G. Archer Frierson
Chair, Austin Seminary Board of Trustees
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Advent Devotional for December 23
• Luke 2:15-20
Y ears ago, Bonnie Miller-McLemore changed the way I think about Mary by pointing out that we usually associate Mary’s pondering with maternal sentimentality. You know how new mothers are, we think: coping with shifting hormones and lack of sleep; jumping up at the smallest whimper to check on baby; worried about everything. Perhaps there is more to Mary’s pondering than this, Miller-McLemore suggests. Maybe it signals Mary’s “attention,” “anguish,” and “awe” in the face of God’s extraordinary action.
Let’s think about this familiar story. The shepherds have been visited by the angels and so have determined to go to Bethlehem to see for themselves. They locate the holy family and immediately share with them all they have witnessed. And Mary treasures every word, “pondering them in her heart.”
Mary, I bet, identifies with the shepherds. Some suggest she might even have been a shepherdess, herself. Certainly, she knows how re-orienting it is to be visited by a divine emissary. The story the shepherds tell no doubt reminds her of the prophecy of Gabriel. And so she continues wondering how her baby will save her people and, how, bring peace to the earth.
We are all shepherds, and we are all Mary. We have witnessed the extraordinary and so know to keep a close eye on the ordinary, aware that God might use it any second in some miraculous way. We are left with a lot of questions, though, about how all this works. With Mary, we engage in honest reflection on what God’s grandiose promises have to do with our day-to-day existence. How will we attend, today, to what God is up to? What anguish will we feel when the glorious shouts of angels are replaced by the threatening words of King Herod? And how will we create pondering spaces in our lives to nurture the very awe and wonder that is not only the stuff of Christmas, but the substance of faith?
Dear Lord, create within us a renewed sense of awe and appreciation for the astonishing things you are doing. Amen.
The Reverend Dr. Cynthia L. Rigby
The W.C. Brown Professor of Theology
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.We hope that you are preparing the way for the Lord in your life as you read these meditations and prayers. And, we hope this Advent season is a meaningful one for you. Please know that Austin Seminary’s dedicated, diverse, and loving community of faith is not complete without you. Did you know?
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