Advent: Trust in Grace and Love

The first part of today's gospel reading is Jesus's reiteration of the greatest commandment.

"You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and with all your mind." This is the greatest and first commandment And a second is like it: "You shall love your neighbor as yourself." On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.

Here's the reality on which I build my life...and the reality that gives me hope, even when others don't know that reality. This love is not a sentimental feeling that allows all kinds of abuse to happen. This is a powerful love--defined as an internal characteristic that expresses itself externally through concrete acts that work toward the welfare of others.

We of the reformed faith pin our hopes on God's grace and love. Grace is the truth that our worth, our value, is based simply and completely on God's love for us. (And, we believe this is true of all people, not just "us." Before we are aware of God, before we are able to respond to God, God loves us. Love for neighbor is our response to God's love for us.

That reality will transform the world. That foundation of love and grace is our hope, our call, our future.

Living that way is hard work. It is so much easier to exclude, to blame, to live in fear of our neighbor, especially those who are different...unknown in some way. Our natural state is to think we are our own lord and master, we earn our value, deserve our place.

My daughter sat in on some foster care review sessions yesterday. As the "adults" in the room sat with teens who were wards of the state and discussed their situations, their "cases," they matter-of-factly reported that "the parents want no reconciliation" with their child.

Is anything more devastating than being unwanted by the people who are supposed to work for your well-being? Is there any more powerful message than the God who love and works unceasingly for each of us, regardless of our situation, our mistakes, regardless of anything about us?

And, having become aware of that great love we call grace, can we do anything else but work for the well-being of each other?

There's no politician, no economic station, no job, no skill that will save us. God's grace and the practice of love are our only hope.