Love

Hope.

Peace.

Love.

Week three of the Advent season is all about love. What a fitting theme for such a time as this. There are so many issues and catastrophes around us today, but we can never have enough love. We can never be reminded of love enough. We need more love in this world and in our lives.

And yet I feel as if that word gets tossed around so flippantly. People us it as a means for control. People put stipulations on it. People make it conditional. They lose it's meaning.

But the Love of YHWH is unconditional and it never fails.

When we're caught in the web of the most often asked question: how do we love properly without condoning certain practices? My response is: if you have to ask then are you actually loving? 

Yes we can't condone every action out there. Yes there are dehumanizing things that individuals do. Is love condoning something? Or is love simply loving them regardless? Loving them as a human, as an individual, for who they are not who they could become.

When I think of love I think of the Old Testament reading for this week which comes from Isaiah 61:

The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me,
Because the Lord has anointed me;
He has sent me to bring good news to the oppressed,
To bind up the brokenhearted,
To proclaim liberty to the captives,
And release to the prisoners, 
To proclaim the year of the Lord's favor, 
And the day of vengeance of our God;
To comfort all who mourn;
To provide for those who mourn in Zion--
To give them a garland instead of ashes,
The oil of gladness instead of mourning,
the mantle of praise instead of a faint spirit.
They will be called oaks of righteousness, 
The planting of the Lord,
To display his glory.

They shall build up the ancient ruins,
They shall raise up the former devastations;
They shall repair the ruined cities, 
The devastations of many generations.
Strangers shall stand and feed your flocks, 
Foreigners shall till your land and dress your vines;

But you shall be called priests of the Lord,
You shall be named ministers of our God;
You shall enjoy the wealth of the nations, 
And in their riches you shall glory.

Because their shame was double,
And dishonor was proclaimed as their lot,
Therefore they shall possess a double portion;
Everlasting Joy shall be theirs.
For I the Lord love justice,
I hate robbery and wrongdoing;
I will faithfully give them their recompense,
and I will make an everlasting covenant with them.

Their descendants shall be known among the nations,
And their offspring among the peoples;
All who see them shall acknowledge that 
They are a people whom the Lord has blessed.

I will greatly rejoice in the Lord,
My whole being shall exult in my God;
For he has clothed me with the garments of salvation,
He has covered me with the robe of righteousness,
As a bridegroom decks himself with a garland,
And as a bride adorns herself with jewels.
For as the earth brings forth its shoots,
And as a garden causes what is sown in it to spring up,
So the Lord God will cause righteousness and praise
To spring up before all nations.

(Isaiah 61:1-11, NRSV, Italicize and Bold added for emphasis).