Journey to Bethlehem

My daughter, Katherine the Great, gave me the best gift this Christmas:  a recording of the 2009 Concordia College Choir Christmas Concert, titled "Journey to Bethlehem."  It opens with a lone chime calling the audience to gather in preparation for travel, if you will, to the lowly manger where the Savior will soon be born.  This summoning is followed by the deep, and somewhat urgent, beckoning of cellos and basses at the start of the first orchestral piece, an original composition by choirmaster Rene Clausen title "Fantasia O Come, O Come Emmanuel."  I love that the program begins with this carol as it is really a prayer, a calling out to God to please send the long-awaited Savior.  The middle of the concert describes Christ for us, reminding us that He is God and that He is coming in order to die for our sins.  We are also reminded of who was present to honor the babe born in Bethlehem:  angels, shepherds, Joseph, the three wise men.  The journey climaxes in praise to God, not only for His Son but for all creation and for every blessing we receive from the Lord Himself.  After a rousing rendition of this song:

the program concludes as it began, with a prayer, asking God to stay with us, which He does in the person of Jesus Christ.  Finally, just as it called us, a lone chime send us on our way.  Lovely.  Thank you so much for the wonderful gift, Miss Katy.  I love it!

Physical and Financial Needs

Scripture:  1 Corinthians 1:3-9

Are your physical and financial needs sufficiently addressed?  Notice I said needs, not wants.  My physical and financial needs are fine.  At the moment, I have enough money to pay my bills, heat my house, and feed my family (the latter even includes the more-than-occasional trip to a favorite local restaurant).  I certainly cannot complain.  I do not, however, have enough cash on hand to buy a Wii or spend several hundred dollars on Christmas gifts this year.  In fact, my family made the decision to cut back substantially on gift-giving for 2011;  only one gift per person for the adult and, maybe, two for the kids.  Yes, the bottom of the tree will look pretty sparse, but that is ok.  We have some other long-term goals that are prioritized ahead of an opulent, abundant Christmas.

When finances get tight or our own financial priorities dictate a more modest observance of Christmas than what the advertising world seems to tell us is necessary for peace, joy, and happiness, it is helpful to remember that God Himself is familiar with lack.  Why?  Because He Himself experienced poverty in the person of Jesus Christ.  He was born in a stable.  He didn't live in a fine castle with clothes of fine fabric bedecked with expensive jewels.  His earthly father was a carpenter;  His mother didn't work outside the home.  As an adult, He didn't have a permanent home.  He stayed with friends or sought shelter wherever He could while traveling with the disciples.  Yet, God the Father always provided for the needs of God the Son.  God will provide for our needs as well.  In fact, He already has.

The Scripture passage for today outlines what has been given to us as children of God:

- grace in Christ
- speech and knowledge of every kind
- spiritual gifts
- strength to live in Christ
- fellowship with Christ

...because of the grace of God that has been given you in Christ Jesus, for in every way you have been enriched in him, in speech adn knowledge of every kind --- just as the testimony of Christ has been strengthened among you --- so that you are not lacking in any spiritual gift as you wait for the revealingof our Lord Jesus Christ.  He will also strengthn you to the end, so that you may be blameless on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.  God is faithful;  by him you were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. --- 1 Corinthians 1:4-9 (NRSV)

How do we know that we have these gifts?  Because God is faithful, and because He has been faithful to give us these gifts, how much more will He see to it that our financial needs are met as well.  Notice I said needs, not wants.

May God transform both your finances and your attitudes about your finances this Christmas, bringing you peace as you wait for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

A Scottish folk tune about God's provision.

Sibling Relationships

Scripture:  John 1:29-42

So, how are your sibling relationships?  My relationship with my sister hasn't always been smooth sailing.  We were born almost two years apart, have never been extraordinarily close, and are as different as night and day.  She is impulsive;  I am a schedule junky.  She is a hands-on learner;  I like learning from books.  She went to vocational school after high school;  I attended college and spent some time in graduate school.  We certainly don't have the kind of relationship that Andrew and Peter seem to have as illustrated in the first chapter of John, working and worshiping together.

Thus far in my Advent devotionals, the common theme has been transformation:

- Day 1:  Christmas can be transformed.
- Day 2:  A transformed Christmas is about Christ.  God prepares our hearts for transformation.
- Day 3:  The key to a transformed Christmas is salvation through faith in Jesus Christ.

Today, the discussion turned away from the preparation for transformation toward the work of transformation.  The author chose to start with sibling relationships, using as an illustration Andrew and Peter, disciples who were biologically brothers in addition to being brothers in Christ.  In the Gospel of John, Andrew was, at first, a disciple of John the Baptist until John identified Jesus as the Lamb of God.  Then Andrew sought out and was called by Christ.  Excited that he had found the Messiah, Andrew ran to fetch his brother and brought him to meet the Lord.

From what little we are told in this passage (I.e., the brothers work together, meet the Lord together, etc.), we can surmise that Andrew and Peter had a loving relationship that was open enough that they shared much of their life experience with each other.  Using our own life experiences as a guide, we can speculate that such a relationship must have included a certain amount of peacefulness.  Unfortunately, this isn't always true amongst siblings.  Sometimes, the best we can hope for is a truce during the holidays;  sometimes even that is impossible.

So who can transform a broken sibling relationship?  Certainly, we can work at ti by being patient and polite but, ultimately, God needs to heal the breech.  He does that through His Son, Jesus Christ.  Just as He healed the broken relationship between God and us by dying on the cross, Jesus can heal our severed sibling relationships, too.  How?  When we, by faith, believe that Christ is the Messiah, that His sacrificial death was for us personally, and that through His death we receive forgiveness of all our sins, we are transformed.  As new creations in Christ, we can then extend that same forgiving love toward our siblings.

May the Lord work to transform your brother/sister relationships this year, restoring and improving them where need be.

To read today's devotional, click here.

God is Determined

Scripture:  Isaiah 64:5-9

So, how is determination related to this passage from Isaiah?  The verses are part of a subsection (chapters 63-64) that recalls the mercy of God, the confession of sin by His people, and their appeal for pardon and restoration.  Specifically, verses 5-9 read as follows in the New Living Translation:

You welcome those who gladly do good, who follow godly ways.
But you have been very angry with us, for we are not godly.
We are constant sinners;  how can people like us be saved?

We are all infected and impure with sin.
When we display our righteous deeds, they are nothing but filthy rags.
Like autumn leaves, we wither and fall, and our sins sweep us away like the wind.

Yet no one calls on your name or pleads with you for mercy.
Therefore, you have turned away from us and turned us over to our sins.

And yet, O Lord, you are our Father.
We are the clay, and you are the potter.
We all are formed by your hand.

Don't be so angry with us, Lord.
Please don't remember our sins forever.
Look at us, we pray, and see that we are all your people.

Obviously, these verses contain much evidence of our need for salvation:

- we are constant sinners
- we are all infected with sin
- no one calls on God

...and asks directly the obvious question:  how can we be saved?  The obvious answer:  by God.  Nothing in these verses speaks of how we can save ourselves, which is where the determination comes in.  No matter how determined we may be (as determined as, say, a Black Friday shopper in search of a good deal), we are powerless to save ourselves.  That can only be accomplished by the Christ child of Christmas, who becomes the sacrificial Lamb of Easter that suffers and dies for our transgressions.

Let God transform you through the sacrificial death and resurrection of His Son, Jesus Christ.  Put your faith in Him and you will be saved.

To read today's devotional, click here.

Let God Do the Work

Scripture:  Isaiah 64:1a

So, when was Christmas "easy?"  The author of my Advent devotional nails that answer on the head:  when we were kids and we didn't do any of the prep work.  Isn't that true?  Isn't it always easier when someone else does all the work and all we have to do is show up?  And how many times do we complain even about the effort it takes to do that?

Christmas can be a lot of work, depending on how much we choose to include in our celebration.  For example, I like to decorate the house, send out greeting cards, make delicious (and wonderfully decorated) cookies, tag a tree the day after Thanksgiving, erect that tree ten days before Christmas so it is still very fresh when decorated with my antique ornaments, yada, yada, yada.  Notice I said that is what I like to do.  What actually gets accomplished is another story.

For the past several years, I have only managed to finish the Christmas tree and that not very well.  Two years ago, I had to give up the fresh tree altogether due to allergies and the fact that my husband wasn't all that keen on wrestling with a tree anymore.  Now, I have a beautiful, pre-lit, artificial one from Balsam Hill.  I haven't sent greeting cards for years, either.  In fact, it has been so long since some of my friends and family have heard from me at Christmas that they probably think I died.  My beautifully appointed cookies have gone by the wayside, too.  A busy Christmas music performance schedule (and lack of freezer space) worked to eliminate them from the list of holiday activities.

Do I miss all those things?  Sure.  But they aren't the heart of Christmas preparations.  Why?  Because they don't prepare the heart for Christmas, whether for the commemoration of the first coming of our Savior, or for the anticipated second coming of our Lord, whenever that might be.  Only God can accomplish such preparation and He does so by calling us into a state of repentance.  Frederick Buechner and Luther describe it this way:

To repent is to come to your senses.  It is not so much something you do as something that happens.  True repentance spends less time looking at the past and saying, "I'm sorry," than to the future and saying, "Wow!" --- Frederick Buechner

God created the world out of nothing.  As long as I am not yet nothing, God cannot make something out of me. --- Martin Luther

The scripture passage for today is part of a prayer of repentance (or penitence).  The prayer actually begins in Isaiah, chapter 63 and continues into chapter 64.  The prophet Isaiah is asking God to look down from Heaven and make note of the wretched state of His people.  Isaiah reminds God that He is their Father and their Redeemer, and confesses that the people have turned away from Him.  He pleads with God to remember that they are His, ostensibly so He can again restore them.

Allow God to restore you this Christmas;  allow Him to do the work.  It may make for an easier holiday, one filled with wonder like then you were a kid.

To read today's devotional, click here.

Same Old, Same Old?

Scripture:  Psalm 80:1-7

So, what is "the same old Christmas?"  According to my Advent devotional from Lutheran Hour Ministries, it is holding expectations of the perfect Christmas, only to have them dashed by the reality of the Christmas that unfolds in your life.

Are you hoping for the perfect, fairy-tale Christmas this year?  You know, it's the kind with award-winning decorations inside and outside your house, family gatherings and parties filled with laughter, everyone excited about your presents and keeping your budget from sinking in the process.

Odds are the next 28 days aren't going to run smoothly.  There never seems to be enough money;  gatherings and parities often have more tension than laughter;  and those presents your kids wanted on December 7 aren't always the same ones they want on December 24!

So, does the "perfect" Christmas exist?  Is it even possible?  Can we avoid the problems that arise in trying to "pull off" the perfect holiday?  I don't think so, at least not this side of Heaven.  We live in a fallen world, which means every Christmas will be fallen in some way, especially if we focus on temporal, earthly things like imaginatively wrapped presents, a beautifully set dining table, or a gorgeously decorated home.  Arguably, those things will all make Christmas look great, but is that the heart of the holiday, or "holy day?"  No.  Jesus is the heart, the center, the life-blood, if you will.

The scripture passage for today is a prayer, a calling out to God for restoration.  Three times, the Psalmist asks God to act and to save:

Restore us, O God;  let your face shine, that we may be saved. (verse 3)
Restore us, O God of hosts;  let your face shine, that we may be saved. (verse 7)
Restore us, O Lord God of hosts;  let your face shine, that we may be saved. (verse 19)

Maybe that is the embodiment of the "perfect" Christmas:  restoration?  To be brought back, transformed?

Yet, even now, says the Lord, return to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning;  rend your hearts and not your clothing.  Return to the Lord, your God, for He is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love, and relents from punishing. --- Joel 2:12-13 (NRSV)

May God transform you and your Christmas this year.

To read today's devotional, click here.

First Sunday in Advent

This morning, while I was studying my service bulletin before church, I noticed the Collect (or prayer) for the day:

Stir up our hearts, O Lord, to prepare the way of Your only Son that, at His second coming, we may worship Him in glory for all eternity.  He lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.  Amen.

That is a bit different than the traditional wording from the Book of Common Prayer, 1549:

Stir up, we beseech thee, O Lord, the wills of thy people;  that they, plenteously bringing forth the fruit of good works, may of thee be plenteously rewarded;  through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.

Historically, the latter prayer was said on the last Sunday before Advent, so it should have been said last week, not this week.  That got me wondering if "Stir Up Sunday" (another name for the last Sunday before Advent) is a fixed feast on the Church calendar.  Apparently, it isn't.  Some churches include the aforementioned Collect in worship on the first Sunday in Advent;  others place it on the third Sunday of the season;  still others say it, or some other prayer that begins with the words "stir up," on the second Sunday in Advent.  Personally, I prefer the traditional schedule, that of reciting the prayer on the last Sunday before Advent.  It seems to make more sense there, asking God to motivate us, His people, to acts of love and service before the season actually begins.

That said, the former prayer reminds us of the true "reason for the season," if you will:  to prepare for the second coming of Christ.  Yes, we commemorate the first coming of Christ, His birth in Bethlehem, because without that birth Christ could not die for our sins at Easter;  but the actual purpose of Advent is to engage in a period of self-examination, an annual check-in, if you will, to see how each of us is doing in our walk with Christ.  Are we loving God with our whole heart and are we loving our neighbors as ourselves?

Advent is twenty-eight (28) days long this year, one of the longest possible time spans, because Christmas falls on Sunday.  Rather than viewing the season as a count down to one day, December 25th, try viewing it as a count up to Christmastide, the twelve days from December 25th to January 5th, a time of celebration after the quiet self-reflection of Advent.  Consider holding your holiday get-togethers during that later time so your schedule will be more open to engage in some self-examination.  It may seem unnatural to eschew the festive atmosphere of December, but the party is only delayed...and it may be all the sweeter for it.

Read more about Stir Up Sunday.