"A gift from our community of faith to you. Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary is devoted to preparing outstanding leaders for Christ’s church. One of the ways we nurture leaders is by building a loving community of faith and extending God’s grace to others. In this season of anticipation, we extend God’s grace to you and invite you to explore this book of Advent devotions. Through this collection, please join us as we prepare to receive God’s greatest gift—the birth of Jesus Christ."
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Advent Devotional for December 13
• 2 Peter 3:8-15a
In Advent, we live in expectant waiting, seeking God’s intended justice and hoping beyond our own time frame. The passage emphasizes that one day with God is like a thousand years, and a thousand years like a day (vs. 8). Driving through the national parks of the West this summer, our family noted the dramatic upheavals of rock that created mountain ranges that rose suddenly from the plains. The fact that these upheavals occurred hundreds of millions of years ago means that we have arrived fairly recently on the scene. Believing that God played a role shaping the dynamics of the universe helps us sustain a hopeful wonder at how God’s time frame is different from our own. Nonetheless, our evolutionary arrival on the scene matters, since God chooses to cooperate with us to bring about God’s purposes.
God is in control of time, even using natural events that take a long time to show God’s care. Despite adversity, trials, and natural disasters, God’s mercy works in ways to help sustain faithful communities.
The central theme of this passage is patience, and thus it is perfect for a season in which we ask God to bring our world more into line with God’s hopes for the world. Patience, a seldom-lauded theological virtue, is a combination of wisdom and fortitude, and fostering patience is easier when we tune in to God’s long-range time. Pastoral care requires patience, since people’s complex problems do not respond to simplistic formulas.
Martin Luther King Jr. quoted the abolitionist Theodore Parker: “The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice.” This means that we must be active rather than passive even as we work with patience.
Peter’s community was influenced by Jewish thought and echoes the ancient Israelite notion of a community set apart by God. As a community with separatist tendencies, they sought to understand what it means to be faithful to God in trying times. Peter’s community invites us to act with engaged patience, not waiting for the world’s perfection but rather trusting in the promises of God. Again, the emphasis in this passage is in God’s merciful action, in which salvation will be extended to many, if not all. Because of God’s patience, Peter’s community is invited to bring together wisdom and fortitude to act with advent hope in the midst of a world that seems far from God’s purposes.
God, we ask for the wisdom and fortitude to be patient, trusting in your mercy while cooperating in your will. Amen.
Phil Browning Helsel
Assistant Professor of Pastoral Care
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.
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