In 1980, the day before Christmas, in Anderson, South Carolina, 7 year old Richard Ballenger and his mother were getting ready for Christmas. His mother was frazzled and harried as she wrapped the Christmas packages. She asked young Richie if he would shine her shoes so they would look nice when she wore them to church on Christmas. Richie took the shoes and worked away, rubbing and rubbing until the shoes practically glistened. Soon, with only a smile a seven-year can muster, he presented the shoes to his mother for inspection. His mother was so pleased that she gave him a shiny new quarter.

As she got dressed for church on Christmas morning she slipped on her shoes only to find there was something hard and lumpy in the tip of one of her shoes. She shook the shoe and out fell a wadded up piece of paper with something in it. She unwrapped the paper to find the quarter. Written on the paper in Richie’s scrawling handwriting were the words, “I done it for love.”

“I done it for love.”

This night is about love, God’s love for me, but not just me. God’s love for you, but not just you. God’s love for the world. Emmanuel… which means God with us…in the midst of us and in the world.

I suspect we’re all here tonight because of love…we are either searching for it or longing to remember the love of Christmas from times past or perhaps we yearn to experience what it feels like to be in a room filled to overflowing with love. It’s all about love. And on this night above all nights, the Word of God –the Love of God in Christ, seeks with intensity to embed itself in the human heart -- my heart -- your heart -- to speak God’s love over and over again, throughout the ages, throughout the world.

The internet is a wonderful thing you know. A few years ago, I looked up“I done it for love.” I was curious about the origin of the story.

Lo and behold it popped up – it was from a book by a man named Brennan Manning. I typed in the name Brennan Manning. And a web-page appeared. Here is what I learned.

Brennan Manning was a product of the Depression-era. He grew up in New York City, enlisted in the Marine Core, fought in the Korean War, returned, searched for meaning in his life, and was eventually ordained to the Franciscan priesthood because in 1956 while meditating on the Stations of the Cross a powerful experience of the personal love of Jesus Christ sealed the call of God on his life. "At that moment," he later recalled, "the entire Christian life became for me an intimate, heartfelt relationship with Jesus.

Brennan's ministry took him from the hallways of academia to the byways of the poor: from theology instructor to living and working among the poor in Europe and the U.S. He became an aguador (water carrier), transporting water to rural villages via donkey and buckboard; a mason's assistant, shoveling mud and straw in the blazing Spanish heat; a dishwasher in France; and a voluntary prisoner in a Swiss jail, his identity as a priest known only to the warden; and as a solitary contemplative secluded in a remote cave for six months in the Zaragoza desert.

During his retreat in the isolated cave, he received this word from Christ: "For love of you I left my Father's side. I came to you who ran from me, who fled me, who did not want to hear my name. For love of you I was covered with spit, punched and beaten, and fixed to the wood of the cross."

Brennan would later reflect, "Those words are burned into my life. That night, I learned what a wise old Franciscan told me the day I joined the Order -- 'Once you come to know the love of Jesus Christ, nothing else in the world will seem as beautiful or desirable.' "

He moved back to the states and began to write inspirational books – one of which included the short story about Richie who said, “I done it for love.”

I’m not sure how old Brennan Manning is – one source said he is over 100 - but he still travels, always talking about how to accept and embrace the good news of God's unconditional love in Jesus Christ. He states that the questions Jesus would ask of us are these: Do you believe that I love you? That I desire you? That I wait for you day after day? That I long to hear your voice? Brennan says we will only be as big as our concept of God. If we have a small, narrow-minded, punitive concept of God – that is how we will be. If we trust that we are loved and loved passionately, that is the life we will live.

Do we believe in Emmanuel – God with us – do we believe in the passionate love of Christ?

It’s all about love.

The love of God for us – for the world – is an unconditional love that never quits, never gives up, and never ends. The apostle Paul wrote to the young church in Rome and said, “I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor power, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

This time of year, when we pause to reflect on God’s love coming to reside with us, provides an opportunity to speak that love to others. Sometimes we get confused about what speaking love looks like, what the cost is.

The Neiman Marcus Christmas catalogue is always good for showing how people might speak their love.

One year the catalogue offered a dragon topiary for only $35,000 or a private concert for 499 of your closest friends with the world-famous Kirov orchestra, hosted by Regis Philbin for only $1, 590,000, or a two-person submarine for $1,440,00 or my personal favorite where, for a mere $75,000, you could get a swami conversational robot, who the ad said could carry on conversations and develop relationships.

The Neiman ad assured me that someone somewhere paid the cost for these things as a token of love.

But those tokens of love are only things and here is the truth about things. They are conditional and can be lost, broken, or taken away.

The message of the angels is this: “Fear not, for I bring you good tiding of great joy. Unconditional love for another person, for humanity, for the world has no price tag on it. It is given freely.” God in Christ says to us, “I know your whole life story, all your secrets, everything you’ve ever done, every choice you’ve ever made, and still I love you with an intensity and depth that will never let go. Trust that I love you as you are and as you will be.”

The true gift of love has no monetary price tag. Love, freely given can be as simple as keeping a promise. Or listening, really listening to what another has to say. It can be finding the time to be with a family member or a person that might otherwise be alone. It can be holding someone’s hand when they feel frightened. It can be writing that note or making that call you’ve been swearing you need to do. Sometimes love freely given is saying ‘I was wrong. Please forgive me.’ Or saying, “I forgive you. Let’s begin again.”

And love, freely given, can be shining a pair of shoes.

It’s all about love.

Let us sing together an old camp song which speaks of why we love.

Tell me why the stars do shine. Tell me why the ivy twines.
Tell me why the sky so blue and I will tell you just why I love you.
Because God made the stars to shine. Because God made the ivy twine.
Because God made the sky so blue. Because God made you that’s why I love you.

This Christmas Speak your love. Speak it again. Speak it still once again. Because it is all about love.