December 3: God Demonstrated His Love Through Jesus Christ
♫ Music:
Day 2 - Monday, December 3
God Demonstrated His Love Through Jesus Christ
Scripture: I John 4: 9-11
Herein was the love of God manifested in us, that God hath sent his only begotten Son into the world that we might live through him. Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.
Poetry:
Wade in the Water
by Tracy K. Smith
for the Geechee Gullah Ring Shouters
One of the women greeted me.
I love you, she said. She didn't
Know me, but I believed her,
And a terrible new ache
Rolled over in my chest,
Like in a room where the drapes
Have been swept back. I love you,
I love you, as she continued
Down the hall past other strangers,
Each feeling pierced suddenly
By pillars of heavy light.
I love you, throughout
The performance, in every
Handclap, every stomp.
I love you in the rusted iron
Chains someone was made
To drag until love let them be
Unclasped and left empty
In the center of the ring.
I love you in the water
Where they pretended to wade,
Singing that old blood-deep song
That dragged us to those banks
And cast us in. I love you,
The angles of it scraping at
Each throat, shouldering past
The swirling dust motes
In those beams of light
That whatever we now knew
We could let ourselves feel, knew
To climb. O Woods—O Dogs
O Tree—O Gun—O Girl, run
O Miraculous Many Gone—
O Lord—O Lord—O Lord—
Is this love the trouble you promised?
GOD SO LOVED US
Have you ever had someone tell you they love you before you were ready to say it back? Maybe you felt it already, but weren’t ready to say it, maybe you were processing fear, or maybe you just weren’t there yet? I met two of my dearest friends just five years ago when I started doctoral coursework. These friends now joke with me about a memory that occurred about six months after we met. Being a doctoral student while working full-time is intense, and we had become very close between our on-campus intensives every six months. As we were preparing to return our homes in different states, they both said, “I love you!” as we were leaving each other. I didn’t say it back that day. A combination of being cautious and fiercely loyal once I commit to those I love--I tend to be slow to arrive at and express my emotions.
“Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us…” My friends’ expression of love that day created safety for me to step more fully in to reciprocate and express it back soon after. They risked loving me first, and this love allowed me to feel secure to offer it back. They could have waited for me to take that risk, but they stepped in first. In this way, they modeled the love of Christ who offered Himself as atonement for our sins. What an extraordinary gift! “If God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.” Today’s Advent artwork by Emmanuel Garibay is titled Oblation, a word defined as something offered in worship or devotion. Our love for Christ and our love for one another flows out of the love God has demonstrated for us through sending his son. In this season, is there a risk you and I can take toward love as we reflect on how we are made secure by the love of Christ?
So many of us are in deep need of the love only Christ can give, and the love of others toward us can give us a glimpse into that love. As Tracy K. Smith writes in her beautiful poem, “I love you, she said. She didn't know me, but I believed her.” Oh, that people around us--that we ourselves--would believe that we are loved!
Prayer:
Father in Heaven,
We love because you have loved us.
You loved us even unto the death of your Son.
Help us to believe that we are loved.
Embolden us to love others with the love that comes from you alone.
That all may love as you have loved.
That we might live through your Son whom you sent.
Amen.
Carrie Stockton
Dean of Student Success
Biola University
About the Artwork:
The Oblation, 2008
Emmanuel Garibay
Oil on canvas
31 in x 99 in
From the exhibition Charis: Boundary Crossings—Strangers Neighbors Family Friends
Oblation means an offering to God, which can also refer to a sacrifice, a peace offering or even a burnt offering. Arms unfurled in abandon, the Christ of The Oblation hangs against an impenetrable dark sky above the vast expanse of the earth below issuing a sustained silent cry that seems to reverberate through the cosmos. His bruised and battered body, and the wounds in His hands and side bear witness to His love for the creation, the model of selfless devotion. “Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.” (Philippians 2:7-8, ESV)
About the Artist:
Emmanuel Garibay was born in the Philippines in 1962. He earned his B.A. in Fine Arts from the University of the Philippines, and his M.A. in Divinity from the Union Theological Seminary. He has received awards from the Cultural Center of the Philippines, the National Commission for Culture and the Arts, the Arts Association of the Philippines, and Il Bienal del Baloncesto en Bellas Artes in Madrid, Spain. Garibay has had solo exhibitions in the Philippines, the Netherlands, Sweden, Australia, Germany, Hong Kong, Israel, and Indonesia, and has served as President of the Association of Christian Asian Art (ACAA).
About the Music:
“Funeral Canticle” from the album ECM Selected Signs
Lyrics
What earthy sweetness remaineth unmixed with grief?
What glory standeth immutable on earth?
All things are but shadows most feeble,
But most deluding dreams.
Yet one moment only,
And death shall supplant then all.
But in the light of Thy countenance,
O Christ, and in the sweetness of Thy beauty,
Give rest to him whom thou hast chosen,
Because Thou lovest mankind.
About the Composer:
Sir John Kenneth Tavener (1944-2013) was an English composer, known for his extensive output of religious works, including “The Protecting Veil,” “Song for Athene,” and “The Lamb.” Tavener first came to prominence with his cantata “The Whale,” which premiered in 1968. Then aged 24, he was described by The Guardian as "the musical discovery of the year." After Tavener converted to the Russian Orthodox Church in 1977, Orthodox theology and liturgical traditions became a major influence on his work. While Tavener's earliest music was influenced by Igor Stravinsky and Olivier Messiaen, his later music became sparser and more minimal. Tavener recognized Arvo Pärt as "a kindred spirit" and shared with him a common religious tradition and a fondness for textural transparency. Today’s selection is a portion of Tavener’s Funeral Canticle, written for the funeral of Tavener’s father with text from the Greek Orthodox funeral service.
About the Performers:
The Cambridge-based Academy of Ancient Music (AAM) specializes in performances on original or faithful copies of period instruments. The ensemble, founded in 1973 by harpsichordist Christopher Hogwood, is actually a modern revival of an organization founded in 1726 to play “anything composed at least a century earlier.” The current orchestra most often plays music from the Baroque and classical periods of music, but also commissions new works by modern composers. They have historically been joined by famous British choirs, including those of Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford, and King’s College, Cambridge. In 2007, Music Director Richard Egarr founded the Choir of the Ancient Academy of Music, a group of vocalists hand-picked for their complementary musicianship and spontaneity, two key elements of early-music performance. Here, the choir is directed by AAM Associate Conductor Paul Goodwin, under whom modern works by Tavener were commissioned and recorded. Goodwin is also Musical Director and Principal Conductor of the Carmel Bach Festival in California and Principal Guest Conductor of the Capella Aquileia in Germany.
About the Poet:
Tracy K. Smith (b. 1972) was born in Massachusetts and raised in Northern California. She earned her BA from Harvard University and an MFA in creative writing from Columbia University. From 1997 to 1999 she held a Stegner Fellowship at Stanford University. Smith is the author of four books of poetry: The Body's Question (2003), which won the Cave Canem prize for the best first book by an African-American poet; Duende (2007), winner of the James Laughlin Award and the Essense Literary Award; Life on Mars (2011), winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry; and Wade in the Water (2018). In 2014, she was awarded the Academy of American Poets Fellowship. She has also written a memoir, Ordinary Light (2015), which was a finalist for the National Book Award in nonfiction. In June 2017, Smith was named U.S. Poet Laureate. She currently teaches creative writing at Princeton University.
About the Devotional Writer:
Carrie Stockton
Dean of Student Success
Biola University
Carrie Stockton, the Dean of Student Success at Biola University, supervises the departments of Academic Advising, Career Development, and Online & Graduate Student Success, as well as the First Year Seminar program. Stockton is also responsible for the University’s retention and career efforts that include chairing the Council for Student Success, and coordinating research related to student success including graduation and career outcomes.