Holy Nights 2012, Born in Us

Holy Nights

1 John 4: 7-13

Sulamith Wulfing

Dear brothers, let us bear love toward one another, for true love comes from God; everyone who is truly loving is born of God and knows God.

Whoever does not truly love has not known God, for God is love.

And this is what revealed God’s love among us, that God has sent into the world his only begotten Son in order that we might live through Him.

God’s love consists in this: not in the way that we have loved him, but that he has loved us, and has given his Son to save us from the banishment of sin.

My dearly beloved, if God has so loved us, so also should we bear love toward one another.

Until now no one has seen God with his eyes. When we bring love to one another, God dwells in us and his love is fulfilled in us.

By this we know that we dwell in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit.

Holy Nights

Sulamith Wulfing

December 30, 2012

1 John 4: 7-13

Studies have shown that people often fall in love in response to the overtures of those who are in love with them. They fall in love because they are loved.

Today’s reading say that God’s love is different. God doesn’t love us because we love Him. God’s love generates itself. He loves us no matter whether we reciprocate or not. Even when humankind has turned away from Him, or has failed to recognize Him, He poured out His Being of Love in the form of His Son, the Word Incarnate.

Ancient scripture says that God’s intention for humankind was that we were to be His image and likeness. To become like Him means that we so evolve our capacity to love, that it can generate itself; that it can pour itself forth toward our fellow human beings; that our love is ever fresh, even if they don’t return it; even if they aren’t aware of it.

To be able to fulfill this high goal of love means that Christ has been born in us. It means that He dwells in our heart. In fact, that was why He came, hoping that we would give Him a dwelling in our heart. For as Angelus Silesius says

Though Jesus Christ in Bethlehem

A thousand times his Mother bore,

Is he not born again in thee

Then art thou lost for evermore.[1]

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[1] Angelus Silesius, “GOD MUST BE BORN IN THEE” in Selections from the Cherubinic Wanderer.

Holy Night 2007, Hearts Overflowing

Holy Nights

1 John 4: 7-13

Dear brothers, let us bear love toward one another, for true love comes from God; everyone who is truly loving is born of God and knows God.

Whoever does not truly love has not known God, for God is love.

And this is what revealed God’s love among us, that God has sent into the world his only begotten Son in order that we might live through Him.

God’s love consists in this: not in the way that we have loved him, but that he has loved us, and has given his Son to save us from the banishment of sin.

My dearly beloved, if God has so loved us, so also should we bear love toward one another.

Until now no one has seen God with his eyes. When we bring love to one another, God dwells in us and his love is fulfilled in us.

By this we know that we dwell in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit. 

Holy Nights

December 30, 2007

1 John 4: 7-13

A poet described a three-tiered fountain this way:

        High climbs the jet and, falling, fills

up to the brim the marble rounds

that overflow in veils and frills,

into a second basin's grounds;

the second, now too rich, forsakes

its waves and on the third one spills

and equally it gives and takes

and stirs and stills.[1]

This fountain is an image of God: the life-giving, bright water of love, falling from on high, filling and spilling over into all the world; the triune God as a threefold fountain, who continuously bestows His overflowing love and forgiveness on all below; a God of love both stirring and still.

The fountain is also an image also of the human being: hearts overflowing with love received from the Source; jetting upward toward Him; hearts filling and spilling out His love toward others. Equally we take from above and give to below. For we would be those of good will, whose hearts overflow, stirred by love, and who yet walk within the stillness of peace.

“By this we know that we dwell in Him and He in us, because He has given us of His Spirit.” 1 John 4:13

www.thechristiancommunity.org

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[1] Conrad Ferdinand Meyer, “The Roman Fountain”

4th Holy Night 2008, Love Implanted

Holy Nights

1 John 4: 7-13

Dear brothers, let us bear love toward one another, for true love comes from God; everyone who is truly loving is born of God and knows God.

Whoever does not truly love has not known God, for God is love.

And this is what revealed God’s love among us, that God has sent into the world his only begotten Son in order that we might live through Him.

God’s love consists in this: not in the way that we have loved him, but that he has loved us, and has given his Son to save us from the banishment of sin.

My dearly beloved, if God has so loved us, so also should we bear love toward one another.

Until now no one has seen God with his eyes. When we bring love to one another, God dwells in us and his love is fulfilled in us.

By this we know that we dwell in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit.

Holy Nights

December 28, 2008

1 John 4:7-13

Shimmering in eternal realms is the great Tree of Life. In Egyptian myth this tree is pictured as the great world tree. Its branches support the star-studded sky, and it roots reach into the divine watery deep. Its trunk forms the axis around which the world revolves. In the myth, the god Osirus was encased in the trunk of this tree; he became the link between the earthly and the heavenly realms.

Christ Jesus carried this further: on the tree of the cross, the tree of death that became a tree of life, the divine creator’s arms are outstretched in an embrace of love that includes the whole world.

We are each a living replica of the tree of life. Founded at birth, we are rooted

in the divine depths. Our crown is in God’s starry heights. And at the very center of our being is the beauty of our heart, connected with the sun, shining with the creative power that unites all.  Our heart is the axis around which our whole world revolves.

This creative, sun-like center is the radiant beauty of love. It is supported on the one hand by mercy and on the other by justice. For the Christ-Sun on the cross was placed between the two thieves. To the one who was willing to assume responsibility for his own deeds, the Christ-Sun’s beauteous love showed mercy—“Today you shall be with Me in Paradise.” Luke 23:43 To the one who railed and egotistically cursed God, cutting himself off from divine love, there could remain only the severity of God’s justice.

A merciful and just love—this is the love that God enacted on the field of history. This is the love that He has implanted in each human heart, from there to be radiated forth as the life-giving Sun of Divine Human love. So, in the words of the poet:

Let us be like

…falling stars in the day sky.

Let no one know of our sublime beauty

As we hold hands with God

And burn

Into a sacred existence …

That surpasses

Every description of …love.[1]

www.thechristiancommunity.org

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[1] Hafiz, “The Day Sky”, in The Subject Tonight is Love, by Daniel Ladinsky, p. 24.