Advent Devotions

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

Despairing or hopeful?  With everything going on around us, which of those two describes you these days?  There are times when it’s all I can do just to lift my eyes from the abyss in order to back away from the edge, and it’s probably overstating things to say I am even less despairing.  But this week, reading about Paul and Ananias in Acts chapter 9, I find that I am hopeful.

Paul is the ICE agent driving his SUV from Jerusalem to Damascus, windows tinted to the max, preparing to unleash holy hell on fearful residents.  Ananias is the immigrant sheltering in place and wondering why the powers that be can’t just let those in the hinterlands get on with their lives.  Set up like this, it’s difficult not to be despairing about the outcome, much less hopeful.  What changes the inevitable storyline, however, is that the creator continues to create.

“Saul!”  “Ananias!”  The Lord calls to each of them.  Saul is confronted with the hard truth that the ripples of his hatred extend even into heaven.  Ananias is encouraged to believe that the Lord sees possibilities he himself cannot even imagine.  And then the two of them are brought together to actively participate in God’s continuing creation, because God is not going to work a fix from the outside.  Possibility then becomes promise when Ananias places his hands on Saul and calls him brother.

This is a wonderful time on the 45^th parallel, and the lengthening of days and greening of the earth may have something to do with the blooming of my mood.  What truly accounts for my hope, though, is the promise that our God who continues to create enlists us to bring into being things that seem impossible.  Division and destruction are not our destiny.  Despair will not be our lot if we respond to God’s call to us by embracing one another as siblings.  Of that I am hopeful.