Love/Christmas: Love through a New Set of Eyes: Affection Luke 2:22-40
By Victor D. Pentz
Recent world events have guaranteed that during this holiday season we are more than usually aware of the preciousness of relationships. In the weeks leading up to Christmas, I have chosen to deliver a series of messages on the theme of love. We will walk together through C.S. Lewis' classic book, The Four Loves. In that book Lewis writes of the ascending levels of love, ending with the greatest love of all -- God's love which came to us in the human form of Christ at Christmas.
We are going to begin with what you might call "entry-level" love: our love of the familiar, both things and people. Next week we will look at the type of love called Eros (which ought to fill the pews, I am sure). C.S. Lewis says that Eros love is not just sexual; it is the love we feel for anyone or anything that is beautiful or desirable or lovable. Friendship is a wonderful aspect of the celebration of Christmas, and so the week after next, we will look at brotherly love -- called philia in the Greek language. Then we will discuss agape love -- the love that came down to earth and was born in a manger in Bethlehem as the Son of God, Jesus Christ.
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We begin with entry-level love: the love of familiar things and people. If you are a church member, you will see many familiar faces as you look around the sanctuary today. Many families are seated in their customary pews. As a matter of fact, some Sundays I feel like I could take roll, row by row: "Oh, yes, where are the Smiths? They usually sit right there." Human beings are creatures of habit. We love what is familiar to us.
Our scripture passage highlights a couple who were very familiar with the daily routines of the temple: Simeon and Anna, marginal characters in the Christmas story as told in
Luke's gospel, chapter 2, verses 22-38. Simeon and Anna were elderly people who spent day and night in the temple, fasting and praying and worshiping God.
(Read text:
Luke 2:22-38)
I want to begin with a personal confession. It is a little embarrassing because it has to do with an old love affair, one that I tried to break off many times, but it lasted for decades. This love affair was not with my wife, Becky ... it was with a 1963 Plymouth Valiant. She wasn't some flashy, foreign job. She was true blue, faithful as the sunrise, Slant 6, push-button drive. She was purchased new in 1963 by Becky's grandmother, Nana, and for the next seven years, Nana drove the Valiant to church every Sunday.
In 1970, when Nana's granddaughter, Becky, was about to marry her Princeton Seminary-bound, beat-up-Volkswagen-Bug-driving boyfriend, Vic, Becky's father came to see me. With all the diplomacy of a future father-in-law he said, "If you think I'm going to let my daughter drive cross-country in that piece of junk you call a car to Princeton, you're out of your mind! Your wedding gift from us is Nana's Valiant." I was overwhelmed.