If We Find New Hope In The Birth Of Jesus, What Must We Do?
Good Morning Friends,
Today we look at beginnings and endings that are key to understanding Holy History. Here we see that when stories converge power is created. The beauty is that in reading these Bible stories we get glimpses of encouragement and insights and compassion that can translate into our current experience of God that asks us to change. And it is a challenge, for sameness means stability for some and change means chaos for others. So, lean into today’s scripture realizing that you cannot avoid Christmas coming nor change. If we believe and desire to be in the will of God we must eventually ask the hard question. If We Find New Hope In The Birth Of Jesus, What Must We Do?
Scripture: Again the Lord spoke to Ahaz, saying, Ask a sign of the Lord your God; let it be deep as Sheol or high as heaven. But Ahaz said, I will not ask, and I will not put the Lord to the test. Then Isaiah said: “Hear then, O house of David! Is it too little for you to weary mortals, that you weary my God also? Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Look, the young woman is with child and shall bear a son, and shall name him Immanuel.
Isaiah 7:10-14 (NRSV)
In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a town in Galilee called Nazareth, to a virgin engaged to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. And he came to her and said, “Greetings, favored one! The Lord is with you.” But she was much perplexed by his words and pondered what sort of greeting this might be. The angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And now, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you will name him Jesus. He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give to him the throne of his ancestor David. He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.” Mary said to the angel, “How can this be, since I am a virgin?” The angel said to her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be holy; he will be called Son of God. And now, your relative Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son; and this is the sixth month for her who was said to be barren. For nothing will be impossible with God.” Then Mary said, “Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word.” Then the angel departed from her.
Luke 1:26-38 (NRSV)
Message: Here is the deal… God created everything so that the Creator, Sustainer and Redeemer of the Universe could have a relationship with us and we could have a love relationship that unites us. God loves us, and so we need to figure out as best we can what we are going to do with this life we have been given. And because God is timeless, so too are the things that form our experience of the divine in the stream of Holy History. This timeless love is never more evident than in God’s story of Jesus…. God coming to live with us as hope and love and birthing in us this Spirit. We are that important. Now, there are a few people in the Bible whose births were announced prior to their conception. In the Old Testament we had Isaac, Samson, and Samuel. In the New Testament we have John the Baptist and, of course, Jesus. The Gospel of Luke commences with the end of 400 years in which the voice of prophets had not been heard in Israel. Now God was about to break that silence. And God was going to do this with the cooperation of a young woman and the power of the Holy Spirit. Society was on the cusp of a new era. We even refer to this time by using the terms A.D. and B.C and C.E. and B.C.E. And now today we are perhaps on the verge of another era that has the possibility of fresh hope that overflows in the lives of others because we believe. And here in the tension of change we might just find that satisfying our need to comfort, encourage and give courage to others on the journey is one of the best ways of connecting our stories with the story of Jesus and in this way deal with the chaotic emotions of our changing times. And so, friends, it is here that we discover that it is not working hard or in material items that we ultimately rejoice, but in discovering compassion and hope and love so deep that it must be expressed again and again as a relationship with Jesus shared. Sure, compassion costs us something. It is not free. But the grace of it, the hope of it, is as old as creation itself and as new as our last breath…the reality that Christ paid the price does free us. Here in this story, history and His story and our stories converge in the compassion the great commandment… a Jesus in a manger, a Jesus on the cross, a risen Jesus…and now Jesus in us. Friends, when we trust in God, we overflow with the hope of the Holy Spirit. When we seek first His kingdom… when we seek first to understand then to be understood, we open the opportunity to accomplish more together than we could have possibly accomplished alone. Let us encourage each other through sharing study of the scripture. Let us be steadfast and focused on that which holds us together, so our endurance would carry us to the finish line. Let us hope in the birth of a child.
Pray we realize that Jesus Christ and the coming of the Holy Spirit into a young woman changed the future of the world. Pray we seek to honor this past even as we strive to get build a better future. Pray we realize that we are not our shadows and our shadows are not us. Pray therefor we bring the whole counsel of God’s Word together for the benefit of a future that honors God. Pray we learn from history but not be trapped in it. Pray we see the old in the new and the new in the old, but also the hope of something even better. Pray, if things get difficult in the world and its disruptions of our routines challenge us, that we keep the faith, endure to the end, and follow Christ who was and is worthy of all things. Pray we are not afraid. Pray we shine a light of service into the world realizing that God does not so much want our sacrifices as our love shared for the sanctification of us all.
Pray therefore
that the holidays do not distract us from our true mission in the world. Pray that we realize that we belong to Christ’s …. that Jesus was born, lived, died and was resurrected so we might be as one body of believers. Pray that we live in harmony with one another glorifying God as He permeates our hearts…our minds and our souls, binding us together with His love. Pray
we accept what is, let go of what was and have hope in what we believe God wants us to be. Pray the God of hope fills us with the joy and peace in believing. Pray our minds and hearts are focused on the hope of Christ and the gift of love we experience at Christmas. Pray we realize that Jesus is our Hope. Pray we realize that circumstances may change, people may change but that Jesus is eternal hope. Pray we have an abundant hope that spills over into the lives of others.
Blessings,
John Lawson
Daily Devotionals 