Advent Devotions
All are invited as we Make Room this Advent season.
Come & See
Today’s author is Prince of Peace Intentional Interim, Pr. Steve Sylvester.
Yesterday we kicked off a new theme for worship: “Invited to Come and See.” At the root of this invitation is curiosity. In the first chapter of John’s Gospel, John the Baptizer saw Jesus in the crowd of people around him and said, “Look, here is the Lamb of God!” Two of the people who would end up being among Jesus’ disciples began to follow Jesus. Seeing them walking behind him, Jesus turned to them, spread his arms wide and said, “What are you looking for?”
In 1976, Campus Crusade for Christ launched the “I Found It” evangelism campaign. I was 17 at the time. I remember being annoyed by the bumper stickers the campaign spawned. It wasn’t until perhaps a decade later that I realized the source of my annoyance: a sense of smug certainty. And it was a long time after that I came to understand that an “I have what you need” attitude is a questionable place from which to begin a relationship, and relationship is what Jesus really calls us to.
At the root of any good relationship is a sense of curiosity. Marriages grow stale when we believe we know everything there is to know about our partner. We will see nothing new in a walk through an “I’ve already seen all this” section of woods. Likewise, Jesus will be a wooden moralist or a cosmic good luck charm if we approach stories about him with certainty instead of curiosity.
During these next several weeks, I encourage you to set aside what you think you know about Jesus. Perhaps start by reminding yourself that the stories we will hear from John’s Gospel are about a brown skinned man who lived 2,000 years ago. He was immersed in a culture very unlike our own. He was a devotee of a religion we don’t really understand. He spoke a language that has largely died out. Before you hear each Gospel reading on Sunday morning, ask yourself this question: “Who IS this man?” If we do that, I think we will be in a good place to hear Jesus’ invitation to “Come and see.”
Previously…
How Hard Can It Be
The Peace Prayer attributed to St. Francis is an anchor of my faith, but the opening line has really haunted me this season.
“Lord, make me an instrument of your peace.”
Prophet and Preparer
Our journey through Advent is already at a close. It feels like the time has passed so quickly, especially with no snow on the ground (at least as of the moment I write this). We have heard portions of today’s story from Luke 1 about the priest Zechariah and his wife Elizabeth.
A Divine Paradox
In the quiet mystery of a Bethlehem stable, God’s promises have unfolded in the fragile cry of a newborn. This Christmas Day, we stand at the threshold of an ancient tale, where divinity is wrapped in swaddling clothes and laid in a manger. It is a story of unlikely beginnings, a divine paradox, and the fulfillment of God’s covenant with humanity.
Dawn Will Break
In the quiet hush, when the sky is at its darkest, there is a divine whisper, a murmur from the heart of eternity. Zechariah, the old priest and new father, invites us into a sacred moment, a promise yet to unfold. “The dawn from on high will break upon us,” he declares with a poetic resonance that resonates through the corridors of time.