G. Archer Frierson
Chair, Austin Seminary Board of Trustees
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Advent Devotional for December 5
• Isaiah 40:1-11
Israel, God’s people, had been in exile in Babylon for longer than any living Jew could remember. For a people devoted to Zion as a spiritual home, like Muslims are devoted to Mecca, living as deportees felt like an almost total loss. The comfort sought was a journey home. And that is the comfort that God promises in our text: a highway in the wilderness built by God that leads to the place of God’s choosing, Jerusalem. The promise is that God will make it so with divine power and with the gentleness of a shepherd.
When the promise was fulfilled, it didn’t much look like a spiritual event. King Cyrus of Persia allowed the Jews to return. Those who trekked back to Israel saw a desert highway with the rough places smoothed into a plain only through the eyes of faith, just as through faith they recognized Cyrus as the LORD’s anointed (Isa. 45:1).
We all need comfort, too. In this Advent season, we prepare to see God at work in the child born of Mary who becomes a teacher and healer. Jesus, the LORD’s anointed, does not bring the comfort of a life detached from the issues of our time like climate change, the movement of refugees, and the politics of fear. He does not bring secure insulation from cancer or unemployment or new people moving into the neighborhood. Instead, Jesus brings the comfort of knowing that we are accepted by God just because God has made it so. Once it sinks in that we are accepted, through the eyes of faith the world starts to look like a place worth taking seriously, so that we will all feel at home.
Heeding the voice of the prophet, help us O Lord, to prepare a way for you in our lives. Amen.
The Reverend Dr. Timothy Lincoln
Associate Dean for Institutional Effectiveness
Research Professor in Theological Education
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?
• Students in our masters-degree programs receive up to 85% need-based tuition aid.
• Historically, more than 80% of our graduates are called to congregational ministry.
• Our students come from more than a dozen denominations.
• Our alumni serve in ministry in forty-eight U.S. states as well as in twenty different countries across the world.
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