December 1

1 Thessalonians 3:9-13

How can we thank God enough for you in return for all the joy that we feel before our God because of you? Night and day we pray most earnestly that we may see you face to face and restore whatever is lacking in your faith.

Now may our God and Father himself and our Lord Jesus direct our way to you. And may the Lord make you increase and abound in love for one another and for all, just as we abound in love for you. And may he so strengthen your hearts in holiness that you may be blameless before our God and Father at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all his saints.


In the many, many months of the pandemic, we have become more aware of a deep yearning to see those we love face to face. In this passage the Apostle Paul longs for the chance to see his friends in Thessalonica. We can’t be sure what has kept them apart, although Paul implies (3:4) that forces beyond his control have detained him. Possibly he was in jail, suffering persecution for his faith. The fact that his way back to his friends was blocked by such forces made him more keenly aware of why he longed to see them. He wanted the assurance that they were healthy and well; and, more pointedly, he wanted to share the simple joy of being together.

We have perhaps been experiencing something similar as we are reunited with family and loved ones after long separations. It matters less what we do, or what gifts we bring. It is enough that we are together; it restores us and strengthens our faith. The presence of others, and especially those we love, reminds us that we do not struggle in isolation, and that living together rather than alone is what we are made for.

What Paul feels in this separation from his friends and fellow Christians in Thessalonica fits also with the longing he has for the “coming of our Lord Jesus Christ with all his saints.” Sometimes the “second coming of Christ” can seem ominous, since it involves the end of the world as we know it, along with judgment for sin. Yet these elements should be seen in the context of a great reunification, a coming together after a long time apart. We are reunited, things are made right, and joy abounds. This is what we await during the Advent season.


Charlie Pinches

November 30

Psalm 44:9-17

Yet you have rejected us and abased us,
   and have not gone out with our armies.
You made us turn back from the foe,
   and our enemies have gotten spoil.
You have made us like sheep for slaughter,
   and have scattered us among the nations.
You have sold your people for a trifle,
   demanding no high price for them.

You have made us the taunt of our neighbors,
   the derision and scorn of those around us.
You have made us a byword among the nations,
   a laughingstock among the peoples.
All day long my disgrace is before me,
   and shame has covered my face
at the words of the taunters and revilers,
   at the sight of the enemy and the avenger.

All this has come upon us,
   yet we have not forgotten you,
   or been false to your covenant.

I am struck by the contrasts surrounding Advent. Culturally, our commercialized holiday season is full of jolly Santas, colorful lights and warm, family scenes. Yet we know sociologically that the season is marked by great stress, heightened isolation and deepening depression by many individuals. Spiritually, Advent is to be celebrated in a persistent, hopeful longing for the joy of once again experiencing the Incarnation, God’s reconciling embrace of us and the world. Yet, Biblically, we encounter the contrasting voices proclaiming God’s absence or indifference. Remember Job’s indictment of God or Jeremiah’s cries of pain (cf. Jeremiah 20:14-18.)  While searching for a Biblical base for this devotion, I reheard these expressions of spiritual desolation in what are termed the psalms of lament. And I could not shake them.

Among the many, I chose Psalm 44 and the verses noted above as representative. “You have made us like sheep for the slaughter,” or “All day long my disgrace is before me....”. These are typical statements of desolation, addressed directly to God and that mark the psalms of lament. Frankly, they leave us confused. How can believers challenge God so unreservedly?

We can quickly note that these brutal, desolate cries are usually (not in Psalm 88) bracketed by statements proclaiming God’s past favors, pledges of ongoing commitment or trust in God’s forthcoming help.  For example, see verses 1-8 and 17-18 in Psalm 44. In fact, these typical bracketings of a lament led one Biblical scholar to claim that laments are really praises of God “in a minor key” (B. Anderson, Out of the Depths, p. 76), But that is a much too hasty and unqualified judgment. That is like jumping over the confession of sin to the assurance of pardon, forgetting that the confession must express genuine contrition to appreciate and receive the peace-giving forgiveness of God. No, set the brackets aside, and hear the genuine pain in these laments. They are not to be muted or smoothed of their sharpness. So, does that mean that these cries stand in utter, complete contrast to the anticipation of Advent, a contrast without any linkage?

Not quite. These cries bring us close to the edge of denial, but they are not denials. They are addressed to God. And the fact of that address reminds us of who we are, how we are God-centered creatures.

As God’s creatures we are limited, finite beings and those limits bring us up against losses which sometimes overwhelm us. That we can express and bring those losses to God indicates that we have not let our centeredness collapse into ourselves. Our cries acknowledge, as one theologian (D. Kelsey) put it, that we live on borrowed breath, i.e., a breath that is finally not ours but God’s. The longing for God-with-us and the expressing to God the pain of our limitation share a connection to God. The contrast remains. The cries to God and the longing for God’s embrace are not in harmony, but they share the address to God.

 

Phil Muntzel

November 29

 Psalm 25:1-10

To you, O Lord, I lift up my soul.
O my God, in you I trust;
do not let me be put to shame;
do not let my enemies exult over me.
Do not let those who wait for you be put to shame;
let them be ashamed who are wantonly treacherous.

Make me to know your ways, O Lord;
teach me your paths.
Lead me in your truth, and teach me,
for you are the God of my salvation;
for you I wait all day long.

Be mindful of your mercy, O Lord, and of your steadfast love,
for they have been from of old.
Do not remember the sins of my youth or my transgressions;
according to your steadfast love remember me,
for your goodness’ sake, O Lord!

Good and upright is the Lord;
therefore he instructs sinners in the way.
He leads the humble in what is right,
and teaches the humble his way.
All the paths of the Lord are steadfast love and faithfulness,
for those who keep his covenant and his decrees.

For Guidance and Deliverance

 Imagine a God who takes you by the hand and

Leads you down the path of truth.

Sometimes the way of the world hides truth.

Have you ever found yourself

In troublesome places?

 

Imagine a Lord of goodness,

Who is just and fair,

Who lifts your soul with his steadfast love.

When you are misdirected and rejected,

He takes your hand.

His mercy can cover your sin.

 

May we look to God to teach us,

To lead us step by step

In his loving, faithful ways.

May we wait for the Lord,

Trusting Jesus, our Savior.

May God be our hope all day long.

If you Google: Videos for Maranatha! Singers, The Steadfast Love Of The Lord - Youtube, you will find inspiring nature photos and hear a lovely hymn. Or you may read those words in Lamentations 3:22-23.

Myrna Diven

November 28

Jeremiah 33:14-16

The days are surely coming, says the Lord, when I will fulfill the promise I made to the house of Israel and the house of Judah. In those days and at that time I will cause a righteous Branch to spring up for David; and he shall execute justice and righteousness in the land. In those days Judah will be saved and Jerusalem will live in safety. And this is the name by which it will be called: ‘The Lord is our righteousness.’

Advent is here, the season of hope. As the year turns around, we remember the longings of the human family before us. They waited centuries ago for God to fulfill ancient promises. They preceded those of us in the Christian family who now wait for the final revelation of God’s Messiah to all people.

But we must take our cues from what we have learned. Many of the ancient folks pinned their dreams on the promise of the Coming Savior. If they lived in poverty, they expected the Messiah to shower them with riches. If they endured violence, they wanted peace. If the nation was broken by corruption, the people prayed for purity.

What they got was Jesus.

This was God’s lesson: there is a difference between real hope and mere optimism. Optimism presumes inevitable improvement. Or automatic rescue. Or that everything will work out without much effort on our part. If the optimistic pray, they pray for God to do what they are unwilling to undertake, as if the Grand Magician will wave the Holy Hands to make everything better. As if God exists primarily to improve our standing in the world.

We have long learned that optimism can’t hold a candle to hope. Hope stands on the promises of God, not merely the random yearnings of a world in need. Hope is inextricably bound to the working out of God’s intentions for the entire global family. The hopeful pray for God’s will – and then pursue it. The hopeful listen for God’s Voice – and then act on what they have heard. There is nothing passive about hope, for us or for God.

The prophet Jeremiah wept over a nation corrupted by inept leadership and distorted by injustice. The social decay led to the hard years of a Babylonian exile. It was a long season, an extended Advent. Jeremiah called the people to stop looking for simplistic answers from heaven. He pointed to a hope deeper than optimism, a hope to be found in the justice of loving neighbor and the righteousness of loving God.

This is the hope that takes on flesh. It lives in the One who came from David, who calls us to work for the benefit of all. The Righteous One has always been more than the people wanted, and exactly what everybody needed.

Holy One, enlarge our hope, and grant us the courage and grace to join you in your work.

 

Rev. Bill Carter

Welcome to this year's Advent devotional blog

Hi everybody -

We offer this online blog as a gift from the people of our congregation. Together we watch and wait for Christ to be born among us. Each day, someone from our church family will offer a reflection on an Advent scripture text. We pray that this will be helpful for you.

You can click on the text listing for each page and it will take you to an online Bible site where you can read the scripture text.

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We pray this is a holy season for you. Blessings on your spiritual journey!