Advent Devotions

Today’s author is Prince of Peace’s Intentional Interim, Pr. Steve Sylvester.

We live behind a concrete factory. We were a bit uncertain about that when we moved in. Would it be noisy? Would truck traffic drive us crazy? In the end, our fears were unfounded. The owners were very neighborhood aware, and they created a wetland between their grounds and the houses behind them, complete with an earthen berm to greatly minimize noise creeping north (which has the added benefit of cutting sound from the highway to the south of the factory). Anyway, we live behind a concrete factory.

As I write this devotional, we are a day from Independence Day. Thinking about the 4th brings to mind the five-century-old phrase, ecclesia semper reformanda est (“the church must always be reformed”). Luther and the other reformers were serious about dealing with some of the abuses of the church, but they never believed their reforms could or should be set in concrete. There was not only room for God to continue to reform the church. There was actually a need for continued reformation.

The Reformers teach us something at this time in our nation’s history. Who we are as Americans is not set in concrete (and with all due respect to the originalists on the Supreme Court, we don’t know the precise mix of the concrete the founders were working with), so growth and reform will always be necessary. Something I truly appreciate about the Declaration of Independence (and that’s our north star on the 4th, not the Constitution) is that it is an aspirational document. It doesn’t celebrate who we are, rather it beckons us toward who we can be. 

I don’t know exactly what future will come from our fractured and confounding present. But I am hopeful. I am hopeful in an ultimate way because I know we are God’s. I am hopeful also because I believe there are enough of us who continue to be thrilled by the aspirational quality of our founding document and what it means for everyone born here.