Advent Day 27
Jesse Tree Devotions - like a short course in the faith before Christmas to remind us faith is about real lives like ours.
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This whole year has been different, read “difficult” and ”disappointing.” Maybe that means we need a little Christmas a little more this year.
At Old First, we’ve been trying to think about how to do church differently under these circumstances… how to offer more to fill out parts of our season that pandemic precautions will shut down.
Think about observing Advent with our Advent calendar — someone reading a bible passage to you and then a reflection, ending with a question to wonder about for each of the days leading up to Christmas (and then 12 more to get to Epiphany / Three Kings Day).. It will be sort of a short course in the faith as well as a reminder that faith is about real lives like yours.
You might pair these daily Advent Calendar Devotions with lighting Advent Candles every night at the dinner table. (Old First provided hand-decorated Advent Candleholders; did you get yours?) Or join us on Thursday nights of Advent for informal worship services for the seasons.
We have more ministries than normal, all safe and online these days (we’re not coming back in person until EVERYONE can be safe… that’s a theological commitment.) Join us to reassure yourself how close we can be even when we can’t be together…
(Our Jesse Tree Advent Calendar is freely adapted with thanksgiving from a Reformed Church of America resource written by Grace Claus.)
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Advent Day 26
A Little New Life
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Getting kicked out of the neighborhood and forced to live somewhere else isn’t an experience anyone forgets easily. The actual experience is bad enough. The repercussions can last for generations.
Long ago, God’s people were kicked out of where they lived and sent — forcibly — to live somewhere else. Life was hard, and their new neighbors didn’t welcome them. After what has happened to them, God’s people weren’t at their best either. Everyone, it seemed, only cared about themselves.
Some little kids had no parents, and no one took care of them. Some old people had no family, and nobody checked on them. God was fed up with the whole mess. God cares about people and wants us to care about each other!
So God decided to make a full stop — like handling a tree that’s grown unwieldy by cutting it down. That’s pretty final.
But God made a promise — the tree might be gone; only a stump might remain, but God said, “from the dead tree stump, a tiny branch would sprout.” A tiny green shoot would start growing. Things wouldn’t be dead or deadly anymore.
For Christians, that little branch is Jesus. He’s the new life coming from his great-great-way-back grandpa Jesse.
For the rest of Advent, we’re going to hear more stories about the people in Jesus’s family history and about how they helped God bring about new life.
WONDER: Where in your world is there new life (even if it’s coming from some place that feels dead)?
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Advent Day 25
A Prophet's Tantrum in a Tower?
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Habakkuk has just finished complaining to God, “Everyone around here is horrible! They don’t care about anyone else. They’re hurting other people. Why don’t you do anything to stop them?” Things have gotten really bad. Sound familiar?
So Habakkuk marches up to a tall tower and waits — sort of a prophet’s temper tantrum, I guess..
But why is God waiting? What’s the delay? Doesn’t God want to do anything about the terrible things bad people are doing?
God answers, saying, “Oh, I’ve noticed. I’m going to do something about it.”
Habakkuk wonders when? It already feels like it’s too long! So God tells Habakkuk to be patient. God promises Habakkuk that all things will be made right.
WONDER: What are you waiting for? Is there one change that would make it easier to wait for the rest?
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Advent Day 24
Who Do You Look Like?
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God made all the stars and planets, the bumblebees and the bougainvillea,clumping bamboo and stampeding buffalo, blue jays, bears and badgers. They all may be beautiful, but God didn’t make any of those as a reflection of God’s own image. Only when making humans did God say, “Let’s make them like us.”
Something about you is a reflection of God.
Is it your eyes? When you smile, do they crinkle at the corners, just like God’s do?
Is it your hair? Does God have trouble styling just like you do?
Maybe it’s your laugh. When something is so silly and you laugh so hard you can’t catch your breath, do you sound like God?
Or is it your care and concern for others?
Or the way you notice little things others miss?
It’s hard to know exactly what God looks and sounds like—except that we believe Jesus is our picture of God. Jesus is God in the form of a human being. Jesus is God!
So if you’re wondering how you resemble God, you can just think about Jesus. You might not have his hair color, and your body might be different than his, but your heart can look just like Jesus’s heart.
WONDER: What things about you— from your personality, behavior, character or the way you relate to people — are like Jesus? Are there ways you try to be more like Jesus?
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Advent Day 23
Three Trees
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It’s not hard to remember back to summer. Sunshine warms the garden. Big trees offer make shady spots and cool places (and attract Lantern Flies!). Flowers bloom.. Birds sing. Squirrels graze. Maybe bunnies hop. This garden, with a tree right in the middle, is the place where God lived with Adam and Eve, the first people God created.
But after Adam and Eve ate the fruit, God wasn’t sure they could be trusted to live in the garden anymore. God sent them away, and set up a physical boundary to help the people who couldn’t seem to stop themselves. Since then, we have not been able to live as close to God.
The good news is that ever since, God has been working hard to bring us back close. In the Bible, there’s a sneak preview of the end of the story: God is building a city—with a tree right in the middle—where we will live with God again!
So how do we get from the tree at the beginning to the tree at the end? God uses another tree. That middle tree got chopped down and put together in the shape of a cross. When Jesus died on that tree, or when God raised his crucified Son on Easter morning, that closed the distance between us and God. Jesus made it so that we could return to a joyful, peaceful life with God.
WONDER: In what ways do you feel far from God? What do you do that makes you feel closer to God?
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Advent Day 22
A Breath of Fresh Air
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God scooped up a handful of dust from the ground and made the first human. And God used God’s own Divine breath to breathe into the first human’s nostrils, and the clay came to life and became a creature.
We all know the story of the flood. Everyone in the world seemed to be doing terrible things; it all broke God’s heart (is this a recurrent biblical theme, or does it just sound louder in our day of terrible things?). God created humans to love and care for each other, and to love and respect God. But that wasn’t how it turned out.
It got to be so bad that even God was fed up. God wanted to put an end to it. So God takes back the breath of life with which God began it all: God flooded the whole world. And every person and animal (except for Noah and his family) drowned. The very same breath that God used to quicken Adam, God now withdrew. God wanted a fresh start.
So God has given us a new kind of breath, Holy Spirit breath. In a way, God breathes Spirit into us at our baptism just as God breathed the breath into Adam at the beginning.
WONDER: Think about taking a deep breath, and how it helps you relax. What does Holy Spirit breath feel like inside of you?
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Advent Day 21
Making a Move
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Pastor Michael remembers when he was a child, and all of a sudden, the Heralds — mom, dad and their 6 children — who lived across the street from him in St. Louis, put their house on the market and moved, to Philadelphia by the way. It was the first folks he remembers “losing.”
Abraham and Sarah also did something like that, but before they had kids. They packed all their things. Said goodbye to friends and family. Took a last walk through their old neighborhood. And then they loaded everything up and moved far, far away. Because God asked them to.
God said if they moved to this new place, God could use them to show God’s love to a lot more people. Abraham and Sarah were nervous about going someplace new, but they liked the idea of God showing love through them.
Jesus also had a similar experience. He leaves heaven to come to earth. He understands what it’s like to leave behind things and people that are dear to him, Before he came to earth, Jesus was in heaven with God. It’s very comfortable there — never too hot nor too cold. You always feel full of joy, and you are never grouchy.
God’s plan was that in his new location, though not quite as nice as heaven, Jesus could show more people more of God’s love.
WONDER: When have you done something you could not have done without going to someplace new? Is there someplace new you need to go?
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Advent Day 20
We Are Family
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Have you ever been someplace far from any city lights and looked up at a pitch black sky and seen all the stars, almost the whole Milky Way Galaxy. An infinity of stars against a perfect dark background.
This is how God made it clear to Abraham how big his family would be. God promised that Abraham would have so many offspring that he wouldn’t be able to count them, even if he tried.
Do you realize, you… we are all part of Abraham’s family? When God showed Abraham all those stars, we were among them. Because, through Jesus, we are part of that same family — the family of Abraham and the family of God. The people we are reading about this Advent are our great-great-great grandmas and grandpas.
WONDER: What does it mean for you to be part of Abraham’s family, part of Jesus’ family, part of God’s family? How do you try to be family to others?
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Advent Day 19
Making the Connections
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Dreams can be strange. Often they are silly, mixed up stories. Sometimes they are scary. Or funny. But they can also be messages.
Jacob was at the end of his rope. All alone on a journey, he had run out of energy and daylight. But there was no shelter for his night’s sleep. That felt about right for how things were going in his life. He laid down in the wilderness with a rock for a pillow.
And there he had this dream. About a ladder that reached from the ground up into the sky with angels going up and going down on it. And Jacob heard God’s voice promise him, “I will stay and be with you, wherever you find yourself.”
Sometimes we are so busy during the day that we don’t notice God. God waited until Jacob stopped moving, got quiet, fell asleep to talk with him. Jacob couldn’t miss this message, the promise of God. In fact, it woke him right up, and in response, he promised to serve God.
WONDER: Have you ever had a “message dream”? When has God’s presence surprised you?
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Advent Day 18
Loving Those Who Hate Us
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Parents aren’t really supposed to have favorites. But there’s often something about each of our kids that tugs on a parent’s heartstrings. In Joseph’s case, his father, Jacob, seemed to love him more than all his brothers, because he was the child of his old age. Jacob gave Joseph a special coat. And that made his older brothers jealous.
Joseph himself didn’t help the situation either. At breakfast, Joseph would often tell his brothers about his dreams. In those dreams, Joseph always seemed to be in charge of his brothers. That made his brothers furious.
Jealous and furious can be a bad combination.
The older brothers actually try to harm Joseph. They plotted to kill Joseph, but in the end, they just sold him to slavers for 20 pieces of silver.
Isn’t Joseph’s story sort of starting to sound like Jesus’ story?
Jesus was God’s beloved son, kind of like God’s favorite. And when Jesus started sharing what God had shared with him, kind of like his dreams, well, what Jesus was saying made some religious leaders, “his older brothers.” jealous and furious. They wanted to harm him. And in time, he was crucified. His coat got taken along the way, and Judas was paid with 30 pieces of silver.
There’s good news in both stories: despite all the ill will we humans can show to one another. Joseph does end up in charge of his brothers, but from this position, he saves his whole family. Likewise, the harm done to Jesus by people’s ill will wasn’t the end of the story either. God can even turn evil for good. In the resurrection, Jesus saves us and goes on to rule over us.
WONDER: Have you ever found yourself in a situation like Joseph’s brothers? Have you ever, like Joseph or Jesus, found you could still love those who wanted to do you harm?
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Advent Day 17
Making the Way Safe for Us
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People like lists, because they break down complex situations and make them easy. People bridle at rules, because they feel arbitrary and no fun. Parents set limits, knowing full well that their children will go beyond them. In a sense, one sets limits such that even a child’s “trespasses” will have not have such great consequences. Parents do that our of love and protection.
Have you ever seen the list of rules at the pool? 1. Shower first. 2. No running. 3. No diving. 4. No unsupervised children. 5. No food or drinks. Do you see it as a list that makes a complex situation simpler? Or rules that make swimming less fun? Or do you understand that each is limit to keep us safe?
The Ten Commandments can be seen that way too. As a list that makes all the complexity we face each day just simple enough to decide. Or it’s rule to cut down on our fun. Or it’s limits for our protection. To keep us out of danger.
One could say the same thing about Jesus. He’s our understanding of God to make the infinite complexity comprehendible. Or he’s just a spoil sport, a walking, talking list of rules. Or he’s the one God sent to carve out our safe, even brave space — where we walk with him or follow him. The kingdom, I think he calls it.
Either way, God’s given the 10 Commandments and the Divine commitment to stay with Israel. Likewise, God’s come to us in Jesus. Instead of trying to carve out a little space that’s good and holy and safe. You might say that Jesus comes so God can make the whole world like that.
WONDER: Which of the Ten Commandments is hardest for you to follow? What about Jesus keeps you in a good, safe place?
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Advent Day 16
Someone Who Will Save Us
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In ancient Israel, women did not have standing on their own; their status was a matter of the man in their family — her father or husband, for example. There were rules to offer women some protection in light of the difficult social construct in which they lived. For example, there were provisions to protect widows. Still women’s positions were very vulnerable.
It can be hard to read a story like this, which can magnify our frustration and anger at the prejudice and oppression women still face today. It can be even more difficult to figure out what it’s meaning could be for our day.
The “rule” was that the brother of the widow’s dead husband had to marry the widow. (Back then, it was sometimes okay to have more than one wife as well.) That brother was called the “kinsman redeemer” and he would rescue the widow and her family by taking them under his care and giving them the family name.
In this complicated story, Boaz is the kinsman redeemer for Ruth and Naomi. Naomi’s husband and Ruth’s husband both died, and Naomi and Ruth were helpless without any sons. But they weren’t hopeless. Boaz stepped in to marry Ruth so that the family could continue. That continuation is important too — Ruth, a Moabite — is King David’s great grandmother.
Much later in the Bible, we read about another kinsman redeemer. That “kinsman redeemer” is Jesus. At the risk of pushing the metaphor too far, one could say that everyone in the world is as helpless as Ruth and Naomi were. But the Bible says Jesus is like the groom at a wedding, and the church is his bride. Like Boaz, he steps up to marry us, to join his life with ours in a way that rescues us.
WONDER: What could we say about Boaz that he is willing to take on such a responsibility to his family? Why do you think Jesus was willing to rescue us?
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Advent Day 15
The Last and the Least
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God loves to make the underdog the hero of the story. God doesn’t usually pick the strongest person (or the coolest or the oldest or the most obvious,) God often uses the weak. The least expected. The dorky. The kid brother no one pays attention to. To look at him, no one would have expected that the kid out shepherding should be king. He didn’t know how to fight in battles. He had never worked in city government. He had spent a lot of time alone, or with sheep, and that was about it. But David was exactly the person God wanted to use. The little brother.
It’s kind of like how God picked the people of Israel—a tiny group of people who weren’t very strong or impressive on their own—to be the people God would bless the whole world through.
And it’s a lot like how God decided to show Divine love to everyone by coming as a tiny, fragile baby. If you looked at Jesus, you wouldn’t think he would make a very good king. When he was a kid, he spent a lot of time building chairs with his dad. When he grew up, he wasn’t impressing everyone with how cool or powerful he was. In the end, he allowed the government to kill him. In Jesus, God makes Godself vulnerable so that we might be made whole. God dies so that we can live.
WONDER: Can you name other stories that have an underdog as the hero? How is God using you, even though you sometimes feel closer to the Last and the Least than the Best and the Brightest?
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Advent Day 14
A Shepherd and a King
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Kings in their secure palaces and shepherds in danger in the field with the sheep seem like exact opposites. Kings sit on thrones. They wear expensive clothes and talk to important people. Shepherds, on the other hand, stand on the hillsides. They wear clothes that can get dirty when they wrestle with sheep, or wolves. And shepherds mostly talk to themselves, or the night, or the sheep.
David was both. He was a shepherd that God chose to be king (yesterday’s Advent Calendar) .
A shepherd might make an ideal king, since shepherds have to be humble, and they probably care more about people than about power.
Can you guess who else is a shepherd-king? If you guessed Jesus, you’re exactly right. Jesus is the Good Shepherd. He knows all of us as well as a shepherd knows his sheep, and he was willing to die so that we can live. Jesus is also the King of kings. He beat the powers of sin and death. Now he sits on his throne, ruling over all of creation.
WONDER: Thinking of Jesus, how is your shepherd and how is he your King?
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Advent Day 13
Holiness Where?
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The temple was really important. In ways that it’s hard for us to understand because we don’t have the same sense of holy ground. (If you read all of 1 Kings 6, you’ll see how that the Temple appears intricate and beautiful as a sign of its importance. It was very tall, and the whole thing was made of gorgeous wood, with pictures of trees and fruit and angels carved into it. The inside was covered in gold, so everything gleamed and sparkled.)
It wasn’t just a building. It was the place where God and humans could meet. Before Solomon built the temple, God met God’s people in a big tent called a tabernacle. The tabernacle moved with the people; the temple is people putting down roots.
Inside the temple, there was a special room, called the Holy of Holies, where God “lived.” In that place, God and humans could be together. But God had even better plans. God didn’t want people to have to go into a tiny room to be with God in person. (And not just anyone—only certain people, the Priests — could go into the room.)
So God decided that God would become the temple. Think of that for a minute — God decided to become the temple. Jesus called himself the temple. God is both Divine and human, the place where the two meet. We don’t have to go into a special room anymore. Now we can know God directly because of Jesus!
WONDER: Why did God decide to let go of the earlier “holy place” so we can meet God anywhere? Are there places you feel God’s presence more closely? Where has God shown up unexpectedly?
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Advent Day 12
A Different Kind of Power
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God doesn’t often seem very popular sometimes. Think about that for a minute. From a couple of different angles. It’s true in different ways…
In this story, there were a lot of people who trusted in other gods. All kinds of different gods. Before we get too judgemental, we should probably admit we all have our own small “g” gods. That which we think we can invoke to make ourselves safe. Or worthy.
But only one person in this story — Elijah — trusted in God. And just because God wasn’t popular doesn’t mean God wasn’t powerful. As soon as Elijah prayed to God, God lit the whole altar on fire.
The power of God doesn’t come from the people. God’s not a democracy! Whether we listen and follow God, doesn’t empower or disempower God. It makes a great difference in our lives, and it can break God’s heart. But God doesn’t draw power from our adoration or faithfulness. God’s power, we might say, is more God’s own… God’s love for people. The power begins in the heart of God and comes toward us.
Think about your life. And what you really need. Can you be for yourself all the help you need? Can your “gods” help you with what you need? Or do you need to turn to the God of heaven and earth to get what you really need?
God shows the Divine love for us in the biggest way when God comes to earth as Jesus. God’s love and power are at their greatest in the victory over death. Curiously, that came through God’s willingness to be vulnerable for our sake…
WONDER: God’s power, intimately tied up with God’s love, turns out to look like weakness sometimes. Would it be easy for you to trust in a God who offered a pyrotechnic display of power?
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Advent Day 11
Our Risks for Others
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King Ahasuerus just agreed to order all the Jews in Babylon to be killed. (Because Mordechai had refused to bow down before Haman!) So Queen Esther decided that she would try to talk him out of it.
It might mean that she would be killed, too, since no one was allowed to talk to the king without being invited. She was willing to die to save her people.And it worked. It’s become the Jewish Purim festival and a nation’s tale of courage in the captivity… for Jewish people who have suffered millenia of living amidst neighboring people’s trying to destroy them.
But it might go even further for us Christians. Does it sound familiar, someone willing to die that their people might be saved? Could it be said that Esther is a female image or forerunner of Christ and her commitment to her people can also be a metaphor for Christ. Jesus was also willing to die to save his people. And he wasn’t just willing to die. He actually died, and his death brought us life.
Jesus took the biggest risk of all, which frees us to take risks, too. Or at least it should challenge us to take risks. Death isn’t so scary anymore when we remember that Jesus has already died and beat death.
Esther’s life, you might say, belonged to God, so she was free to risk her life. By taking that risk, she brought life for her people. The risks we take might also bring life to other people!
WONDER: Can you remember a time when you took a risk to help someone else? How might you live “riskier” in ways that would assure more life to others?
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Advent Day 10
Our Promise of Dawn
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Have you ever been in a place where it’s pitch black? Out in the country, where there’s no lights around. If you’ve ever gone camping, maybe you know the feeling of not being able to see anything. You’re in the woods at night, and you can’t see the moon or stars. You can’t see anything at all.
Or maybe it’s just really dark in your house at night. That can feel scary and confusing, can’t it?
When you don’t know what’s around you, it’s scary. You suddenly don’t know where to move. And you can feel very lonely.
This is the kind of deep darkness the people of Israel walked in. Well, it wasn’t actually nighttime all the time, but it had started to feel that way. They’d lost sight of God, the light in their life. So they couldn’t see anything, especially not who was going to be able to save them. After a while, they started to believe God was not with them, might never come. They lost hope.
This chapter in Isaiah reminds the people of Israel of the light that is coming. The sun will come up in the morning! It won’t be nighttime forever.
As Christians, we believe the light that is coming is a person, and his name is Jesus. He is coming to save his people. When he is here, we don’t have to be scared, alone, sad or not knowing how to move anymore. We can feel full of peace and joy. Jesus is the light of the world.
From now until Christmas, we are getting ready to have the night become day. Jesus is on his way!
WONDER: When and where do you feel it’s completely dark? What brings the day, when it’s bright?
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Advent Day 9
The Peaceable Kingdom
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There is that painting, The Peaceable Kingdom, by Edward Hicks. All the animals restfully poised and positioned on a small hillock for the painting. And Native Americans and Colonists meeting peacefully on the New England beach in the background.
You could also think of it as a silly parade. A wolf with a lamb riding on its back. A baby cow and a bear and a lion marching in a line, all of them led by a child. Halfway through the parade, the child stops to play with a snake. And on the edge of the street, a leopard and a baby goat are curled up together on their picnic blanket to watch. You can imagine the Disney cartoon movie images.
All we have to do is remember any visit to the zoo or any wildlife video to know that these animals can’t be together. The wolf would eat the lamb! The bear and the lion would attack the cow. The snake would bite the child. The leopard would gobble up the goat. It would be a melee, not a parade!
But this is the world God imagines. God is creating a world where that parade is just an average Wednesday. Predators and prey will get along. Instead of fighting, we’ll work together and play together. That’s the world where Jesus is not only in charge, but directing the show.
WONDER: Imagining the world God would have for us, who would you surprisingly find yourself with, in peace, enjoying their company?
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Advent Day 8
Listening to God
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If Jonah were a kid, his parent might have accused him of being “not a very good listener.” God told him what to do. And he did just the opposite. I guess that means he could hear just fine, but he wasn’t so great at obeying.
When God told him to go to Nineveh, he hopped on the first boat in the other direction! Why did God want Jonah to go to Nineveh? Because God loved the people of Nineveh, and God needed Jonah’s help with the people in that city. Jonah knew that too. In fact, Jonah was upset because he didn’t like the people of Nineveh at all, and he didn’t like how much God cared about them.
So Jonah tried to run away. And God stirred up a big storm to get Jonah’s attention. Jonah asked the sailors to throw him off the ship to get the storm to stop, which they did. And then a giant fish came along and gulped him down. Jonah stayed in that fish’s belly for three days.
When the fish spit him back out, Jonah decided to obey God and go to Nineveh. He arrived in Nineveh, told the people God’s message, and they believed! They repented. And God repented of the punishment that would have rained down on them if they had not turned from their evil ways.
Jonah wasn’t the only person to hang out in a dark, damp place for three days. That’s what Jesus did while he was in the tomb. Jesus was much more willing to obey than Jonah was, and Jesus’s obedience also meant that lots of people had the chance to trust God!
WONDER: Why do you think the people of Nineveh took what Jonah said so to heart and believed God? What makes you believe God?
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Advent Day 7
Standing Brave By God
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Daniel was faithful. He trusted God. He knew God was powerful. Faithful too. Daniel prayed to God even when the King forbid prayer to anyone but himself. Daniel wasn’t afraid to pray. Daniel wasn’t afraid to go into the lions’ den, even though the lions were hungry and would want to eat him. Daniel trusted that God would take care of him.
And God did take care of him, sending an angel to shut the lions’ mouths so they could not bite Daniel. We have talked before about the power of God’s angels. When God sends an angel, it is almost as if God has come himself to protect us. Daniel was right to be brave. God showed up and showed a way to keep Daniel safe. If God is all-powerful, what or why should we fear?
WONDER: When have you known God’s presence? How has it made you feel?
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Advent Day 6
Prophecy and Promises
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Prophecy is kind of like a promise about the future. A prophecy tells us what’s going to happen.
When someone tells you something that’s going to happen, do you usually believe it? Some of us might be open to believing, even gullible. Others are a bit more wary, maybe even suspicious. That can be just about how we are wired. But, I guess, it also depends on what the promise is and who’s making it. You might believe your parents promising you dinner. But if your sibling says she will share her most prized possession, you might not be so sure.
How do you feel about God’s promises? When God or his prophets say something, we can trust it will definitely happen. Timing, as we talking about earlier in the Advent Calendar, can be the issue however….
So when God’s prophet Micah says that someone is coming who will rule Israel, he really means it. A king is coming who will stand and feed his flock—he’ll take care of his people. And he will bring peace everywhere he goes.
Micah prophesied that many, many years ago. And as Christians, we see Jesus as the fulfillment of that promise. He cared for his people and was full of peace.
Trusting again in God’s promises, we can be confident that Jesus will come again and his peaceful kingdom will stay forever. He is the Prince of Peace.
WONDER: How does it feel when a promise is broken? Why can we trust God’s promises
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Advent Day 5
Quiet Down and Listen for God
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Is it hard or easy for you to stay quiet for a long time? Some are quiet and shy. But for many of us, it’s pretty hard. There are so many things to talk about!
But Zechariah didn’t have a choice. God made him unable to speak for about nine months, while his wife, Elizabeth, was pregnant with their son. He couldn’t talk to Elizabeth about what things they needed to get ready for a baby. He couldn’t tell her she looked beautiful. He couldn’t talk to his friends about his job.
I wonder if being forced to be silent was actually very helpful for Zechariah. Have you ever experienced a forced silence? Sometimes, we’re so busy chatting, we don’t notice God’s quiet presence. Or a quiet voice. Or a still small sound.
Maybe not talking helped Zechariah see God with him during the day. I wonder if it would be helpful for us to have some quiet moments during Advent? If we never turn off the Christmas music, we might drown out God’s voice.
God is with you right now, and if you quiet down, still yourself, you might notice God when and where you have not before.
WONDER: What things do you imagine Zechariah wanted to say? If you were silent, we might you notice God today?
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Advent Day 4
Are You Ready?
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When someone comes to your house, they don’t just come right in. They usually knock or ring the doorbell. Actually, most of the time, arrangements are often made prior to showing up on the doorstep. We announce we are coming by, visiting.
For some of us who would be really uncomfortable entertaining if our house were messy, we really like the forewarning and the time to straighten up and get ready. Put the laundry away. Stack the mail. Get all the stuff that collects back in the right place. Actually, having guests come by turns out to be quite helpful.
The time between hearing that folks are coming by and their arrival can be busy. If there’s no more notice than the knock at the door or the doorbell, how much time can you grab. A few minutes top — and that can be painfully, torturously short time.
It might be a silly analogy. But John the Baptist was kind of like a doorbell for Jesus. He let everyone know that Jesus was coming. John came first, giving everyone a chance to prepare their hearts for Jesus. He invited people to confess their sins and be baptized, so that they could be cleaned up when Jesus arrived.
Like John and the people he baptized, we can prepare for Jesus to come. We can confess and repent of our sins (we’ve been trying all of Advent!) We can ask God to make us clean. We can make our hearts ready to receive Jesus at Christmas!
WONDER: Are you always ready for guests or do you need time to get yourself or your space ready? What do you need, really need to do, before Christmas to get ready for the Christ child?
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Advent Day 3
How A Child Can Change Us!
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I have been watching too many “Mary and Joseph Go to Bethlehem” videos, getting ready for our online Christmas services. And I am intrigued how the emotions of parenthood, of unexpected, new parenthood are depicted.
Think for a moment about your experience of parenthood. I always say it’s been one of the best things I have done with my life. But it doesn’t take much to get me telling life in the parent trenches stories too — when it felt hard, even impossible. Sometimes, I’d think to myself, How did I get myself into this? And nowadays, I often shake my head and wonder how did I ever get through all that?
I have always thought that part of the wonder of parenting is seeing the person that your child becomes. Even sometimes, when you can figure out how they got that way? Or how they can be so different from you? At a certain point for me, it became even more startling to recognize the ways that they are like me…
When Mary agreed to become Jesus’s mom, she may not have realized all that she was signing up for. Do any of us? But she got more than all other parents, right? We don’t know when or what she was doing when the angel showed up, but I have always imagined she was probably doing the most ordinary things: walking back from a friend’s house, at the market for her mother, brushing her teeth! But once that angel showed up, nothing was normal anymore! That sounds like parenting to me.
But Mary was mom to a special child; she was Jesus’s mom—the mom of the Son of God. Her life was in for a ride. She was going to feel everything your parents feel, except maybe even more. Her son was unique, and she got to help raise him! She also had to watch him die, which is maybe the worst thing for a parent. But she also got to see him come back to life as the Savior of the whole world. I guess she deserves her pink candle and her own Sunday in Advent.
Thanks to Mary, nothing is “normal” for us anymore, either. We get to live in a world where God became a human being. God has chosen to come into the world to save the world. Through Jesus, God is making all things new!
WONDER: How do you feel about being your parents’ child? (I know, that’s a deep question!). What’s different about the world because of Mary’s child?
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Advent Day 2
Caring About God More than Ourselves
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Joseph is sort of the unsung hero in the story. He could have walked away. He could have said, “No way! I’m not going to marry her anymore.” I think if you read the story closely, he probably did. But he had an angel to help him reason through his first reaction. (How often could we fathers have used an angel to help us be more reasonable?)
But even before the first shock, he had reason to not want the cards dealt to him. Can’t you imagine him saying, “Even though I love Mary, and the child is precious, I want to have a normal life. I don’t want to be the
adoptive dad, and what’s this going to be like, adoptive dad of the Son of God. As if parenting any child isn’t hard enough?”
But he didn’t. Joseph said, “Yes, I’ll marry her. I’ll help raise the boy, who’s said to be the Son of God. I’ll let people think what they think. And I will do what I can do.”
Joseph cared less about what other people thought and more about what God thought. There’s a challenge to us all. He cared more about Mary and less about himself. Again, a challenge for us.
Could it be that Joseph ended up with his role in God’s story, raising Jesus, Joseph got to teach Jesus how to use a hammer and build a chair, how to read the Bible, and how to love neighbors and love himself. Joseph got to be Jesus’s dad.
WONDER: What things did Joseph teach Jesus? What was your take away from your dad? What can you learn from Joseph?
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Advent Day 1
Jesus Comes Again!
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We are there finally! Christmas is tomorrow.
We’ve traveled through so much of the Bible this Advent, and now we’re entering Bethlehem. (And we have yet the 12 days of Christmas…)
Who are we traveling with? Well, we’re traveling together. But we’re also traveling with Mary. Her pregnant belly is big and round, and she’s ready to have the baby! She doesn’t want to be pregnant anymore. She wants to hold Jesus in her arms. Joseph is there too, wanting to hold the baby. Not knowing what to expect. He’s never been a dad before. He doesn’t even know how to hold a baby.
As we wait for Jesus to come again, we’re like Mary. Or Joseph. We can get antsy, impatient for him to come back and make everything right. We’re traveling with them. We hope we’ve done enough to prepare for Jesus to come again. We hope we’re ready. Jesus, come soon! We’re excited for you to be here with us forever. We don’t want to wait any more.
WONDER: It’s not really our “brand” of Christianity, but do you have any ideas about what it will be like when Jesus comes again?
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Christmas Day 0
A Birth Announcement
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Eep! Have you heard the good news? She had the baby. Jesus is born! A new branch has finally sprouted from the stump of Jesse.
Mary is pondering it all. As she nurses little Jesus, she’s thinking about what it means that he is here. What could it mean that he will save the world?
The angels are proclaiming it. They come as a huge choir, singing about how amazing God is.
The shepherds are a part of it, too. God chooses to tell them first. The shepherds aren’t fancy or important, but they’re the first ones who get to meet Jesus.
And today, you get to be there with the shepherds. You get to hear the good news. You get to see this precious child.
You, having met baby Jesus, get to go tell other people about it. God has chosen you! God has also given you a part in this story.
WONDER: Why did God choose to tell the shepherds about Jesus before anyone else? What does God want you to tell others about Jesus?
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Christmas Day 1
The Gifts of Faith
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Christmas isn’t just a day! It’s the one Christian holiday that retains the Jewish tradition of a run of holy days. Christmas is from December 25 when we mark the birth until the arrival of the Wise Ones on January 6, the Epiphany, when we celebrate the child being shown to the world.
You might know the song the “Twelve Days of Christmas.” You might just think they are fanciful gifts for each day. But it is, according to tradition, a hidden catechism from the period in England — 1558 to 1829 — when it was forbidden for Catholics to practice their faith.
The Twelve Days of Christmas as a catechism set to music; it’s hidden meaning known only to members of the church. Each gift in the carol was a code word for a religious concept which the children could remember:
1. The partridge in the pear tree was Jesus Christ.
2. Two turtle doves were the Old and New Testaments.
3. Three French hens stood for faith, hope and love.
4. The four calling birds were the four gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.
5. The five golden rings recalled the Torah or the Books of Law, the first 5 books of the Bible.
6. The six geese a-laying stood for the six days of creation.
7. Seven swans a-swimming represented the sevenfold gifts of the Holy Spirit – Prophecy, Serving, Teaching, Exhortation, Contribution, Leadership and Mercy.
8. The eight maids a-milking were the eight Beatitudes.
9. Nine ladies dancing were the nine fruits of the Spirit – Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Goodness, Faithfulness, Gentleness and Self-Control.
10. The ten lords a-leaping were the Ten Commandments.
11. The eleven pipers piping stood for the eleven faithful disciples.
12. The twelve drummers drumming symbolized the twelve points of belief confessed in the Apostles’ Creed.
WONDER: Is there some aspect of faith that is particularly “yours to know”? If you were to make a list of the gifts Jesus brings us, what would you include?
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Christmas Day 2
Who Tells the Story
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Today is the day the church calendar remembers John, the Apostle and Evangelist. John was a fisherman in Galilee. John was working, mending nets, when Jesus called him to follow. He and his brother James dropped everything, left their father Zebedee with the nets and the fish, and they followed Jesus.
John is credited with being the author of the Gospel of John (though truthfully much of its highfalutin and philosophical prose doesn’t sound like it was written by a fishermen!) as well as three letters that bear his name in the New Testament. His life, in these sacred texts, is a witness to Christ that has endured for two millennia.
In our tradition, the women at the empty tomb were of course the first witnesses and the evangelists. And there were a whole, holy generation or more of everyday Christians who as evangelists preserved and shared the sayings and the deeds of Jesus in an oral tradition. And Paul’s letters predate the writing of the Gospels.
But we remember four men who were the first ones to provide us the written stories of Jesus’s life. And once they were written down, they became a primary source of others — our — coming to believe. So important, Luther, in the Reformation, would make the audacious claim: sola Scriotura.
WONDER: Who can you name as evangelists in your own life, who has told you or modeled for you the gospel stories for you? Who have you been an evangelist for? Have you ever read the Bible to anyone?
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Christmas Day 3
Save Us from What?
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How quickly in this holy story, the love and light of the birth, the feel-good glow of Christmas disappears! Grim realities come back into sight even after the most glorious family holiday. They may be quicker and more bracing after a pared down holiday like we have had.
In the tradition, Stephen, the first Christian martyr, stoned to death for his faith, is remembered on Dec. 26. And today, only three days after Christmas, the church remembers “the Holy Innocents,” Herod’s massacre of the children of Bethlehem, babies who became Herod’s victims in his murderous attempt to destroy baby Jesus.
Jesus was born into the real world where people do horrible things, where wrong often rules the day, where people get hurt or killed for no good reason. The sacred story is too honest to leave us long in our romanticized visions of a peaceful creche. Despite God’s advent, that stable was also cold, hard, smelly and dangerous, no place for people to live or a baby to be born. He is really a Savior from all that ills us.
Jesus has come, but the violence and inequities of the world remain. People are hungry. Children are abused. Nations war. Mean-spirited bullies are real. There are innocent victims in all kinds of tragedies even today. Why does the church remind us of this? Especially when we’re trying to live as ambassadors of peace and goodwill?
Because we are not supposed to be Christians in some make-believe world. Instead, we are to figure out how to do justice, love, and kindness, and walk humbly with God in a world where that can be hard, but makes a difference. From the very beginning, there were corrupt powers that wanted to destroy Jesus. Rather than change their ways, they would destroy the one who brought goodness and light. We find ourselves in that same world.
But we can remember the beginning of John’s Gospel, that image — no matter how dark the night, even the infinite absence of light cannot overwhelm the light of a single flame.
WONDER: Where are the places you struggle or fear? How can Jesus be your savior, or free / deliver / redeem you in such situations?
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Christmas Day 4
Salt of the Earth
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Somewhere in the week between Christmas and New Year’s, I usually find a lull. Sort of a low point. Where I can feel reality sinking in: we’re just back to day in – day out life. I know, there’s still New Year’s ahead (but what’s New Year’s celebration in a pandemic?) But that’s sort of the last hurrah, before the long slog of winter, the next few months looking pretty bleak. Now what?
Maybe it’s a good day to remember that life with Christ isn’t always lived on the mountaintop or in the shadow of the valley of death. There are a lot of days just trudging across an endless, open plain. Christ isn’t always in the special services and hoopla of the holy days. Christ is with us in the ordinariness of everyday life. Jesus can even save us from boredom when not enough seems to be happening.
God has made this clear from the beginning. People were expecting a mighty King to deliver them. God sent a baby. People were expecting a mighty battle as their victory. But Jesus’ finale was as much death as resurrection. The meal to remember him is simply bread and wine, common elements on every daily table in his world. Our cost to get into this godly family? Water. Sprinkled, poured, or dunked as we enter through the waters of baptism.
God, in this sense, takes it easy on us. We don’t have to be abuzz with special activity all the time to entertain Jesus in our lives. He comes to us. And he comes in very ordinary ways. He blesses this ordinary time. He watches over our going out and our coming in, our working and going to school, our cooking and playing, our sleeping. Jesus settles himself into our regular lives and blesses us in the quotidian. Ahhhh…
WONDER: What do you consider the most ordinary part of your daily routine. What might it mean that Jesus is there with you too, blessing that part of your life?
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Christmas Day 5
Can We Do Better?
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You probably remember Howard Thurman’s poem or benediction on Christmas:
When the song of the angels is stilled,
when the star in the sky is gone,
when the kings and princes are home,
when the shepherds are back with their flocks,
the work of Christmas begins:
to find the lost,
to heal the broken,
to feed the hungry,
to release the prisoner,
to rebuild the nations,
to bring peace among the people,
to make music in the heart.
I always laugh when we, reading the Bible stories all these years later, are so sure we wouldn’t make the same mistakes as the characters in the Bible do. We’d give up our room so a pregnant woman could have a place to stay. We’d be like the good Samaritan. We would welcome the stranger, care for the orphan and the widow. We wouldn’t fashion for ourselves idols or forget God.
We often go farther. We think, not only would I have given the family my room. I would have washed diapers. And brought food to the new mother. I would have trekked across the hillsides with the shepherds or travelled from a far country like the wise ones.
It’s so easy to think ourselves on the right side of the stories we recognize as sacred. But if we had been there at the time, would we really have done better than the people of Bethlehem?
Why don’t we do it now? Oh, we have a hundred excuses. No, reasons why. But we have Christ in our neighbor. The scared, hurting child. The angry older person. The hungry neighbor. The difficult man we pass sleeping on the street.
We ought to serve them. For what we do for our neighbors in need, we do to the Lord Christ himself.
WONDER: Where is the need in my vicinity that I have overlooked (intentionally or unintentionally)? The next time I am being of help, will I stretch myself to actually see how I am serving Christ?
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Christmas Day 6
What Is it Time For?
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For everything there is a season and a time for every matter under heaven.” Ecclesiastes 3:1
We call it New Year’s Eve, but did you know it is also in other places called Old Year. Because it is a celebration of the old and the new, the past and the future. It is a turning point, a time of letting go and taking on, a time of reflection and a time to receive.
Today’s devotion is a way to be purposeful in ending one year and beginning the next. Get a piece of paper and pen. Reflect on the past year and complete these sentences:
One of the many blessings of this past year was…
One of the disappointments of this past year was…
One of the ways I have changed over the year is…
Now think ahead to 2021 and complete these sentences:
One fear I have for this year is…
One hope I have for this year is…
Take a few minutes to pray:
“Lord, forgive me…
Lord, help me to let go of…
Lord, help me do more of…
Lord, bless me to be a blessing.
Amen.”
WONDER: Last New Year’s Day, we never could have expected how 2020 turned out. Time can be mysterious that way. If 2021 includes things you don’t dare even hope for, what might they be?
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Christmas Day 7
What's in a Name?
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Is there an interesting story to tell about your name? What it means from its origin? Or maybe you were named after a relative or a famous person? Maybe your parents were trying to be unique. Do you wonder how you got your name, or how it has determined who you have become?
Names are powerful in Scripture. What someone is called. Or when they get renamed Sarai becomes Sarah; Jacob becomes Israel. Simon is renamed Peter.
Today in the higher church traditions, there is a festival called “The Name Day of Jesus”. As was the Jewish custom, Joseph and Mary took Jesus to the Temple to have him circumcised on the 8th day. (We read the story of Simeon and Anna 2 days ago!) He was also given his name – Jesus, following the angel’s instructions when he appeared to Mary.
Jesus was a rather common name at the time. In Hebrew it would have been Yeshua or Joshua. It means “Yahweh Saves” or “God Saves”. Jesus’ name expresses both his identity and his mission.
But today’s Scripture also suggests his name is Emmanuel, which means “God with us.” And how many little kids think that “Christ” is Jesus’ last or family name. I guess — since it means “the anointed one of God — you could say it kind of is his family name… It is through Jesus that God comes to be with us as a people and through him, God will save us.
When we were baptized, we were baptized into Christ. We took on a new name – “Christian.” This name identifies us as those who believe in and follow Jesus. This name gives us a mission. We are to share the love of Christ wherever we go. We are to be examples of goodness and mercy. We are to love our neighbors and pray for our enemies. I’d like to propose a new year’s resolution for us all: “I’ve been given the name Christian. Let me live up to it.”
WONDER: If someone had only you to understand what being a Christian is about, what would that person say about our faith?
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Christmas Day 8
Giving Jesus the Reins
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Have you heard the fable about the mouse who crossed the bridge on the back of an elephant? The bridge creaked and groaned under their weight. When they got to the other side the mouse pointed out, “We really made that bridge shake!”
The Bible tells us that we can do all things through Christ who strengthens us. And yet we find it hard to trust in the ultimate power of Christ. Rather than letting go, we keep pulling the reins back into our own hands.
We want to think we’re the ones shaking up the world, not realizing that we are truly just riding on the coattails of Jesus. Maybe the power of Jesus scares us. Maybe we’re afraid that he’ll shake things up that we want to keep settled and the same. Maybe we can’t give up control. It is so much easier to keep thinking of Jesus as that baby in the manger, nice and sweet and small and powerless. But that is just the beginning of our image of Christ.
As the story goes and the faith in him grows, he was powerful enough to shake up the whole Roman Empire. He was powerful enough to change the course of history. He was powerful enough to change the faith of millions of people. He was powerful enough to heal and to forgive. He was even powerful enough to overcome death!
Does Jesus shake things up? Yes, he does! And maybe that’s exactly what is needed in this new year?
Jesus will not do anything to harm you. He works only for your good. But it could be in your good to be discomforted and unsettled… Still, start the new year in strength and hope. It’s going to go where it wills, but whatever the new year brings, know that Jesus has promised to be with you and together you can do all things!
WONDER: What do you think you need to let go of control over in order that Jesus can share his full power in your life?
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Christmas Day 9
Maybe You Need to be Fruitier?
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I learned in this series from Advent that the custom of an orange in the toe of the stocking was a St. Nicholas tradition. Or a clementine in the toe of a shoe! As a child I thought Santa or my mom was just being lazy and looking for filler. Little did I know, it represented St. Nicholas’ dowry gold to save two poor young women.
If you are old enough, you remember that after people had been to Florida, they used to bring back citrus to the folks they’d left behind in the snowy north. Or back in the day when people would have a carton of oranges or grapefruit shipped to you.
If you look back further in American history, you come to times and places when receiving an orange was a rare treat. (If I remember correctly, I know this from life on the prairie in the Laura Ingals Wilder books.) Now we get them all year in the supermarket from rolling harvests around the world. Maybe even from greenhouses? Back then, they were seasonal and didn’t travel far so well.
In his letter to the Galatians, St. Paul entreats Christians to bear the Fruit of the Spirit. It is his guideline for Christian living. (And, if you remember the catechism song we began with… “On the 9th day of Christmas… nine maids a milking!”)
Maybe today would be a good day to make a fruit salad (even though it’s always available) and reflect on the Fruits of the Spirit. You get apples from an apple tree and oranges from an orange tree. But Fruits of the Spirit are the produce of a Christian.
WONDER: What are the spirit fruits that you seem to have enough of? What are the ones that you need more of? How might you do that?
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Christmas Day 10
Keep It Going
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Are you hanging in there? Have you resisted the temptation to pack up all your Christmas decorations? Or have you ‘already put Christmas away’?
When my kids were little, I used to make them wait to put the Christmas tree up until Christmas Eve (mostly because by then I was done with most of my seasonal pastor duties) and we’d keep it up until Epiphany. I was stressing that this was the season of Christmas. One of my kids one year, probably as a teen year, suggested that he’d heard me tell church that every day is supposed to be a little Easter, so shouldn’t every day
be a little Christmas. I corrected him that what he had heard me say is that every Sunday is a little Easter. But incarnationally speaking, he was probably right that everyday should be a little Christmas.
Maybe the way things have been recently, with the year we just finished, we should just keep Christmas going all year long. 365 days of Christmas. How does that sound?
We could do it, you know. The peace. The goodwill. The joy. The love. The good news that Jesus is among us. We could share that throughout the whole year.
In fact, that is exactly what we are called to do. We don’t just come to the manger to see Christ. And then we are done. We See; We Believe. We Go; We Tell. We Keep Going; We Serve. We make a difference in the lives of others because Jesus has made a difference in our lives.
WONDER: How would you act differently if you tried to make this the year of Christmas? What does that suggest you have to share all through the year?
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Christmas Day 11
What Gift Can I Bring?
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It’s almost time to bring out the wise men and add them to your manger scene. They have had a long journey, coming from ‘the East’ in their caravan. I like the tradition that they come out when the creche is first set up, but you place them as far away in the house as possible, and then as the season progresses, they get closer and closer until tomorrow, they arrive.
They were probably astrologers from the area of modern-day Iran/Iraq. In the birth story of Jesus, they represent the universal nature of Jesus’ salvation. He came not just to one place or time. He came for all people. In Western Christianity, this is represented by the racial identities of the three wise ones: one of African descent, one of Asian descent, one of European descent. Ok, not the whole world, but a symbol of it!
The gifts they bring show that they understand exactly who Jesus is and what mission he is to accomplish:
Gold. It is the gift you give a king and Jesus is Christ the King.
Frankincense. It is a priestly gift. Incense is purifying and represents our prayers as the smoke ascends toward heaven. Jesus is our Great High Priest, intercessor for us with God.
Myrrh. This is an ointment used to prepare a body for burial. Even as a young child, this gift foretells his death. Jesus will die on the cross and his mission will be fulfilled in his willingness to die and in God’s unwillingness to let death have the last word. Jesus’ resurrection will bring new life to us all. These are costly gifts and fit for the mission of Jesus.
“The Other Wise Man” by Henry van Dyke tells the story of another wise man – Artemis. Artemis was to join the caravan with the others but he stopped to help a wounded traveler. His whole life becomes a journey in search of Jesus so he can give his gifts of precious jewels. But time after time, he must use his jewels to help others, and he doesn’t get to see Jesus. Even as he hears of the crucifixion, Artemis thinks he can use his remaining jewel to save Jesus’ life. But once again he is diverted. As he thinks of what a waste his life has been, Jesus appears to Artemis to remind him, “As you have done it to the least of these, you have
done it to me.” Artemis has served Jesus throughout his life by helping the lost, the least and the last.
“What can I give him?” is a theme in Christmas songs. Jesus’ answer is simple: care for others in my name.
WONDER: What is the gift that you would give Jesus? What is the gift you have given Jesus?
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Christmas Day 12
Bless Your Home
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We will use this day for a special Epiphany Blessing of our Homes. During the pandemic and its social distancing, our homes have been even more important to us. It is only right that we pause to ask blessing upon them.
We read yesterday that when the Magi saw the shining star stop overhead, they were filled with joy. “On entering the house, they saw the child with Mary, his mother.” Yes, by the time that the Wise Ones arrive, Mary and Joseph seem to have found better accommodations, a house fitting human habitation.
Do you remember when I suggested that we follow an eastern European tradition and chalk a visual blessing over the main door of our home? This year it would be 20 + CMB + 21. The numbers change with each new year. The three letters stand for either the ancient Latin blessing “Christe mansionem benedicat,” which means “Christ, bless this house,” or the legendary names of the magi (Caspar, Melchior, and Balthasar).
I think that was almost two years ago, but recently Margaret R. had workmen in her building ask what that was over her doorway. Likewise, I think it was Jackie too who noticed the chalk still visible.
Our final Thursday night alternative service this evening will be a house blessing. Join us at 7 pm from your home…
If you can’t, you and your home still deserve a blessing. You may pray this yourself:
May peace be to this house and to all who enter here. By wisdom a house is built and through understanding it is established; through knowledge its rooms are filled with rare and beautiful treasures. (Proverbs 24:3-4)
WONDER: A home is truly a precious gift; we ought not take it for granted. How does your home strengthen you? Are there ways that it can also strengthen others?
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