Advent A Calendar of Devotions 2018 (Pkg of 10). Sue Mink
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the time to come, rather than the children shifting back to the ways of their parents. The way ahead would be one of righteousness, where all God’s people would wait in breathless expectation for the Lord’s arrival.
The community of the church today looks back during Advent to a birth over two thousand years ago. But Advent is also a time of looking forward, when the Messiah comes again. When Christ returns as promised, God’s righteousness will rule the earth, and the kingdom of God will reign. As people of Jesus Christ, we are still the community who is preparing the way of the Lord. By living as people of the kingdom of God here on earth, we are tasked to make a space for holiness and righteousness and, through the guidance and blessing of Jesus Christ, bring glimmers of the world to come within the world we are in today. In that way, we continue to celebrate Advent with a heart of expectation, even though we celebrate a birth that took place over two thousand years ago.
Prayer
Come, Lord Jesus! Let us prepare your way. Amen.
Wednesday, December 5, 2018
Read Luke 1:26-28
God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a city in Galilee, to a virgin who was engaged to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David’s house. The virgin’s name was Mary. —Luke 1:26b-27
In Jesus’s time, Nazareth was a tiny little village of maybe four to five hundred people. It was overshadowed by the much larger town of Sepphoris, the capital of Galilee, about five miles away, and was even considered a bit disreputable. Nathanael scoffed at the idea that the Messiah could come from such a place in John 1:46 by saying, “Can anything from Nazareth be good?”
In that town lived a girl named Mary. She was probably about 13 or 14, as girls were usually betrothed as soon as they hit puberty. Chances are she was promised to Joseph by her parents when she was a little girl, and they just waited for her to come of age. Then they were formally engaged for a year before the wedding. Joseph was probably between 18 and 20, marrying a little older so that he had the means to support a wife, although the Bible does not mention either one’s age. (The Pirkei Avot, a book of Hebrew ethics said to originate with Moses, sets the perfect age for marriage for men at 18.) Even so, we know he was a man of limited resources because they gave a sacrifice of doves when Jesus was presented at the temple, the usual sacrifice of the poor.
Therefore, it seems that the greatest gift ever given to the world was entrusted by God to two poor teenagers from a tiny, disparaged town. They had no distinction, few resources, and little experience. They were thrust into a very difficult situation that forced them to trust only their faith and each other. God blessed them in ways that were confusing, demanding, and even life-threatening.
God has a history of choosing those the world would say are ill-equipped or unsuited to the tasks ahead. From Moses, who stuttered so badly that he had to have his brother speak for him, to impetuous Peter, who denied his Lord, the story of God’s people is that of the strength and power of the Holy Spirit overcoming human weakness and deficiency. When God calls someone, God is not choosing them because they have the abilities that they need to do the job. Instead, God is asking them to trust that they will be strengthened, empowered, and guided along the way.
Two untested teenagers were entrusted with parenting the Savior of the world. May we all respond to God’s call with the same confidence in God’s providence.
Prayer
Help me to trust in your power. Amen.
Thursday, December 6, 2018
Read Luke 1:28-33
“Look! You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you will name him Jesus.” —Luke 1:31
What an incredible moment in history, when an angel told a teenaged peasant girl that she would give birth to the Son of God! From the very beginning of time, this event was foretold. Abraham was promised that his line would be a blessing to all nations. King David was assured that his descendant would sit on the throne of Israel forever. The prophets, including Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Micah, all sang of a savior for Israel and for the entire world. And he was finally coming. The angel promised Mary that her son, in the line from David, would be given the throne by God, and that he would eternally reign over the house of Jacob, meaning Israel.
The angel told Mary that she should name her son “Yehoshua,” Hebrew for Jesus, which was a common Jewish name at the time. The English translation of the name is Joshua. It means “God saves.” While this is certainly a fitting title for the Messiah, it is not a royal name that would cause him to be recognized as a king. Neither was Mary a logical choice to be the mother of a king. Yet this seemingly ordinary baby with the ordinary name would be the Son of the Most High. Those realities must have created a dissonance that told Mary that this was not going to be the Messiah they had expected.
Added to all of that was the fact that Mary was a virgin. Yet the angel promised her that she would become pregnant by the power of the Holy Spirit. Before Mary could question that, the angel told her that her cousin Elizabeth, past childbearing age, had also become pregnant, and that nothing was impossible with God. Mary’s baby would truly be the Son of God, a blessed child like no other in the history of the world.
God had blessed barren women before, reversing the fortunes of those who were cursed by infertility. Sarah, Rachel, and Hannah all were given children when it seemed impossible. Now Elizabeth was pregnant with the child who would announce the coming of the Messiah. But the circumstances of Jesus’s birth outshone all of them. The stunning revelation of Mary’s pregnancy left no doubt that this child truly was the Messiah, the Son of God, and the plan of God’s salvation for the world.
Prayer
Lord Jesus, help me to grasp the wonder of your coming. Amen.
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