Good Morning Friends,
When we pray and when we worship, we call on the presence of God. But too often we are not ready to receive what comes next in interactions with others. Here we are on the first Sunday in Advent 2023 and contemplating not only the first arrival of God in the flesh on earth, but also thinking about seeing Jesus in the lives of others as well as considering the second coming as not just as a future event, but something to be experienced personally now. Tradition has us embarking on a themed time of worship focused on beginnings and endings nudged by the lectionary to have us contemplate in love and lament a season steeped in memories and memorials. The thing is that eventually we all will meet our maker and how we experience this is important as we consider Christ’s Mass. For the first century resident of Jerusalem hearing today’s Gospel passage from Mark, the message would be about the apocalypse prophecy of the siege and destruction of their city by the Romans. The warning was to be ready for it and to stay awake and to take to the hills. So, getting ready, one would think, is something any responsible believer would do for any critically important event that has the drama of the beginnings and endings of life. But the behavior of worshippers in today’s gone mad world does not look a lot like people preparing with anticipation. The message is to be about hope but so much is unseen. There are so many distractions and frankly it is a little hard to find the peace we seek if we are not paying attention and seeing with the eyes of faith. So, How Alert Are You In Preparing To Connect With The Love Of God This Christmas?
Scripture: For you are our father, though Abraham does not know us and Israel does not acknowledge us; you, O Lord, are our father; our Redeemer from of old is your name. Why, O Lord, do you make us stray from your ways and harden our heart, so that we do not fear you? Turn back for the sake of your servants, for the sake of the tribes that are your heritage. We have long been like those whom you do not rule, like those not called by your name. as when fire kindles brushwood and the fire causes water to boil— to make your name known to your adversaries, so that the nations might tremble at your presence! When you did awesome deeds that we did not expect, you came down, the mountains quaked at your presence. From ages past no one has heard, no ear has perceived, no eye has seen any God besides you, who works for those who wait for him. You meet those who gladly do right, those who remember you in your ways. But you were angry, and we sinned; because you hid yourself we transgressed. We have all become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a filthy cloth. We all fade like a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away. There is no one who calls on your name, or attempts to take hold of you; for you have hidden your face from us, and have delivered us into the hand of our iniquity.
Isaiah 63:16b-17, 19b; 64:2-7 (NRSV)
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. I give thanks to my God always for you because of the grace of God that has been given you in Christ Jesus, for in every way you have been enriched in him, in speech and knowledge of every kind— just as the testimony of Christ has been strengthened among you— so that you are not lacking in any spiritual gift as you wait for the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ. He will also strengthen you to the end, so that you may be blameless on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is faithful; by him you were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.
1 Corinthians 1:3-9 (NRSV)
Beware, keep alert; for you do not know when the time will come. It is like a man going on a journey, when he leaves home and puts his slaves in charge, each with his work, and commands the doorkeeper to be on the watch. Therefore, keep awake—for you do not know when the master of the house will come, in the evening, or at midnight, or at cockcrow, or at dawn, or else he may find you asleep when he comes suddenly. And what I say to you I say to all: Keep awake.”
Mark 13:33-37 (NRSV)
Therefore thus I will do to you, O Israel; because I will do this to you, prepare to meet your God, O Israel!
Amos 4:12 (NRSV)
Message: We are in the season of Advent and preparations have already begun to celebrate the day the “Word became flesh”, but the music to my ears, at least so far, has a bluesy tone to it that is not all holly jolly Christmassy. Too many have died over the last few years and are not with us in the flesh. We know that we are to be preparing to celebrate because God is love and He so loved us that He sent His Beloved Son on a most difficult mission to save us from destruction. But it is hard to be alert. Perhaps we are sad because of a Seasonal Affective Disorder. We need more light to see and feel our way through the dark nights. When Jesus was born very few people took any notice and I am not sure they are taking notice this year either of the importance of shinning a light. There are too many distractions. The religious leaders of Jesus’ day who knew the prophecies concerning the place of His birth and were told the time of His birth made no effort to make the short journey from Jerusalem to Bethlehem to see and worship Him. Herod showed more interest than they did even though his reason was to kill Him. The preparations being made for this advent are sadly all too similar. Our hearts just do not seem to be in it. The traditions have lost their luster. For many people, there is no place in their hearts for Christ regardless of the season and their focus is not to worship Him but on buying, feasting, and making merry. And there is a place for that. But preparing to meet God is something entirely different. The Jews had an elaborate process for entering the Holy of Holies to connect with who they were as creatures of God. Thankfully now Jesus has made the process for communicating with God a bit easier, but in the process, we may have lost some steps. This Sunday we have a scheduled meeting with the Lord in worship on this first Advent Sunday in 2023. And I wonder, in part because of the Pandemic of three years ago and the reality that I am recovering from a more recent strain of Covid now. So, I wonder how many are preparing not only for Advent worship and Christmas but the ultimate meeting with our maker. You see, if we really value our meeting time with the Lord, we need to prepare for it continually. We need to know God. And we need to wake up to the opportunities before us to meet Jesus in the lives of those in need. For, of course, Christ is the best teacher, and he teaches this is so. Let us not forget that Christ came into the world to show us a better way of living that includes getting to know God and especially God’s grace through interaction in the world. For it is the grace of God working in us, changing us, and enabling us to live the life of Christ that is the only way to prepare for meeting the Father.
And So, we really can do very little, for God does what we cannot do, but expects us to do what we can do to prepare ourselves emotionally for the future and now to love on those most vulnerable and maybe even lament their status. The thing is that we cannot work for what the grace of God has freely made available to us, but it is our responsibility to work till we become like our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ by extending God’s love in the tension of life as a means of worship. And that means that the best preparation is loving others in need. But we must stay awake and attentive in worshipping the opportunities to fed, cloth and visit Jesus in the flesh with us. We are to be prepared with the prophet’s hope of the miracle of a little child that would change the world. But we are also to have a Christmas Spirit of giving that prepares the Father to recognize the Christlike character in us. This is our only hope.
Pray we worship God on a personal and active basis and not just things about God like love, justice, and righteousness. Pray we accept God’s grace and gifts of forgiveness, righteousness and eternal life demonstrated in our acts of serving others. Pray we acknowledge that we are sinners who cannot do anything on our own merit to inherit eternal life. Pray we believe with all our heart that Jesus paid the price for our soul’s redemption. Pray we show evidence of our conversion by telling others about Jesus Christ and demonstrating the love of Christ in us. Pray we have faith to believe the Word of God that gives us the assurance of salvation. Pray we realize that God’s love and grace provides all that we need to make us ready. Pray we prepare to meet God with praise. Pray we have a strong desire to meet God that is demonstrated by our preparation. Pray we are awake enough to see God in the lives of those we serve. Pray our hearts are softened to prepare us for what is to come. Pray we are prepared for Christmas with a deep peace that reflects the miracle of the hope of Jesus.
Blessings,
John Lawson
Daily Devotionals 