Dear Friends in Christ,

This week between the First and Second Sundays of Advent, we find ourselves between having lit the Advent Candle of Hope last Sunday and the lighting of the Advent Candle of Love next Sunday.  So, I find myself thinking about Paul’s writing to the Church at Corinth about faith, hope, and love.

Maybe you remember this passage, often read at Christian weddings.  Of divine spiritual gifts from God, Paul wrote: “And now faith, hope, and love remain, these three, and the greatest of these is love.”  (I Corinthians 13:13)

His ranking is interesting.  He sees love rather than hope as the ultimate gift…  If he were to express it like a mathematician might, he might write: The sum of faith plus hope is love.  Or he might offer  this equation:  F + H = L! 

It makes sense to me.  If, as a 1955 movie title implied, “Love is a Many Splendored Thing,” and if, as Frank Sinatra sang in this movie’s theme song, “Love is nature’s way of giving, a reason to be living,” then maybe love is, indeed, the most splendid and divine of all human expressions.

Why, maybe love is even the essence of God Emmanuel, God with us!  But, what do you think of this spiritual gift of Christmas – and any time of the year – during this week between the First and Second Sundays of Advent, this season of a “divine coming?”  

Blessings of an Advent Faith’s Hope and Love,
Pastor Ed