Love is Here

Isaiah 7:10-16 & Matthew 1:18-25
First Reading & Gospel Reading for the Fourth Sunday of Advent: Love (Year A)

There’s a common meme on Twitter in which someone will write something very straightforward and then say “That’s it. That’s the Tweet.” Doing a little internet research “Brie Larson’s Endgame Look. That’s it that’s the tweet” is where this kind of tweet entered into memedom. The idea is that the statement or picture is so obvious or straightforward or awesome that no further commentary is needed.

Looking at these two passages, there is only one appropriate response: “Immanuel. God with us. That’s it. That’s the blog.”

Still here?

There isn’t any further commentary needed. I am going to write a moment about what that means to me in the context of Advent. I keep coming back to this week after week yet I believe that one of the important functions of Advent is the reminder that no matter how bleak midwinter it gets and no matter how broken the world may seem, that there is a very real hope, peace, joy, and love that burns brightly. The pulsing heart of that is the incarnation, Immanuel, God is with us.

God is with us. God is not floating above us waiting for us to get our crap together. God is with us. God comes down into our hurt and pain and mess and, yes, our beauty. God saw fit to come and walk around in our skin, breathe our air, to cry, be hungry, get hurt, laugh, and experience what it means to be human. God loves us so much that God dove right into the middle of humanity and lived with us; taught us and showed us what it means to truly love. God is with us. God is with us. God is with us.

And we need that reminder. I know I need that reminder. Because if God is here then hope is here. Peace is here. Joy is here. Love is here. And I know that those things existed before the nativity event. I know that the divine spark that animates us and propels us to love existed in human beings throughout space and time before then. But like a time-tossed Desmond Hume, I need that constant, that anchoring image of a fragile baby crying in a manger as a reminder that God’s great love for us is here (I suddenly realized that the Lost episode “The Constant” is such a good metaphor for Advent and I’ll need some time to unpack that a little bit).

I need to know that love is here so that I can properly love God, my neighbor, and myself. I’m lost without it. God comes to earth as the most fragile thing imaginable because God loves you and me and this world so much. God wanted to be with us. God loves us. Throughout time, throughout space, from creation to a manger to this very moment, God loves us and that love is still very much here.

Immanuel. God with us. That’s it. That’s the blog.