Welcome to #ccdaAdvent.
In the midst of darkness, oppression, and marginalization, Christ entered the scene of the first Advent and paved the way for our communal wellbeing. This Advent season, we invite you to consider the implications of Christ’s coming for our communities. What lessons may we draw from their context?
We are excited to partner with Red Letter Christians and share with you their devotional, “Reflections From Bethlehem: An Advent Devotional.” This devotional centers the voices of Palestinian Christian pastors, leaders, and theologians, as well as international allies, offering reflections, art, and ways to take action.
We pray that the reflections and prayers within these Advent devotionals bring renewed inspiration, anticipation, and hope in the Kingdom of God that has come and is to come. Amen.
Devotional by: Dr. Jer Swigart
“Beloved, let us love one another, because love is from God; everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love. God’s love was revealed among us in this way: God sent his only Son into the world so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins. Beloved, since God loved us so much, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us, and his love is perfected in us.
1 John 4:7-12 (NRSVUE)
In 1 John 4:7, we are called “Beloved.” But what makes us beloved? Is this identity contingent on the death and resurrection of Jesus? Are the acts of believing and receiving these gifts a prerequisite? Both? Neither?
In the Gospel of Mark, we encounter Jesus dripping with the waters of baptism. We find him standing under severed heavens, receiving Spirit’s descent and hearing a familiar voice. This baptismal severing, like the tearing of the curtain in the temple upon Jesus’ crucifixion, offered new access to Creator. Spirit’s descent took the appearance of a dove: the sacred symbol of repair. And the voice declared Jesus’ identity as “Beloved.”
Jesus, a God-fearing Jew, was named “Beloved” before he had done anything. This divine declaration was contingent upon nothing but God’s desire to love him so.
Friend, you too are declared beloved not because of anything that you have done (or not done), but because God wants to.
What’s the quality of this love?
It’s not a general kind of love that God has for the entire world…the kind that gives life, breath, rain, food, protection, etc. Rather, the quality of this love is found in an only child who is the sole recipient of all the extravagant love of both parents. Here lies the unspeakable experience of being beloved: God lavishes love on all of us as though each of us are God’s only.
It’s in the quality of God’s love that we also find its scope: you, your friends, your others, your irritants, and your enemies are the full recipients of God’s extravagant love.
What’s the response of one loved so extravagantly?
She replicates what she knows, not to accumulate more belovedness, but as a response to it. As we embrace our belovedness, our impulse is to love as extravagantly as we have been loved.
But who are we supposed to love so extravagantly?
Today’s passage indicates that we are to extend love to “one another,” which at first glance might seem to be insider language for those who are “just like me.”
I’m all about growing the muscle of the church to love one another sacrificially and sacramentally. And, I’m painfully aware that wars are being fought over limited understandings of who is beloved and whom we can disregard, exclude, or even eliminate.
Every tradition builds walls around who is beloved and worthy of affection and who is not. Jesus stands alone in dismantling all of the human-made boundaries of love. For he is the only one to take anyone beyond rigid, conveniently homogenous understandings of neighbor love to enemy love.
We who embrace our belovedness cannot help ourselves from extending extravagant, sacrificial love to others, even to those who exist beyond the reach of our empathy.
Perhaps this is our revolutionary contribution.
Lord,
Deepen our humility to embrace our belovedness.
Grant us courage to respond with barrier-breaking, expanse-eliminating love.
Do so until the watching world experiences the extravagance of your love.
Amen
About Dr. Jer Swigart
Dr. Jer Swigart is the Executive Director of Global Immersion, a non-profit training and consulting organization that forms Everyday Peacemakers and Reconciling Leaders to mend divides. His work takes him into war zones, whether battlefields or boardrooms, where he disarms conflict and guides processes that transform constructed enemies into co-creating allies. Jer is the co-author of Mending the Divides: Creative Love in a Conflict World (IVP, 2017).
Reflections from Bethlehem
A partnership with Red Letter Christians
Staying true to the foundation of combining Jesus and justice, Red Letter Christians mobilizes individuals into a movement of believers who live out Jesus’ counter-cultural teachings.
Learn more at redletterchristians.org or follow them on Instagram, Twitter, and Threads @redletterxians.
Click here to download the full 24-day devotional for free.
