UNIVERSITY UNITED METHODIST CHURCH

ADVENT DEVOTIONAL 2007

 

 

 

December 2                                Salvation is Nearer than Ever                                  Romans 13:11-14

        This scripture passage is a great way to start the Advent Season.  We are to get ready for the coming of Jesus the Christ.  We are to prepare heart, soul, and minds for the coming of our King and Savior.  We need to be focusing on the real reason we have Christmas.  It is the birth of Christ, not how many things we can buy for one another, or how many decorations we have put up, or getting the Christmas cards out.  These things should come second to the preparations for the coming of Christ.

          For me and I would hazard a guess that for many of us that preparing for Christ is not the number one priority.  I can’t remember a Christmas when all the “Christmas stuff” is up before Halloween.  The stores and commercials don’t want us to celebrate the saints that have gone on before us or giving thanks for all that we have.  They diffently don’t want us to get ready for Christmas in the religious sense.  They wouldn’t get all the sales if we did. 

          This year I am going to challenge myself to work on the expectation of Christ’s coming.  I will try not to get caught up in all the commercialism of this season and prepare my soul for his coming.  We don’t know when he will come again.  So, we need to be ready everyday of the year.  Give yourself a very special gift this year – Jesus, and the rest will take care of its self.

 

Liz Roark                                                                                                                        

 

December 3                                                He Hears Our Cry                                                               Psalm 130

 

Psalm 130: Out of the depths I cry to you, O Lord tugs at 'heart-strings' throughout the ages.  The soul in agony cannot contain himself.  All of him explodes like lava gushing forth, driving us back on our heels.  We melt before him, arms raised as if to shield ourselves from the intense heat.  He speaks for all who see no escape from the threat of ultimate destruction.

At first sight he appears in terror at his own death coming at him, casting its shadow over him.  His peers grasp the imagery of the "great deep," from their world view, the waters on which the world rests, as if those waters of "Sheol" (our common grave) were reaching out to make their final claim upon him (Jonah 2:5).  It brings to mind a person floundering in vast waters and at last being swallowed up, sinking out of sight.  Unmistakably this is literally the language of death, but inevitable physical death is not the psalmist's immediate concern, for he stares beyond death to the God he feels has abandoned him to his sin.  We join with the psalmist in seeing through the imagery to its spiritual significance, as penitents desperately seeking to bridge the gap and break through the wall separating us from God.

Psalmist 51 likewise prays, “Hide thy face from my sins, and blot out my iniquities.”  Psalmist 130 doesn't use the word “sins,” but it is obvious his iniquities are his burden.  I prefer the word “iniquities,” because it shows that this is not a trivial matter.  I suspect that the word “sin” has dropped out of everyday usage---even in sermons, because of a long history of over-usage, in applying it to matters which are, in fact, trivial.  The problem is that one person's definition of trivial, like sin itself, is not another's. 

For example, see the parable of Jesus in Luke 18: 9-14: "Two men went into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector.  The Pharisee stood up and prayed thus “I thank God that I am not like the rest of men, greedy, dishonest, adulterous; or for that matter like this tax collector.  I fast twice a week.  I pay tithes on all I get."  But the other kept his distance and would not even raise his eyes to heaven, but pummeled himself, saying "O God have mercy on me, sinner that I am."  Jesus concluded: It was this man ... and not the other, who went home acquitted of his sins.

Writers of Psalms 130 and 51 nourished no illusions about themselves.  When push came to shove, they'd taken the easy way.  For a long time everything had seemed all right, when the sin overtaking them showed how far they'd strayed.  Unlike others, they blamed neither others nor the devil, claimed no mitigating circumstance, and taking full responsibility, threw themselves on God's mercy.  They required no patch-up job, pardon for this or that particular sin.  They offered no record of valor or righteousness. God owed them nothing.  They owed God everything.  Belief in the character of God was their only hope.  Their attitude: though I perish, yet will I trust him.  A.J.Gossip in Experience Worketh Hope, wrote:

"Rely, not upon anything in yourself, but upon … God--not on your faith, which is a fickle thing, but on His faithfulness which is ... sure and certain: not on your love to Him, which flows--and ebbs, but on His love to you which is from everlasting to everlasting: not on your crumbling efforts after something better, but on His eternal purposes of mercy towards you, which go the length of Calvary--for you.  As Browning said, “Beware of sin that steals back on a soul half saved.  Hold nothing out.  Trust Him to do for you what you've proved powerless to do for yourself."

The ancient world was haunted with a pervasive sense of having offended God, who one way or another would hold one accountable.  When tragedy came, as it must, sooner or later to us all, this was taken as clearly demonstrating the way of the transgressor is hard.  Does modern man deserve an easy conscience?  What's happened?

Ordinarily we do not live at the edge of survival.  We know there's no free lunch.  Someone must work, but most have considerable lead time before desperation sets in.  Likewise, vast numbers who don't know each other provide us with a shield of anonymity.  We cut corners here and there, now and then.  Everybody does it and nobody cares!  Well, everybody doesn't do it, and those who suffer for others having done it do care -- together with the Lord who suffers along with the violated, betrayed, victimized and exploited.

Within the reach of memory half the adult population of this country had counted themselves church members.  We'd grown accustomed to thinking of this as a Christian nation, whose conventional standards should serve as adequate moral guidelines.  If we manage to stay out of trouble, avoiding gossip or jail, we congratulate ourselves we're not as others are, and certainly better than most, which should be good enough.  Psychologists have researched what most folks call average.  It should come as no surprise that the vast majority, like the cartoon character Yogi, tell themselves they're better than the average bear.  Obviously an error of perception, but one which serves to make us so very comfortable.

If we grant (which we shouldn't) that we're better than average, that is, we're conventionally good, how good is that?  Do we not despise abandonment and betrayal as among the worst sins?  We remember what Judas did, and forget what Peter did.  At the public execution of Jesus all the disciples forsook him and fled.  May we presume we'd have done better, when we turn deaf ear and blind eye to the plight of innocents, with whom our Lord identifies?  How long did it take to free the slaves?  How long before we force public policy to provide for the ill and homeless?  Again and again we fail to take initiative in this democracy, as if the effort were too much for us, shoving the responsibility to those who, by default, have attained political power.  We support their inhumane blindness and dereliction of duty because we can't face our own.  Wouldn't Jesus say: You do it to them, you've done it to me.  Fail them, and you've failed me!

To return to Psalm 130: 3: "If Thou, O Lord, should mark iniquities.  Lord, who shall stand?"  Likewise, when Paul wrote to the Romans, "There is none righteous, no, not one, for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God," he had in mind, not only his stoning of Stephen, but the whole social outlook which created that sort of possibility, which he once shared, with everyone else.  What to do?  As the psalmists have, and as Paul wrote, "The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord." verse 4: "But there is forgiveness with Thee."  This is what we mean by the "Grace of God."

Sin and grace are meaningless concepts apart from a belief in God.  Without God there is no basis on which for them to operate.  Sin and grace take their meaning from the relationship between humankind and God.  Sin signifies alienation from God.  Grace indicates God's bridging the gap and reestablishing the relationship.  Paul summed up the Christian point of view in writing the Corinthians, "God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself."

Sin is something that rebellious human beings do in the presence of God, whereas grace is something that God does to overcome the distance, and restore the relationship, as if there had been no rupture at all.  The psalmist says with regard to our sins, that "He remembers them against us no more (Psalm 103)."  For all practical purposes, when God forgives, He forgets.  Not in the sense that He no longer knows what happened, but that, despite their having happened, He remembers them against us no more.  Our lives are all so interconnected that the consequences of our sin must run its course, and for the sake of everyone else, God must keep track of it. One might say, He continues picking up the pieces, making whatever adjustment the situation allows.

Psalm 130 concludes with "I wait for the Lord, and in his word I hope ... more than watchmen for the (coming of) morning."  Watchmen who have fought sleep all night long, and eagerly watch for the break of day find in the dawn the clear evidence their labor is done.  When we face the enormity of our sin, and realize there is nothing we can do which will sufficiently make up for it, and at last look beyond ourselves to God's love for us, we have hope. 

We celebrate Advent season, for that is when God through his Son showed he loved us so much, waiting in hope was not in vain.  But how can God show us that in the birth of the baby Jesus?  He couldn't at the time the baby was born, but He does so now, because we now know in that particular birth our Lord come forth, in a few short years leading us through Gethsemane, to Calvary, and to the Resurrection.  Jesus died and rose again that we may grasp the deliverance God has for us all.

       Don Miller

 

December 4                                    The Advent of Peace                                             Isaiah 11:1 through 9 (NRSV)

1 A shoot shall come out from the stump of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of his roots.  2 The spirit of the LORD shall rest on him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the LORD.  3 His delight shall be in the fear of the LORD.  He shall not judge by what his eyes see, or decide by what his ears hear; 4 but with righteousness he shall judge the poor, and decide with equity for the meek of the earth; he shall strike the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips he shall kill the wicked.  5 Righteousness shall be the belt around his waist, and faithfulness the belt around his loins.  6 The wolf shall live with the lamb, the leopard shall lie down with the kid, the calf and the lion and the fatling together, and a little child shall lead them.  7 The cow and the bear shall graze, their young shall lie down together; and the lion shall eat straw like the ox.  8 The nursing child shall play over the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put its hand on the adder’s den.  9 They will not hurt or destroy on all my holy mountain; for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the LORD as the waters cover the sea.

 

          Recently, I’ve been preaching on the reality of the kingdom of God in our world today based on the book by Brian McClaren “The Secret Message of Jesus”.  When I tell people about the book and the concept of the kingdom of God here and now … their response to me generally goes like this: “I don’t believe that to be true now … but when Jesus returns peace will happen on the earth.” 

          That is kind of like what Isaiah prophesied for Judah and Israel after exile in Babylon and Persia; after they returned from exile, God will radically remake all of creation with peace and justice.  After that didn’t happen, the Jews during their Roman occupation used this as a Messianic prophecy where the world will be radically different when the Messiah takes control.

          We Christians now use this passage from Isaiah in Advent to proclaim that all of creation will be radically different with peace and harmony when the Second Advent of Jesus the Messiah happens soon.  I believe this concept of a different earth will be fully realized when Jesus returns. 

          However, the message of Jesus was that the kingdom of God, this radical re-creation of the world, is at hand, right now, and not in the future.  Now some people would say that Jesus could have been wrong on his timing, but I think that Jesus came to not only prophesy this truth as Isaiah did before him, but to make it a reality.  The community that Jesus created within his disciples was the kingdom of God.  In that community, ordinary people had the power to heal the sick, walk on water, and raise the dead … which is radically different than natural laws we know about.  People in that community lived in peace, justice, harmony, and equity, just read the book of Acts again.  The apostle Paul was sent to create more of these communities in Gentile cities and towns all over the known world.  Maybe, just maybe, the kingdom of God did exist for a brief while through Jesus, the apostles, and the early church and all of creation bowed to God’s new world order.

          Therefore, my question is: what happened to the kingdom of God?  Well, the church became powerful in the empire as the only religion; we institutionalized it, sanitized it, and rationalized it until we could not recognize it anymore.  But the dream of God cannot be revoked or ignored; it has always been the thorn in the side of the powerful, a comfort to the powerless, and the salt of society that keeps our world from completely spinning out of control into destruction.

          Recently, the kingdom of God has been picked up again by people who read the words of Jesus and follow his teachings and example.  They aren’t part of a denomination or global church, just people who are disciples of Jesus living out the kingdom in pockets of grace where ever eyes are opened to the living Christ in our midst.  I believe the kingdom of God is really here, and we practice it in our community of believers at University United Methodist Church of Redlands.  Of course, this dream will be fully realized when Jesus returns and all of heaven and earth will worship him. Come, Lord Jesus, come!  But until that day let there be peace on earth, and let it begin with me and you today!  Amen.

 

Pastor Glenn Hoskins

 

December 5                                                    Belief                                                                 Matthew 15:29-37

Matthew 15:29-31  And Jesus went on from there and passed along the Sea of Galilee.  And he went up on the mountain, and sat down there.  And great crowds came to him, bringing with them the lame, the maimed, the blind, the dumb, and many others, and they put them at his feet, and he healed them, so that the throng wondered, when they saw the dumb speaking, the maimed whole, the lame walking, and the blind seeing; and they glorified the God of Israel. 

 

Matthew 15:32-37  Then Jesus called his disciples to him and said, "I have compassion on the crowd, because they have been with me now three days, and have nothing to eat; and I am unwilling to send them away hungry, lest they faint on the way."  And the disciples said to him, "Where are we to get bread enough in the desert to feed so great a crowd?"  And Jesus said to them, "How many loaves have you?"  They said, "Seven, and a few small fish."  And commanding the crowd to sit down on the ground, he took the seven loaves and the fish, and having given thanks he broke them and gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the crowds.  And they all ate and were satisfied; and they took up seven baskets full of the broken pieces left over.

 

These two passages describe two separate groups of people who found themselves in the presence of Jesus, God’s Son.  One group is the crowd of people who had heard of Jesus’ miracles from their friends and neighbors.  Many had probably listened intently to what their friends were telling them and could not believe that an ordinary man could perform such miracles.  They were the skeptics who had to see these miracles for themselves. 

The other group of people who were out there were the disciples.  These were the men who had been called to serve with Jesus from the beginning of his ministry and had witnessed the miracles of Jesus.  Their knowledge of Jesus was not from friends and neighbors; they had personally witnessed his miracles and were the knowledgeable people in the crowd. 

Once Jesus begins performing the miracles of healing the sick, the skeptics began to see for themselves that this man was not an ordinary man.  He was extraordinary and they were witnessing the Son of God’s healing powers.  Though they were skeptical, they must have had some belief that it was possible for Jesus to perform miracles, or they would not have brought the ailing to Jesus.  The skeptics were amazed by the miracles and praised the God of Israel.

The disciples asked Jesus “Where will we get enough food for all of these people?”  Even after they had traveled so long with him, personally witnessed his miracles, prayed with him, ate with him, served him and been served by him, they still ask.  Jesus, in all of his kindness, does not say to them, “How many miracles do you have to see?”  Instead, He gently asks them, “How many loaves do we have?” and, once again, performs the miracle of feeding the crowd.

The question is, which group of people do you belong to?  Are you a skeptic in the crowd who has belief that Jesus can heal the sick and want to come and see the miracle for yourself, or are you the skeptical disciple who has to see the miracle again and again?  It seems that these two groups of people are not too much different.  Who are you most like?  

Prayer: Dear Lord Jesus, help our unbelief so we may see the miracles of God in our lives today. Amen.

Jackie Hoskins

 

December 6                                  The Two Foundations                                                                      Matthew 7:24-27

 

Please Read Matthew 7:24-27  May the Lord add His blessing to the reading of His word.

Sand or rock?  I can see times in my life when I have laid a foundation on one or the other.  I can also look back and see the effects of both.

A few years back, as my life seemed to be crumbling around me, it was the secure foundation of rock that sustained me.  Frequent prayer, trusting in God.  Having a spiritual community to uphold me in prayer, share my burdens, and hold me accountable.  Though I was angry and hurt, my life was brought to a place of peace and happiness as I lived out the words of Jesus in my life.

I can also look back and see the times when I felt so distant from God that I chose to build on sand.  I could not bring myself to listen to the words of Jesus, let alone actually hear them.  Rather, I took a role in the blame game.  How could God let or make this happen. . .   I fell out of the practice of praying, not trusting and feeling sure I should bear the burden alone.  Peace and happiness evaded me and my house collapsed.  Until finally, after I recognized that my efforts were futile, I found my way back onto the rock Jesus had given me.

 

Let us pray,

Dear God, let me cling to you in all things.  Lord, help me build my house on the rock of Jesus’ words and His salvation and not on the sand of my anger and fear. Amen

David Center

 

December 7                                       Turning Things Upside Down                                 Isaiah 29:13-19 (message)

13-14The Master said: "These people make a big show of saying the right thing, but their hearts aren't in it.  Because they act like they're worshiping me but don't mean it, I'm going to step in and shock them awake, astonish them, stand them on their ears.  The wise ones who had it all figured out will be exposed as fools.  The smart people who thought they knew everything will turn out to know nothing."  15-16Doom to you!  You pretend to have the inside track.  You shut God out and work behind the scenes, plotting the future as if you knew everything, acting mysterious, never showing your hand.  You have everything backward!  You treat the potter as a lump of clay.  Does a book say to its author, "He didn't write a word of me"?  Does a meal say to the woman who cooked it, "She had nothing to do with this"?  17-21And then before you know it, and without you having anything to do with it, wasted Lebanon will be transformed into lush gardens, and Mount Carmel reforested.  At that time the deaf will hear word-for-word what's been written.  After a lifetime in the dark, the blind will see.  The castoffs of society will be laughing and dancing in God, the down-and-outs shouting praise to The Holy of Israel.  For there'll be no more gangs on the street.  Cynical scoffers will be an extinct species.  Those who never missed a chance to hurt or demean will never be heard of again: Gone the people who corrupted the courts, gone the people who cheated the poor, gone the people who victimized the innocent.

          Wow.  This scripture is pretty specific.  I have been reading Isaiah lately, and it seems that God has become pretty frustrated in this book.  There are many places in Isaiah where God has “laid down the law”, but he always provides that little out.  He always provides that prize for the ones who do worship Him the way we are supposed to.  In this passage he is ready to shake things up.  The frustration here is not that they aren’t worshiping him, but that they aren’t doing it from the heart.

God loves us so much.  He sent His son to die for us.  He didn’t do it because He had to, He did it because He knew that we were struggling under the expectations.  He took away the need to offer sacrifices.  He took away all the rules when Jesus died on the cross.  Talk about shaking things up.  The only thing we have left to do is love Him.

Wow.  All we have to do is love Him.  Love Him enough to want to worship him.  Love Him enough that when we wake up on Sunday mornings we shouldn’t feel the need to say, “Oh God, I have to go to church today.”  But we should want to be able to say, “Wow, I’m so excited that I get to worship my God today with my church family.”  He doesn’t want us to have to do stuff because we are Christians, but he wants us to be so excited about our love for Him that it spills over into the rest of our lives and relationships.

When God sent His son, he pulled the rug out from the riches feet.  No longer did you have to be able to buy your offering, you just had to be willing to offer yourself.  Now the cast offs can sing and dance in the street.  The down and outs can shout praises. God gave us that right.

So, those who are deaf, hear what God has told you for years.  Those who are blind, see what the Lord has done for you.  He loves us so much, PRAISE THE LORD!

Prayer: Lord, thank you for sending your son.  Thank you for making it simple and easy to praise and worship you.  Help us from trying to make it a chore and from making it harder than it has to be.

Berta Rickman

 

December 8                                            He Has Chosen Us                                                                 Ephesians 1:3-10

God chose us to be His adopted child and gave us all the spiritual blessings of His true son, Jesus Christ. 

          Just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself.”

Ephesians 1:4-5

God predestined us to be His children.  He didn’t wait to see how beautiful we were, or how smart, or successful before he adopted us.  We don’t need to beg, whine, or try to earn God’s love and grace; He chose to give it to us freely even before we were born.  This predestination does not exclude anyone, everyone is included in God’s love and grace. 

          In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins,        according to the riches of His grace. 

Ephesians 1:7

God’s grace is given to us through the death of Christ on the cross at the expense of Jesus’ redeeming blood.  Through this alone does God offer forgiveness for our sins.  God has adopted us and through Christ’s blood redeemed us. 

God gives us His love and grace freely, but this does not take away our responsibility to accept it.  Only through our belief in the Gospel and in our salvation through the blood of Christ can we be forgiven and accept God’s grace and be adopted into His family. 

As you look at the baby in the manger this Christmas, celebrate your adoption into the family of God, and if you have not accepted Jesus as your Lord and Savior and received God’s grace in your life, all you have to do is ask and it will be freely given to you.

Prayer: Lord, I thank you for all that you do and praise you for all that you are.  I pray that this Christmas my thoughts and actions will be for your glory.

Cindy Center

 

 

December 9                              The Baptizer’s Proclamation                                              Based on Matthew 3:1-12

An ax at the root of trees and unquenchable fire passage!  The hard words below make up part of this passage.

10The ax is already at the root of the trees, and every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire.

12His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor, gathering his wheat into the barn and burning up the chaff with unquenchable fire."

This kind of passage used to send me running from the Bible angry and disillusioned. 

We are told to bear fruit worthy of repentance … or else!  Somehow these words tapped into the perfectionist in me that knew I would never be good enough. 

However, what if a tree is every action we take?  What if a tree is just a moment in time? 

Every action that does not bear good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire.  Every moment that does not reflect God’s grace and love will be chaff burned with unquenchable fire.

All those actions and moments erased.  They say the Bible is the Good News.  If all the trees, actions and moments that do not bear good fruit are burnt, erased, eradicated … what is left?

Then only the good is left.  All my loving, honest, and caring actions matter.  Everything else amounts to nothing.  The moments I live in God’s love, trusting and acting out of that love are forever.

 

Prayer – Gracious God, help me use today to create moments filled with love, truth and grace.  Help me see clearly so if a kind word is needed, I will say it.  If I need to do something out of truth and love, let me do it.  In my work, let me feel and magnify your presence.  Thank you for everything … .  Amen.

Sharon Guiles

 

December 10                              The Redeemed Shall Come Home                      Isaiah Chapter 35

        The thirty-fifth chapter of Isaiah describes a time of great joy.  The desert wilderness bursts into life with streams of water and growing things.  The infirm are strengthened and the people return home singing with joy.

          As I briefly summarized the chapter, I was struck by how the transformation of the desert wilderness is like the Christmas season.  In preparation for Christmas we see homes and stores transformed with decorations, gifts, and music.  We also work to transform our hearts and attitudes as we focus on giving and hospitality.  Christmas is also a time of homecoming as many travel to be with family.

          All these sound like good things, but as we all know the holidays can also be a stressful time.  There is so much to do to get ready, so many things to do, and the spending can be a strain on the budget.  We need to remember to take time to focus our joy on the change that God works in our lives through the birth of His son.

 

Prayer: God we pray for your transforming streams of joy to wash through the desert of our lives in this season as we remember the gift of your son.

 

Kristin Wintergerst

December 11                                     Comfort My People Says Your God                                              Isaiah 40: 1-9

 

The first 39 chapters of Isaiah are characterized by Biblical scholars as “The Book of Judgment” – God’s indictment and judgment against Judah, against Israel, and against the nations.  Chapter 40 begins “The Book of Comfort.”

 

“Comfort, comfort my people, says your God.” 

 

The people of Dafur are suffering; two million people, forced from their homes due to continued fighting in Sudan.  Tropical storms leave millions homeless in India and Bangladesh.  More than one and a half million people across Africa face hunger, hardship and homelessness as a result of catastrophic flooding sweeping across the continent.  Thousands evacuate raging Southern California wild fires. 

Who are God’s people?  To the Jewish people of Isaiah’s time, it was clear that they were God’s people; the chosen ones with God’s special blessing (“I will bless you, . . . and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.” Gen 12:2-3, NIV).  Isaiah’s message points clearly to Jesus, the coming messiah.  But is that all there is to this prophesy?  No, the words of Isaiah are as relevant today as when they were written, over 2,700 years ago.  Like many of the prophecies of the Old Testament, we see a future fulfillment through New Testament eyes. 

“In the desert, prepare a way for our God.”  How can we prepare a way for our God?  We are each called according to the gifts we have received, whether it is supporting the Food for the Hungry program, buying groceries for Family Service, holding a bake sale to support an overseas missionary, visiting a homebound neighbor.  You get the idea.  Jesus said, “I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.” (Mat 26: 40, NIV)

“He gathers his flock like a shepherd; he carries them close to his heart.”  God desires a personal relationship with every person in his creation.  Each one was created as a special act of his love, and he sent his Son to show us the way to an eternal relationship with him...  As you prepare for this holy season of Advent, may God fill you with His Holy Spirit that you may see, in the birth of the babe of Bethlehem, the one who is “the way, the truth, and the life.” (Jn 14:6, NIV).

Blessings, Alan Graham

 

December 12                                        God Roused for Exiles                                       Zechariah 2:10-13

I volunteered for this devotion, because of the title.  I’ve been through a few periods of life lately that seemed like “exile” periods.  But, contemplating what to write for this devotion, I hit a mental block.  While waiting for inspiration, I’ve been reading a few books ordered from the Upper Room website.  You might like to visit it too (www.upperroom.org). 

A featured book recently was “Lighted Windows, Advent Reflections for a World in Waiting”.  I’m planning to give it as a gift.  In the meantime, I’ve been skimming some sections.  The opening week is “Glimpses of Guidance”.  The first day is based on the story of Zechariah in the first chapter of Luke.  I really liked what was written, but didn’t see how to relate it to my assignment.  (Other than the name “Zechariah” appearing in both.)

Among what she (Margaret Silf) wrote was: “Perhaps, as the years go by, our attempts to follow the path of God, however we envision it, may become like Zechariah’s – refined but also reduced to the faithful fulfillment of a set of obligations…  Such faithfulness is never to be despised.  It can be the seedbed of God’s kingdom.  Unfortunately, it can all too easily turn into a comfort zone.  We feel so settled in our holy niche that we stop even expecting God to intervene in our lives…  We keep on tending that flickering little fire within us that still burns with a love for God.  But we don’t expect to wake up one morning and discover that the flames are suddenly leaping out of control.  Neither did Zechariah!

“In short, our waiting upon God can become simply the habit of waiting for its own sake – like waiting day after day in line at the bus stop but being wholly unprepared for the possibility that the bus might actually arrive.  So stunned are we when the bus turns up that we step back in disbelief and refuse to get on board.  How do we know that the bus isn’t some figment of our imagination?  How do we know that this is really our bus and that it will take us to where we want to be?  Maybe it would be just so much easier, and safer, to stay in line at the bus stop.  After all, we know where we are when we’re standing at the bus stop.  Who knows where we might end up if we get on the bus?

“We might imagine Zechariah going through a similar thought process.  His faithful, lifelong prayers for God’s guidance are suddenly answered, and he doesn’t know how to respond.  His coping mechanism is to try to interpret the divine touch of God in terms of merely human logic.  But God’s touch, as we know from experience, confounds human logic and goes far beyond it…

“Zechariah’s story encourages me.  It reminds me I’m not the only one to fail to recognize God’s guidance even when it is given to me on a plate, and that however stubbornly I fail to respond, God’s purposes will not be deflected…

“God will wait for our response.  And God will wait for as long as it takes.”

As I thought about it, maybe there is a relationship between the thoughts in this devotion and my “God Roused for Exiles” assignment.  The exiles waited a long time before the signal came to return to Jerusalem.  And when it came, some of them weren’t so sure what to do about it.  Here’s the scripture from the book of Zechariah:

10Sing and rejoice, O daughter Zion! For lo, I will come and dwell in your midst, says the Lord.  11Many nations shall join themselves to the Lord on that day, and shall be my people; and I will dwell in your midst.  And you shall know that the Lord of hosts has sent me to you.  12The Lord will inherit Judah as his portion in the holy land, and will again choose Jerusalem.

13 Be silent, all people, before the Lord; for he has roused himself from his holy dwelling.

Janice Moody

December 13                                         God takes your hand                                                              Isaiah 41:13,17-20

 

I am not a profound thinker, and I do not have all the answers.  I only know that God is with me all the time, standing by my side, holding my hand.  However, I am most aware of His presence in times of trouble.  When our babies died, He was there.  When my parents passed, He was there.  In the aftermath of the San Bernardino fire in 2003, which took our home and in many ways our identity, He was there.  Each time there has been a fire since, He has held my hand (our hands, Richard and I), helping to quell the fear which seems bounden to overtake us.  Most recently, He has been holding us close as our daughter and our grandchildren moved away.  She wasn't the youngest, but she was the last to leave, and Brianna and Meghan have been in our home and a major part of our lives since their births.  They aren't necessarily our favorite grandchildren, but we certainly have had the closest connection with them.  Each of these times has been a struggle, and without God's hand to hold, and his presence to comfort me, I don't know how I would otherwise have gotten through them.  Holding his hand, and leaning on his strength, has helped fill the void. 

Thank you, Lord, for holding my hand, leading me on when I lack the strength to go on my own.  Amen.

Carole Radford

 

December 14                                       Prepare the Way of the Lord                                                   Matthew 11:2-19

 

Matthew 11:2-19 tells the story of John the Baptist seeking to find out whether or not Jesus was "the one who was to come."  John is in prison and sends his disciples to ask Jesus if they should expect someone else.  It is natural that John should have questions—especially when things are going so badly for him.  I don’t know about you, but when things aren’t right I sometimes find myself questioning the Lord.  I’ve even had thoughts about whether my beliefs are true.  Can all this we believe really be correct?  Is salvation a reality?  Can God heal?  Am I doing what I should in putting my trust in Jesus and the Holy Spirit?  If you never have any of these questions then you are very lucky.  I take some comfort from the fact that John was also questioning.  I wonder if he was related to Thomas?

John’s disciples get an answer: "Go back and report to John what you hear and see: The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cured, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is now preached to the poor." (Matt 11:4-5)

Reading this passage this time I realized that I have the same "proof" that Jesus offered John’s disciples.  When I begin to experience doubt I just need to remember what Jesus has done in my family’s life.  I especially recall when we were in the Andes and Matt had an excruciating earache and extremely high fever.  As a five-year-old child he believed and asked his doubting mother to pray.  Frightened by the request, Stephanie still prayed and instantaneously Matt was healed.  No fever, no earache!!  Jesus is real and He is good!

Have I stopped having doubts because of this and other miracles?  I’m afraid not, but when the doubts come I try to remember, "Go back and report … what you hear and see …" I can report that God is still in charge, that His Son, through us, still has the power to act, and that His Holy Spirit is ready to fill us with grace.

During this Advent season I pray that all of us will report what we see and hear so that others will know that our God lives!

Bob Denham

 

December 15                                  “They saw no one except Jesus”                                               Matthew 17: 5-13

The story of Matthew 17: 5-13 is contained, in essentially the same detail, in the gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke.  Peter and the two brothers, James and John went with Jesus to the top of a mountain (unnamed, but scholars suggest it might be Mount Hermon).  It is interesting, that the gospel writers do not say why Jesus took them up the mountain.  Certainly, these three may have been the ones closest to the Lord, but in other cases scriptures give a reason, for example “to pray.”  Here, the reason remains to be seen.

Suddenly, Jesus stood before them in some sort of supernatural form.  His face glowed as bright as the sun, and his clothing was as white as the brightest light imaginable.  It seemed as if the light was emanating from Jesus himself and was not simply a bright reflection of some external light shining on him from above.  Then, two other individuals appeared in this vision of intense light: Moses, the giver of the Law, and Elijah, the greatest prophet of Israel.  And they were talking with Jesus (only Luke reports the content of the discussion)!  Peter, ever impetuous, declares, “Lord it is good for us to be here.  If you wish, I will put up three shelters (booths) – one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah.”  Perhaps he was recalling the Festival of Booths, where Jews celebrated the journey from Egypt to Canaan and wanted a perpetual memorial for this auspicious happening.

But even before Peter was through speaking, the three disciples were enveloped in a bright cloud, and they heard a voice saying, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.  Listen to him!”  They fell face down on the ground in terror, but Jesus came and touched them, saying, “Get up.  Don’t be afraid.”  When they looked up, they saw no one except Jesus.

We often want to memorialize the special moments in our lives.  We take photographs of spectacular mountains, canyons, and sunsets in an attempt to relive the experience at a later time.   Peter wanted to erect a memorial of the event – booths representing Jesus, Moses, and Elijah, when God wanted them to focus all of their attention on Jesus.  Maybe that is something we should focus on as we go about our daily lives.  If we saw Jesus as the grocery store cashier, the gardener mowing our lawn, the homeless person in the city park, and every other person we meet, perhaps we would treat them differently.  And Jesus would say, “Whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did it for me.”  Matthew 25:40 (NIV)

In this season of Advent, let’s all “Keep our eyes upon Jesus!”

Blessings, Alan Graham

 

December 16                                     Patience Despite Suffering                          James 5: 7-11

             Patience is something I have always had to deal with, especially as a child with a younger sister who had to have everything first.  I didn’t like it much, but I learned how to be patient and then I became a Mom, and the patience I had to have.

          I always remember the phrase, “Patience is a Virtue.”  I didn’t really understand it to