Meditation on the Power of Love: John 1: 19-28
When Fr. Alfred Delp became a Jesuit priest in 1926 Germany, I’m sure he never thought he would become one of the most well-known people in the Catholic resistance to Naziism. He spoke openly and strongly against Hitler and the Nazi party from the very beginning. He used his position of power and influence in the church to help Jewish people and others targeted by the Nazis escape to Switzerland. In 1944, he was tried and convicted of plotting to kill Hitler, though he had no role or knowledge in the plot and was sentenced to death by hanging. The words you heard earlier were some of the last he wrote before his death.
In particular, he wrote, “We must not shrink from or suppress the earnest words of these crying voices, so that those who today are our executioners will not tomorrow become accusers because we have remained silent.” If you missed it, he’s advocating for a witness of God’s love even to the executioner, so that Delp and others who face the end do not miss the opportunity to bring God’s grace into one more person’s life. Even at their own death.
We read in this rather strange Gospel lesson today about John’s back and forth with the Pharisees who came to see him. It’s easy to find this a pretty weird reading on the Sunday of love in Advent. But we have to put it into context. This was not some attempt for clarity from the Temple. It was an interrogation. In verse 19 we read that it was the Temple priests and assistants who came to interrogate John the Baptist about what he was doing. Through both Temple opposition and Herod’s evil, John the Baptist would also soon be dead. Executed.
Now you may ask, Dear Pastor, why are you talking about Nazis and executions on the Sunday right before Christmas. It’s the love Sunday for goodness’ sake! The truth is that there is no greater act of love than sacrifice—and Jesus showed us the way that sacrifice brought love in death and new life. Love is born out of sacrifice, because nothing calls us to act in this way more than that sense of relationship, care, connection, spiritual power that is found in loving someone.
Christ came to earth, lived amongst the struggle here, experienced an innocent death and lives in hope and resurrection because of that love God has for us. That kind of love makes us willing to sacrifice. Think about it, when you truly love someone, you’d spend every dime you had to keep them safe and healthy. When you truly love someone, you will push yourself to the absolute physical limit to care for them and help them. When you love someone, you are willing to give up everything for them. That’s how much God loves us—strange and unexplainable as it may be. God created us, and God loves us.
Love will call us to speak against suffering and evil. Love will call us to stand for what is good and holy even if society doesn’t like it. My friend at work talks about his father’s time as a minister in the Church of God. His dad believed in the 1960s in the inherent dignity and Godly love of all people regardless of the color of their skin. He was one of the few white pastors who marched for equality. I’m sure and absolutely certain it cost him. But he stood for what God said was right when the Bible said that we are all children of God and beloved by our creator.
Fr. Delp intellectually understood that love of God and felt it in his heart. He preached and fought against a regime that taught hate as virtue and murder as good work. His Godly love of others led him to risk his own life to save people he had never met and would never see again. But I’m sure for his understanding, God had created and given them life, and that was sufficient to believe in God’s love and grace for each person Fr. Delp helped.
The carol “Once in Royal David’s City” is not sung as often in the United States as it is in Britain. It is the carol that starts off the famous Lessons and Carols from Kings College at Cambridge in England. That last verse gives us one of the most faith-filled and theologically packed statements of just about any hymn.
And our eyes at last shall see Him, / Through his own redeeming love;
For that child who seemed so helpless, / Lives and reigns in heaven above;
And he leads his children on / To the place where he is gone.
The promise of Christmas is that we shall one day see Christ face to face. We will know the One who came as a helpless baby into a dark world and lived a life that brought light to us. And through our faith, we will join him in a blessed and eternal reward. And what makes this possible? It is his own redeeming love.
The power of love gives us the strength to sacrifice. John the Baptist found that power in the knowledge of the coming grace through Jesus. Fr. Alfred Delp found that same power in Nazi Germany to preach a message of hope and love even unto his very abrupt end. But we see modern day examples of this as well. Amir Nasr-Azadani, a 26-year-old soccer player from Iran who played in the World Cup, used his national celebrity and recognition to protest the death of a young woman killed by the morality police for not properly wearing her head covering. His love of his people and understanding of right and wrong led him to speak out. He was sentenced to death this week for it.
All over the world, the power of love calls people to sacrifice for the people whom God has created, loved and offered redemption. Christmas is a story of God’s love and promise to us as a people. But it is also a story covered by the shadow of a cross because love calls us to sacrifice for those whom we hold close in our heart. But take heart. Fr. Delp did not waver nor struggle with his choice to stand and sacrifice for God’s call. His last words to the prison chaplain before his death were a joke. He smiled and said, “In half an hour, I’ll know more than you do.” So sure was his faith that it overcame his fear.
God’s redeeming love is the only power that will change the hearts and minds in a dark and fearful world. God’s love is the only thing that will give us the courage to stand for what is right and holy and to build a place where truth is taught, faith is practiced, justice is a reality, and Christ is followed in all things. I pray this Christmas we continue to hold on to the hope in God’s promise, find peace in God’s presence, experience the joy following God’s leadership brings, and know the true power of God’s redeeming love.
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