CLICK HERE for a complete schedule of this season's devotionals.
CLICK HERE to learn how you can support the mission of Austin Seminary
Advent Devotional for Sunday, December 19
Today lights the fourth candle. The Prince of Peace is on his way and our preparations are near complete. Gifts are purchased and wrapped. The Christmas menu is planned. Travel arrangements are final. Those we most love prepare to converge.
Now, Jesus, the one for whom we prepare, the cause of it all, reminds us that loving the lovable is hardly our only charge. Love your enemies, he commands. Bless and pray for those who curse you, he directs. Give with no expectation of return, he instructs. Judge not. Forgive. Do to others as you would have them do to you.
Amidst serene nativity images, we sometimes wish the bossy, grown-up Jesus would wait a few weeks. Let us enjoy Christmas, we plead. There is time enough for heavy admonitions. Yet there is good news in these hard commands, particularly in late Advent. Despite our yearnings for a Christmas of garland and gifts, truth is, we do not want an incarnation that changes nothing, challenges no one. A God indifferent to Afghanistan condemns us to indifference, also. God content with imperfection need not enter it.
God offers no false comfort in Bethlehem, no pretend peace. God sees the world as it plainly is and births into it our only hope for its transformation. God models an ethic that changes us inside out, which reverses worldly fortunes, which brings justice to those who weep and startles those who slumber.
Preparing for this Jesus, then, means lighting candles and waiting patiently. Moist turkey and Christmas carols have their places. Yet deeper still, preparing for this Jesus calls us to the loftiest hopes of personal and earthly transformation. Our reward will be great. We will be children of the Most High.
God of Gentle Comfort and Discomforting Challenge, thank you for trusting in my ability to treat others as I wish to be treated, even my enemies. Help me to do it, for Jesus’s sake. Amen.
Karl Travis
Trustee and Pastor, First Presbyterian Church, Fort Worth, Texas
For the glory of God and to proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ, Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary is a seminary in the Presbyterian-Reformed tradition whose mission is to educate and equip individuals for the ordained Christian ministry and other forms of Christian service and leadership; to employ its resources in the service of the church; to promote and engage in critical theological thought and research; and to be a winsome and exemplary community of God's people.
No comments:
Post a Comment