Good Morning Friends,
Here in the story… history and His story and our stories converging in the compassion of 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 up the opportunity to accomplish more together than we could have possibly accomplished alone. Here we hopefully encourage each other in some ways like the angel comforting Mary. We hope in the love of God. And if we believe and desire to be in the will of God and because of it, we must eventually ask the hard question. Will The Hope We Find In The Story Of The Birth Of Jesus Move Us To Be Better?
Scripture: Now when the king was settled in his house, and the Lord had given him rest from all his enemies around him, the king said to the prophet Nathan, “See now, I am living in a house of cedar, but the ark of God stays in a tent.” Nathan said to the king, “Go, do all that you have in mind; for the Lord is with you.” But that same night the word of the Lord came to Nathan: Go and tell my servant David: Thus says the Lord: Are you the one to build me a house to live in? Now therefore thus you shall say to my servant David: Thus says the Lord of hosts: I took you from the pasture, from following the sheep to be prince over my people Israel; and I have been with you wherever you went, and have cut off all your enemies from before you; and I will make for you a great name, like the name of the great ones of the earth. And I will appoint a place for my people Israel and will plant them, so that they may live in their own place, and be disturbed no more; and evildoers shall afflict them no more, as formerly, from the time that I appointed judges over my people Israel; and I will give you rest from all your enemies. Moreover the Lord declares to you that the Lord will make you a house. When your days are fulfilled and you lie down with your ancestors, I will raise up your offspring after you, who shall come forth from your body, and I will establish his kingdom. I will be a father to him, and he shall be a son to me. When he commits iniquity, I will punish him with a rod such as mortals use, with blows inflicted by human beings. Your house and your kingdom shall be made sure forever before me; your throne shall be established forever.
2 Samuel 7:1-5, 8b-12, 14a, 16 (NRSV)
But the Lord God called to the man, and said to him, “Where are you?” He said, “I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself.” He said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?” The man said, “The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit from the tree, and I ate.” Then the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this that you have done?” The woman said, “The serpent tricked me, and I ate.” The Lord God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this, cursed are you among all animals and among all wild creatures; upon your belly you shall go, and dust you shall eat all the days of your life. I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will strike your head, and you will strike his heel.” The man named his wife Eve, because she was the mother of all living.
Genesis 3:9-15, 20 (NRSV)
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)
Now to God who is able to strengthen you according to my gospel and the proclamation of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery that was kept secret for long ages but is now disclosed, and through the prophetic writings is made known to all the Gentiles, according to the command of the eternal God, to bring about the obedience of faith— to the only wise God, through Jesus Christ, to whom be the glory for ever! Amen
Romans 16:25-27 (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)
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, just as he chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless before him in love. He destined us for adoption as his children through Jesus Christ, according to the good pleasure of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace that he freely bestowed on us in the Beloved. In Christ we have also obtained an inheritance, having been destined according to the purpose of him who accomplishes all things according to his counsel and will, so that we, who were the first to set our hope on Christ, might live for the praise of his glory.
Ephesians 1:3-6, 11-12 (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. And God did this with the cooperation of a young woman and the power of the Holy Spirit. And here in the tension of the season 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. Here in the drama of the greatest story ever told, we can 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. Ask the mother of any child. 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 so we might live more abundantly should however humble us. Here in this story, history and His story and our stories we stand at a crossroads. The hope is that we would be steadfast and focused on that which holds us together, so our endurance would carry us to the finish line on the right road. And on this journey Jesus pours out His love upon us to make us whole and holy, and abundantly free. Only the love of Jesus makes us more holy. God’s love, acceptance and forgiveness is what makes us whole too. It is God who put each of us together- spirit, soul and body and God who started a work in us for us. Thankfully God is completely dependable to finish the work that has been started in us. The challenge is to be transformed in Jesus Christ for Jesus knows the human heart is the source of our iniquities and to leave our hearts untouched would sabotage our redemption. That is why we pray for God to touch people’s hearts. That is the way things get completed for a holy purpose. This births in our hearts a great hope.
And So, let us find hope in the birth of the child who was destined to change everything. Let us recognize that the world needs more people with the commitment of Mary. Maybe we would not characterize Mary as highly favored if the scripture did not say it was so. That would be the wrong motivation for her anyway. But let’s be honest. This was not easy even if this young peasant girl was touched by an angel. And there is a message in that for us if we struggle. The thing is that she believed and in fact, was the first in a way to believe, for if she had not believed she could never have conceived. But having committed, it seems to me she submitted and responded in an amazing way. Look at the facts. Herod was trying to kill her newborn son. They had to escape to Egypt. And then after her son came of age he was about his Father in heaven’s business. Blessings because of this existed to be sure. Jesus honored his mother at a wedding in Cana. But the tears and suffering later were great. When Mary was at the foot of the cross, she saw her son die. But then she was one of the first in the Upper Room to have the Holy Spirit fill her as it did the disciples. Mary leaves an amazing legacy and lesson for our chaotic world. Her humble obedience is priceless and a precious gift that we cannot fully emulate. But the thing is we too can have a relationship with Jesus’ Spirit birthed in us…a relationship that is always available to us, even now. So today we have reflected on Jesus’ life- from the humble manger of his birth to the suffering of the cross and the triumph of the resurrection and see in it a revealing in the vivid detail how God’s boundless compassion weaves together the grand narrative of history, the redemptive arc of His story, and the chapters of our personal stories into a tapestry of enduring love.
Pray we realize that Jesus Christ and the coming of the Holy Spirit into a young woman changed the future of the world and that the Holy Spirit can change our lives too. Pray we seek to honor the past even as we strive to build a better future. Pray that we learn from history but not be trapped in it. Pray that 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 continue to endure to the end, and follow Christ who was and is worthy of all things. Pray that 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 …. 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.
Blessings,
John Lawson
Daily Devotionals 