Month: December 2024

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Mary, the Called One — Joy of Advent

Links for today’s readings:

Read: Ezra 8 Listen: (5:40)
Read: Revelation 7 Listen: (2:56)

Scripture Focus: Luke 1:26-38

26 In the sixth month of Elizabeth’s pregnancy, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, 27 to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. 28 The angel went to her and said, “Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you.”

29 Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be. 30 But the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary; you have found favor with God. 31 You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to call him Jesus. 32 He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, 33 and he will reign over Jacob’s descendants forever; his kingdom will never end.”

34 “How will this be,” Mary asked the angel, “since I am a virgin?”

35 The angel answered, “The Holy Spirit will come on you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called[a] the Son of God. 36 Even Elizabeth your relative is going to have a child in her old age, and she who was said to be unable to conceive is in her sixth month. 37 For no word from God will ever fail.”

38 “I am the Lord’s servant,” Mary answered. “May your word to me be fulfilled.” Then the angel left her.

Revelation 7:12

“Amen!
Praise and glory
and wisdom and thanks and honor
and power and strength
be to our God for ever and ever.
Amen!”

Reflection: Mary, the Called One — Joy of Advent

By Jon Polk

With the angelic proclamation, “Greetings, you who are highly favored!”, we have our first introduction to Mary in Luke’s Gospel. Because of this lofty declaration, we often think of Mary as the model of obedience, the picture of a perfect follower of God.

Now to be sure, being selected to bear the Son of God is indeed a high honor, but the extraordinary thing about Mary was that she was so ordinary. Living in a small village, not in the religious center of Jerusalem, she was a young girl in a culture that valued age and men. She later refers to herself as poor and lowly.

God chooses Mary because she has nothing. When she asks of the angel, “How will this be?”, it is a practical question. She’s old enough to know how these things work and she knows that there’s a step missing in the process.

Mary discovers a lesson that all Christians must learn. When God calls us, we are not capable in ourselves of accomplishing the task. Only God can provide what we need. Through miraculous intervention, Mary goes from unwed virgin to the mother of the Christ child. God called and God made it happen.

By embracing her calling, Mary becomes a partner with God in literally bringing the Kingdom here on earth. Without God’s intervention, Mary could not become pregnant. Without Mary as a human mother, Jesus could not be born as one of us. This is God’s design, for us to work together with God to give life to the Kingdom here on earth.

God’s call transforms us from people who are incapable on our own to those for whom, with God’s help, nothing is impossible. We, like Mary, have been chosen by God, not because of anything we have or have done, but because God wants to have a relationship with us. Like Mary, we are indeed highly favored children of God.

Let us recognize the gifts God has given us and remember how truly favored we are. Listen closely for your calling from God and be quick to obey, even when you don’t fully understand the whys and the hows. During this season of Advent, may we use what God has given us to breathe life into the Kingdom here on earth, both now and all year long.

Divine Hours Prayer: The Refrain for the Morning Lessons

On this day the Lord has acted; we will rejoice and be flad in it. — Psalm 118.24

– From The Divine Hours: Prayers for Autumn and Wintertime by Phyllis Tickle.

Read more about Mary’s Story — Love of Advent

God can dramatically transform, and God can dramatically indwell. No matter our story, we belong within the love of Jesus.

Mary’s Story — Love of Advent

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Reconciliation and the Holidays — Peace of Advent

Links for today’s readings:

Read: Ezra 5 Listen: (3:02)
Read: Revelation 4 Listen: (2:09)

Links for this weekend’s readings:

Read: Ezra 6 Listen: (4:24), Read: Revelation 5 Listen: (2:39)
Read: Ezra 7 Listen: (4:39), Read: Revelation 6 Listen: (3:12)

Scripture Focus: Ephesians 2:17

17 He came and preached peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near.

Romans 5.1

1 Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ

Reflection: Reconciliation and the Holidays — Peace of Advent

By Erin Newton

This week, we have looked at peace within ourselves and among those around us. Divine peace enables a full sense of our identity and the ability to resolve or avoid conflict, to restore and uphold justice, and to calmly rest in his providence. The greatest peace bestowed upon us is God’s goodwill toward man. The peace of Advent is our reconciliation to him.

Peace between God and humanity is perhaps where we should have started. But in our busy and stressful lives, we want to see peace first in our anxious minds or among our tiresome friends and family. We’re tempted to think that if peace can just be established out there, we’d find some peace in here.

Have you ever heard of the vertical and horizontal relationship axes? The horizontal axis is our relationships with those around us. The vertical axis is our personal, solitary relationship with God. They work in tandem at times; our lives with friends and families overflow from our personal relationship with God. And our relationship with God tends to always be in tune with how things are going with those around us.

The peace of Advent covers both axes. We’ve explored the ways divine peace helps us where we are. But even if all outer peace is shattered, we always have peace with God.

Advent points to the intermediary we always needed. Christ is God-made-flesh and God-among-us. The Prince of Peace is not just a bow breaker or sword smelter—he is a bridge builder between Creator and creature.

Meditation on the peace of Advent should lead us to moments of rejoicing in our reconciliation, knowing it is as firm and true and evergreen as He has promised. Sinners in the hands of an angry God? Not anymore.

Advent is the start of the church’s liturgical year and, oddly, the end of our calendric year. I find this rather helpful as we sit in the season of Advent-waiting. In the moments we are afforded to think about hope, peace, joy, and love, we reminisce on how God has worked and expectantly wait on the further revelation in the year to come.

Stay with me in this peaceful moment and meditate on (1) your soul made whole, (2) the resolution of particular conflicts, (3) accountability upheld, (4) relief from a busy mind, and (5) the reality that He calls you “friend.” That is peace.

Divine Hours Prayer: The Refrain for the Morning Lessons

Let not those who hope in you be put to shame through me, Lord God of hosts; let not those who seek you be disgraced because of me, O God of Israel. — Psalm 69.7

– From The Divine Hours: Prayers for Autumn and Wintertime by Phyllis Tickle.

Read more about Peace from Strife — Peace of Advent

When you are constantly on edge from conflict, it is easy to expect the answer to your crisis will come in the form of a fight.

Peace from Strife — Peace of Advent

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The Stillness of Holidays — Peace of Advent

Links for today’s readings:

Read: Ezra 4 Listen: (4:27)
Read: Revelation 3 Listen: (3:53)

Scripture Focus: 1 Corinthians 14:33

33 For God is not a God of disorder but of peace…

Reflection: The Stillness of Holidays — Peace of Advent

By Erin Newton

The blanketing of snow on our rare winter days brings the most sought-after stillness and silence in the world. The commotion of daily busyness ceases. Men, women, and children are confined to their houses (hopefully) bundled together by the warmth of the fire. The animals too retreat into the warmth of their nests, holes, hives, or burrows. Stillness falls on the earth. Even the vibrancy of all the colors of creation is hushed with the covering of white. Plans stall. Calendars pause. It is, at least for me, the most peaceful day of the year—and extremely rare.

After we have tasted the peace of Christ that makes us whole, after we have seen conflict resolve and justice reign, the peace that falls on our lives and souls is the stillness from life’s unquietness. We have so many words to describe it: contentment, calmness, stillness, quietness, serenity. There is beauty in the lack of hustle just like there is beauty in a world covered in snow.

The Christmas hymns we sing portray the birth of our Savior in this quiet, peaceful atmosphere. “All is calm, all is bright.” “The world in solemn stillness lay, to hear the angels sing.” It is the presence of God among humanity that brings this divine calmness, at least as we imagine that fateful night.

With ceaseless wars and continual injustices, the calmness of peace does not describe our world today. Chaos continues and the waves come crashing down around us.

We’ve explored the ways in which we can wait expectantly for the peace of Christ during Advent. What about stillness? What about calm?

We should continue to look within our souls, to be reminded of the wholeness granted to us by his peace and ask Christ to create calmness in our hearts. (As someone diagnosed with chronic anxiety, I know this is harder than it sounds.)

The blankets of snow in winter have the effect of absorbing sounds. Snow fills potholes and evens the horizon. It envelopes the world and with it the loud, hectic movement that defines our typical weeks. That is like this divine peace we wait for expectantly.

The peace of Advent grants us the hope of bringing stillness to our lives, or at least within our souls. Peace comes through the surety of who Christ is and the inability of anything to dethrone him.

Divine Hours Prayer: The Cry of the Church

O Lamb of God, that takes away the sins of the world, have mercy upon me.
O Lamb of God, that takes away the sins of the world, have mercy upon me.
O Lamb of God, that takes away the sins of the world, grant me your peace.

– From The Divine Hours: Prayers for Autumn and Wintertime by Phyllis Tickle.

Read more about The Lowly and the Lofty — Peace of Advent

Will you put your shoulder to the work or abstain? Will you put your faith into action?

The Lowly and the Lofty — Peace of Advent

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Truth, Justice, and the Holidays — Peace of Advent

Links for today’s readings:

Read: Ezra 3 Listen: (3:01)

Read: Revelation 2 Listen: (4:59)

Scripture Focus: Isaiah 9.6-7

6 For to us a child is born,
to us a son is given,
and the government will be on his shoulders.
And he will be called
Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
7 Of the greatness of his government and peace
there will be no end.
He will reign on David’s throne
and over his kingdom,
establishing and upholding it
with justice and righteousness
from that time on and forever.
The zeal of the Lord Almighty
will accomplish this.

Reflection: Truth, Justice, and the Holidays — Peace of Advent

By Erin Newton

Peace does not come without change. If it did, it would be a false peace—a mere pacification. It’s not that we only long for the cessation of war, we want things to be made right. The peace promised through Christ is the peace of truth and justice.

Isaiah speaks of this child, Prince of Peace, who will reign forever, establishing and upholding justice and righteousness. If peace was merely stopping war, there would be no need to establish something new. Not only is the current situation of conflict and strife not good, but the system that allows and perpetuates such conflict is not good.

The prophet speaks to a community that is riddled with injustices—affliction of the weak, oppression of the poor, corruption of the greedy, and the immunity of the wicked. Peace could not come to them without the removal of their power and establishment of someone who would rule in righteousness.

How could a child be the bearer of such great change? The promised peace through justice and truth was coming, but it was beginning in infancy. Peace was going to take time.

Waiting for the peace of Advent looks very similar to how it did thousands of years ago. The part of peace that brings the removal of conflict and the establishment of justice seems to be happening slowly. And I think that’s hard to handle sometimes.

Swift justice is probably not good justice. Immediate peace is probably empty pacification.

But just as the child is promised to reign in truth and justice upon King David’s throne, his peace is promised to last forever. Peace is slow to come but eternal in its stay. That gives us some footholds of hope to cling to.

Looking at peace reveals many layers. We have seen the spiritual layer of peace as wholeness within our souls. We have seen the promise of peace that removes all conflict and strife. In many ways, we’ve been able to see these firsthand when we experience salvation and when fractured relationships are repaired.

But some peace is still yet to come. We wait for wrongs to be made right and for justice to be the law of the land. Advent is an exercise in waiting. Let us look for the peace that calls into account all that has been done wrong.

Divine Hours Prayer: The Refrain for the Morning Lessons

Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled. — Matthew 5.6

– From The Divine Hours: Prayers for Autumn and Wintertime by Phyllis Tickle.

Read more about A Time of Peace and Favor — Peace of Advent

Now the manger holds him
Now the child sleeps
The cross will one day hold him. There he will make peace.

A Time of Peace and Favor — Peace of Advent

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Conflict-Free Holidays — Peace of Advent

Links for today’s readings:

Read: Ezra 2 Listen: (5:25)
Read: Revelation 1 Listen: (3:43)

Scripture Focus: John 14.26-27

26 But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you. 27 Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.

Reflection: Conflict-Free Holidays – Peace of Advent

By Erin Newton

Jesus was born during the Pax Romana—the peace of Rome. It was a period between wars and a time of relative prosperity. Peace is nearly always thought of as the antithesis to conflict or war. And the Bible refers to peace as the future hope during the midst of pain and suffering.

When we think about God coming to dwell among us, the peace of Advent usually includes the vision of a conflict-free eternity. It is this Prince of Peace who brings the promise to eliminate combat and end all struggles.

We long for the days without strife and without war. It is an age-old plea. The psalmist cries out, “Too long have I lived among those who hate peace. I am for peace; but when I speak, they are for war” (Ps. 120.6-7).  

Not only does peace bring us wholeness, it is meant to bring us freedom from conflict. But that is far from reality. We enter this Advent season with wars raging across the oceans, conflicts brewing among friends and family, war and strife growing between neighbors—we are a far cry from peace it seems.

The baby lying in a manger would become a man who warned that peace would not always be reality. The cost of following Christ may mean division among friends, families, and neighbors. It is the sword that He warned was coming to disrupt so-called peace. Sometimes the conflict we face is because we have chosen to follow Christ, and the so-called peace of our world was simply a dishonest harmony.

So how do we wait this week meditating on the peace of Advent? I think we look to Christ’s birth as the inauguration of the future peace. It is the “already but not yet” peace we are promised. The gears are set in motion even when the grinding clamor of war reverberates worldwide. The first peace to be won was that within our souls. And it continues to win the war of souls.

And then we see the peace he has left with us. The peace he promised would be with us is a non-earthly peace, peace mediated through the Holy Spirit. Yes, national wars and domestic battles continue today. But peace is possible through the power of the Holy Spirit. It is by His power we can seek peace, and sometimes, win peace. Let us seek peace and wait expectantly.

Divine Hours Prayer: The Request for Presence

Look upon your covenant; the dark places of the earth are haunts of violence. — Psalm 74.19

– From The Divine Hours: Prayers for Autumn and Wintertime by Phyllis Tickle.

Read more about The Arm of Flesh versus the Prince of Peace

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The Arm of Flesh versus the Prince of Peace

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