G. Archer Frierson
Austin Seminary Board of Trustees
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Advent Devotional for December 13
• Matthew 23:27-39
“You scholars and Pharisees, you impostors! Damn you!”
This text before us today contains two repetitions of Jesus’ chilling refrain. A dear friend once told me, “Being a faithful Christian is always an inside job.” Never more so than while we wrestle with this Advent lesson.
Our preoccupations of the Advent season jump around waving desperately: “Look over here!” This text demands otherwise. Demands that we look instead at our own penchant to cling to what is dead, to glorify our own tribal monuments. In this textual mirror, we see, and we wonder. Perhaps, we whisper to ourselves, we’ve rooted ourselves in some glorious graveyards too long?
Jesus singles out burial of the dead in extended metaphor. First, the hypocrisy of whitewashing the outside of graves. The ubiquitous practice of whitewashing graves was to avoid ritual contamination. Ah, but, what if our innards are dead, putrid and rotten, Jesus demands? What have we whitewashed over, in our own lives and faith communities? Then, Jesus confronts spiritual materialism that builds monuments that easily function as idols. “You scholars and Pharisees, You Impostors! Damn you!” Do we dwell in, turning our gaze from, systems that shed innocent blood, and do we bear the guilt for it?
Advent studies that matter surprise me by arriving, just in the nick of time, even when I resist for all I’m worth. Come, Lord Jesus. Shake me awake from my torpor. In the words of the contemporary carol: Jesus, Oh What a Wonderful Child: “New life, new hope, new joy he brings. Won’t you listen to the angels sing? Glory, Glory, Glory To the newborn king.” Jesus is coming! To drag us out of our comfortable graveyards, into the Glory of renewed relationship. Hosanna! (Save Us!) from ourselves! Deliver us to your light and your way.
Reverend Dr. Rose Niles
Development Officer
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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