RCL Advent 4C
22 December 2024
Church of the Epiphany
Surrey BC
Within the cultural climate of colleges and universities in the United States there are what are collectively called the ‘Greek-letter societies’. Some of these societies are social and residential in nature; they’re generally what most people think of when they hear the words ‘fraternity’ or ‘sorority’. Other societies are devoted to academic and professional achievement such as Phi Beta Kappa, the oldest Greek-letter society in the United States. It began as a secret society debating the political issues of the pre-revolutionary and revolutionary British colonies on the east coast of what is now the United States.
While I was an undergraduate student, I joined Alpha Tau Omega, a fraternity founded in 1865 with the goal of re-uniting young men from the North and the South after the tragedy of the American Civil War. Its founders were Southerners and Anglicans, so there has always been a strong Christian under-pinning of the fraternity – even when the fraternity was not on the right side of the civil rights movement in the 1960’s. Things have changed a great deal since then.
Throughout my undergraduate studies I commuted between Denver, where my university is located, and Colorado Springs, the town where I grew up. Most Sundays you would find me at my home parish, the Church of Saint Michael the Archangel, singing in the choir. Among the members of the choir was a gentleman who was also a member of my fraternity.
Every Christmas he and I waited with joyful expectation for the choir director to choose the hymn, ‘Of the Father’s Love Begotten’ – Hymn 132 in Common Praise. During the first verse, my fraternity brother, a bass, and me, a tenor, would sing these words and share a private smile between us:
Of the Father’s love begotten
ere the worlds began to be,
he is Alpha and Omega,
he the source, the ending he,
of the things that are and have been,
and that future years shall see,
evermore and evermore.
That third line, ‘he is Alpha and Omega’, meant and still means something to those of us who belong to the fraternity.
This hymn has always been one of my favourite hymns at this time of the year. It gives me a necessary reminder that what we as Christians are celebrating at this time of the year. We are celebrating the eternal Love that God, the Lover of creation, reveals to us in the Beloved, Christ the incarnate Word. That eternal Love of God is so powerful that Augustine of Hippo, who was active at the same time as this hymn was first composed, could speak about the Holy Trinity as ‘God, the Lover, the Beloved and the Love’.
How do we know when we are in the presence of God? I dare to think that we know we are in the presence of God when we are aware of being touched by Love, not just any kind of love, but Love that dares to embrace those who think themselves unlovable, Love that dares to forgive those whom we think our enemies, Love that dares to risk everything for the sake of one person. It is this Love that we see embodies in Christ the Word made flesh in Jesus of Nazareth. It is this Love that helps us distinguish between what the Scriptures say and what the Scriptures mean.
One of the New Testament writers who explored what Love means for Christians is the writer of the 1stLetter of John. In these familiar words the writer reminds us of one of the core beliefs of the followers of Jesus.
God is love, and those who abide in love abide in God, and God abides in them. Love has been perfected among us in this: that we may have boldness on the day of judgement, because as he is, so are we in this world. There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear; for fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not reached perfection in love. We love because he first loved us. Those who say, “I love God,” and hate a brother or sister are liars, for those who do not love a brother or sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen. The commandment we have from him is this: those who love God must love their brothers and sisters also. (1 John 5.16b-21 NRSVue)
Whenever we find ourselves feeling fear, we can reach out and call upon the Love that made all that is, seen and unseen, and that continues to uphold the whole kosmos. Whenever we find ourselves feeling hatred, we can reach out and call upon the Love that made every human being in the divine image and gives to all of us the power to love. Whenever we find ourselves believing that we are unlovable, we can reach out and call upon the Love that always holds us in love and who sees in us the image of the Christ, the Beloved, by whom and through whom all things were made.
O that birth for ever blessed,
when the virgin, full of grace,
by the Holy Ghost conceiving,
bare the Saviour of our race,
and the babe, the world’s redeemer,
first revealed his sacred face,
evermore and evermore.
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