas message.
We celebrate the Christmas message
not because we make it real,
but because it is already real.
It is already there.
What we do at Christmas is celebrate.
And what we do in Advent is
prepare our hearts once more to become consciously aware,
to be attentive to this magnificent law of love.
Christmas has largely become a commercialized enterprise.
And I understand that for the secular world.
But for us who believe,
we choose to spend four weeks in preparation for this.
Four weeks to clear the decks;
to focus on the real message of Christmas; the law of love.
There are ways in which we can do this better than other ways.
There are lots of great ways to do it
but today’s readings focus on preparing the way;
we quote Isaiah, the prophet and
we quote John the Baptist who, in Mark’s gospel,
goes back and quotes Isaiah again
“Make ready the way of the Lord;
make clear his path.”
This means we pause and we focus consciously on this law
that we so absolutely rely on just like gravity.
Maybe we could take a moment in these next few weeks
to really consciously become aware of it;
to name it and to, in a sense, enjoy it all the more
because we have become aware of it.
When Isaac Newton defined gravity, he did not invent it;
it was already there before him.
When Christ came as part of humanity,
he did not invent the law of love.
It was already there.
God had created us in this law of love.
All the commandments are all about loving God and loving our neighbor.
In Christ, he named it in a very tangible concrete way.
There were lots of people who disagreed with Isaac Newton
when he first proposed the law of gravity.
They said he was crazy, “There was no such thing.”
At first he argued with them to eplain his way
but eventually he just let them experience the law of gravity.
When we start out as a disciple, we tend to argue with others
about belief in God and all his laws;
that Christ is real and that Christ is the Son of God
and that God is real.
It is true! I truly believe that.
But now I no longer try to convince people
as much as demonstrate how it is working in my life;
to be a person of love;
to help others to become conscious of that law of love.
That requires of us to love others as God is loving us.
Show them the law of love in action.
Let me give you a real concrete example:
When a child has been loved by its parent,
the child is not consciously aware that
his mother or father is loving him.
They experience that love but don’t name it per se.
They can experience it all the more when they are naughty
or do things that are wrong, but they don’t know what it is.
They are too young in development to comprehend “love.”
God who is our heavenly parent, loves us always
and maybe all the more when we are naughty.
We often do not know it or name it per se
but it is love that we experience.
Later on in life we come to name it; and then claim it.
We are like that mother or father to others
who may not be consciously aware of God’s love
but we become that love to them.
And then later on, they may come to understand it
and name it for themselves and consciously become aware of it.
In the interim, we act according to the law of love.
This week, may we prepare our hearts to receive that love,
as we are just stewards of it, and we pass it onto others.
May we clear a way in our hearts to receive the love
even more abundantly than we have;
to become consciously aware of God’s gaze upon our hearts.
His love for us is real.
Then we will be able to celebrate Christmas
and pass on that love all the more.
The law of gravity is as real as the law of love.
Both are real and we experience them every day.
