Monthly Archives: December 2011

Christmas Eve/Day: Being Caught Off Guard

Readings

Isaiah 9:2-7

Psalm 96

Titus 2:11-14

Luke 2:1-20

Devotion

Peace be with you!

It just does not feel like Christmas. Jerry and I have been so busy unpacking and organizing our new home that we have missed the holiday season. We have a Santa and a ginger man out to make our home feel a little Christmasly, because they were handy to put out. Jerry has his stocky up, because his mom just sent it in the mail. Other than that our home looks like it is just another day. We rush around everyday trying to get our home set up by attacking the mountain of boxes. And of course, there have been a few things that have not worked, like our bedroom fan and the roll-in showers. We have been working with the builder, my step-dad, and my brother to solve little issues around the house.

The only reason I know it is Christmas is the fact Hallmark has Christmas movies on every night, plus there is the usual hustle and bustle at stores as people rush around to find the perfect gifts. For the most part, I have missed the hustle and bustle of Christmas shopping. Jerry and I have to save money for things, like curtains, that we need around the house, so we only got gifts for our immediate family. And do not ask where our famous Christmas card and letter is, because I have yet to write it. Maybe next year…

As I reflect on the Luke text that we read every Christmas, I cannot help but wonder if our unprepared Christmas is really what God would want. Here is Joseph and Mary rushing to Bethlehem to registrar for the census that Emperor Augustus called for (Luke 2:1). We also know Mary travelled to see Elizabeth who expecting a child in her old age. After travelling so much, I wonder if Mary had time to prepare the nursery or if the baby shower gifts were just thrown in a room with the hope she will have time to organize upon her return. And what did her doctor think of all this traveling?

Then Joseph and Mary get to Bethlehem, and all of the hotels are filled up. The census is a great excuse for a giant family reunion. I bet Mary had a few choice words for Joseph: “I am due any day with God’s baby, and you drag me to Bethlehem so we can registrar for this stupid census. Oh and you forgot to reserve a room. … Huhmmm Joseph, you better find a place to stay quick because my water just broke. … No, I am delivering God’s son in a tavern. … A stable will be warm with all the animals. Why don’t you ask the farmer??? And hurry Joseph!!!! …”

Mary and Joseph were really prepared when they got to Bethlehem, and she was about to deliver God’s son, just as prepared as Jerry and I are this Christmas. Mary probably had no doctor in Bethlehem lined up.

But in the midst of this hectic time Mary delivers a baby boy name Jesus. And an angel appears to shepherds announcing the arrival of “a Savior, who is the Messiah, the Lord” (Luke 2:11). The shepherds decide to go to Bethlehem and see the child wrapped in bands of cloth and lying in a manger.

Suddenly, the busyness of the world melts away as the young couple treasures the first moments of their son’s life, a baby given to them by God. Then shepherds who are not honorable individuals in biblical times show up announcing their son is a Savior, who is the Messiah, the Lord. Everyone who heard the shepherds’ proclamation was amazed, except Mary who treasured these moments in her heart (Luke 2:19).

As you go about your hectic Christmas festivities, take a few moments to hear the shepherds’ proclamation announcing the arrival of “a Savior, who is the Messiah, the Lord”. Let it catch you off guard. Feel the amazement of the arrival of the Messiah.

Come, oh Lord, Come!

Dear Heavenly Father, Thank you for amazing us with the arrival of the Messiah. Help us to treasure the shepherds’ proclamation. Thank you for the blessing of gathering with friends and family this Christmas. Amen.

Works Cited

Thanks to the Triune God – God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.

Reflective Questions

Please answer the following reflective questions in the comments below.  Please agree to disagree and be respectful to each other. (If you have not already done so, please also take a moment, to sign the comment covenant.)  You can answer as many questions as you would like. 

1. How does the arrival of the Messiah catch you off guard? How are you unprepared for the arrival of the Messiah?

2. How does the arrival of the Messiah amaze you?

Fourth Sunday of Advent: Building us a Home

Readings

2 Samuel 7:1-11, 16

Luke 1:46b-55 or Psalm 89:1-4, 19-26

Romans 16:25-27

Luke 1:26-38

Devotion

Peace be with you!

When a person buys a new house and begins to make it their home by putting up pictures and unpacking their treasures, there is a sense of a new beginning and a sense of ownership. As a few of you know, Jerry and I have been moving into our new home this past week after living with my mom for two years. We are finally beginning to unpack our belongings, which have been in storage for two years. This has been like opening Christmas gifts all week! We are also enjoying being able to have our own space with our treasures. We can finally settle into our own lifestyle.

As Americans, we like having our own dwellings with the space to be ourselves. David is like us; he likes his rather large palace and his treasures. He decides to build God a house where he can settle and live. But God has other plans: God will establish a reign through David. His kingdom will go on forever. The Israelites will have a home in God.

Unlike David and us, God is too busy to settle down and be in one place. God is a million steps ahead of us. He plans our future and the future of the unborn for thousands of years. We cannot build God a home; he builds our home, our families, and our communities and networks…and he is doing it all over the world simultaneously. And it is not only for the Israelites, the Jews, or the Christians but for all people.

Now flash forward a few thousand years. God is still building a home for his people, but the Homebuilder now enters the world in an unlikely way: given birth to a virgin named Mary. God favors an unlikely individual (a woman) at an unlikely time (before marriage). All this time (way back with David) God had plans to continue David’s kingdom through the virgin Mary.

There is an idea: being favored by God. How can this be? For most parents with children with disabilities, being favored seems out of the question. The doctors told my parents I would never amount to anything. I have Cerebral Palsy, and the doctors said I would never sit up, stand, walk, or talk. As Jerry says, I love giving my desertions. I work out with a personal trainer twice a week. I sit up independently and walk with assistance, though I do prefer my electric wheelchair to get around in. Society does not embrace differences. Some parents become embarrass when their children want ask me questions or point at my wheelchair. Or some people get nervous when I take the bus or fly alone. Last time I flew with a friend and the people who brought my electric wheelchair up from below the plane were amazed I knew how to reengage it, so I could drive away. My friend simply said, “It is her electric wheelchair. She better know how it works, because I do not.” The parents with “normal” children are the favored ones, because they do not have to fight for their child’s rights everyday.

But these parents and children are favored if only by the claim to being God’s children. God never said life would be without struggles. Some days I am like Mary: “really God, how can this be!?!” That’s right: it took Mary a few moments to accept the fact that she was a virgin with child – God’s son, no less. Take a moment to be Mary – feel the shock, the unbelief, the acceptance, and the charge. Imagine what it would be like to be told that you are in charge of carrying and raising God’s child. What a heavy responsibility—and yet, what an amazing blessing.

In my experience as a person with a disability, I have found that I daily walk through the journey of shock, unbelief, acceptance…and the unexpected blessings of my unique call. I see God’s blessings where others see disappointments. My best friend, Nathan, all through elementary school and high school had a disability where he grew weaker as he got older. At times, it was depressing to watch Nathan become unable to move around on his own or talk without needing a communication device, which was difficult for him to use. Nathan was also my impression. His facial expressions could tell a story. Whenever I wanted to give up, Nathan would give me the “oh fudge, if you are going to give up” look. Nathan always had a smile on his face and would begin laughing at anything; he saw the beauty in life. Society may have seen Nathan as a vegetable, but I saw him as a person who found the blessings in life.  As I walk through this journey, I find myself hearing the challenge to be God’s voice in a society where the unknown is unwelcomed. I pray God the Father uses my gifts to build his house and to bring others in a relationship with him.

Come, oh Lord, come.

Dear Heavenly Father, Thank you for building us a home to gather. Help us to welcome others into your home and to use the gifts you gave us for your will. Thank you for gathering us as your people. Amen.

Works Cited

Triune God – God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.

Special thanks to Rebecca Miller for her amazing editing skills and ability to fill in the gaps, especially this week.

Reflective Questions

Please answer the following reflective questions in the comments below.  Please agree to disagree and be respectful to each other. (If you have not already done so, please also take a moment, to sign the comment.)  You can answer as many questions as you would like. 

1. Are there times in your life when you have felt spiritually “homeless”?  What brought you out of this time?

2. In what ways have you experienced Christ as a Homebuilder—and as a Home?

3. Is there someone in your life who is feeling “homeless” that you could introduce to the Homebuilder?  How could you do this?

Third Sunday of Advent: Celebrate in Midst of Sorrow

Readings

Isaiah 61:1-4, 8-11

Psalm 126 or Luke 1:46b-55

1 Thessalonians 5:16-24

John 1:6-8, 19-29

Devotion

Peace be with you!

The year my younger brother, Ryan, graduated from high school, four of his classmates died in a car accident during a bad snow storm on their way to the Wisconsin Dells from Mukwonago, Wisconsin. Although none of the four classmates were close friends with Ryan, their deaths marked a dark time for his class.  Four deaths at once do not happen often in a small town. When they do happen, the whole community experiences psychosocial issues, including emotional and attachment issues. The world becomes smaller. People take stock of what is important. And of course, loved ones experience the biggest loss as they find a hole left in their lives.

I cannot imagine the feelings a mother or father goes through when their child dies. Loss is big around the holiday season, in contrast to the jolly images we see on TV.  In my circle of clergy friends in recent weeks, I have heard the news of quite a few of their congregation members’ deaths, ranging from four to eighty years old. It often seems as though people die more around the holidays, although it probably is not true. People die every day; however, the news of deaths around the holidays always seems to hit home harder.

The passage from Isaiah this week is about the Israelites finally returning to the Promised Land after the Babylonian exile. The Israelites should be celebrating their return. However, the Israelites feel distance from the Lord, because he had abandoned them for breaking their covenant with him. The Israelites had lost their way with the Lord.

There are several things the Israelites are mourning for. First, the Israelites mourn for the relationship they once had with the Lord. The loss of an important relationship can certainly leave an individual feeling empty, but this was the most central relationship in Israel’s life. No wonder they felt lost! Second, the Israelites mourn for the way things used to be. The Babylonians destroyed the temples, the synagogues, the homes, the markets. Nothing about the Promised Land is as the Israelites remember.

“This is not right.” This is a terrible feeling that leaves people hopeless and lost in an unknown world. Imagine being one of the parents of the four kids who died in the car crash. Imagine going to set the table for a family dinner and setting an extra plate out of habit. Imagine the first holiday without your child. Imagine the empty feeling of having someone missing. It is a lonely feeling. Part of you knows you have to move on; another part of you worries that if you move on, you may forget. It feels like a double-edged sword.

This desolation is much of what the Israelites were feeling as they returned home.  They are back in the Promised Land, but it is not the Promised Land that they remember. They wonder how they can bring the glory back to the Promise Land. God tells Prophet Isaiah and the Israelites that they must celebrate their new life in the Promised Land. The future holds so much hope. Nothing can be rebuilt until people celebrate the new life which lies before them. Once they celebrate, the Israelites will be able to enjoy the beauty of the Promise Land. Then the Israelites will be able to rebuild the temples and synagogues. This will allow the Israelites to take pride in their work and to rebuild their relationship with the Lord.

It is interesting to hear God yearning to be in a relationship with the Israelites as they reenter the Promised Land. God desperately wants to share his love and grace with the Israelites, so much so that God makes a new covenant with Israelites. This new covenant introduces new concepts of grace and forgiveness, which allows the Israelites (and us) to goof up and still be in a relationship with the Lord. God loves his children so much that he will do whatever it takes to be in a relationship with the Israelites and with us. The Israelites are not the only ones who are healing from the broken relationships, but so is the Lord. When we sin, we wound God because he deeply cares for us.  But God’s love is unconditional and he reaches to us even when we least deserve it. By doing so, God demonstrates his faithful love for his children.

At Ryan’s high school graduation, all of his classmates wore a four-leaf clover on top of their caps with the names of the four who died. Before everyone walked up to receive their diplomas, the principal called up the families of the four classmates who died and presented each of them with the would-be graduate’s diploma. It was a moving presentation. I would like to think the graduation gave the classmates and families closure as it was a commencement of the future. Hopefully the classmates and the families were able to celebrate the future as they celebrated the lives that were with them physically for a short time and now are with them in their hearts forever.

Come, oh Lord, Come.

Dear Heavenly Father, Thank you for the celebrate celebration of life as we look towards the future with you, our families and friends, and individuals we have yet to meet. Remind us to celebrate, even in the midst of sorrow and grief, as we step forward into the future. We may not always understand why pain is in the world, but your comfort and love carries us through difficult times. Thank you for the new covenant you embraced with the Israelites. Amen.

Works Cited

Thanks to the Triune God – God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.

Reflective Questions

Please answer the following reflective questions in the comments below.  Please agree to disagree and be respectful to each other. (If you have not already done so, please also take a moment, to sign the comment covenant.)  You can answer as many questions as you would like. 

1. When have you felt distance from the Lord?

2. How do you celebrate in midst of pain and sorrow?

3. How has the Lord written a new covenant with you?

Second Sunday of Advent: Comforting the Afflicted

Readings

Isaiah 40:1-11

Psalm 85:1-2, 8-13

2 Peter 3:8-15a

Mark 1:1-8

Devotion

Peace be with you!

The main road outside my neighborhood is under construction and the two entrances are a bit difficult to turn onto.  The road with the straight shot to my house has an awkward approach – it seems like an on and off ramp to a highway.  I cannot tell you how many times my significant other has missed that first entrance and had to use the second entrance.

And just when we became used to the awkwardness, the construction guys have now changed the route and how we enter our neighborhood in so that they can work on the other side of the road.  It is great to see the progress, but many of us will thoroughly rejoice when this phrase of the roadwork is done.

We are not fully sure why work on our road was needed, but the rumor is that a Wal-Mart and a YMCA are going in on the corner, and the widened road will accommodate more traffic. A Wal-Mart and a YMCA will be welcome additions to our small town, but in the meantime we wearily watch the rebuilding of our main fairway.  Although it is exciting to see the preparations for the future take place, all of our neighbors are anxiously awaiting the completion of the roadwork.

In our reading this week, God is preparing Isaiah for his second commission to rebuild Israel’s relationship with God.  It is like a construction project to open a road that God can travel to reach his people. The Israelites have failed to keep their part of the covenant (their roadwork) with God.  Luckily for them, God understands it is impossible for the Israelites to be perfect in his eyes in order to keep their relationship whole.  God has a plan to rebuild his relationship with the Israelites, and his plan starts with Isaiah who will comfort God’s people. Can you imagine the conversation God and Isaiah have regarding this new commission?

Isaiah asks God, “Why bother? You know the Israelites will not be able to hold up their end of the bargain. They’ve always been terrible at roadwork.”

God chuckles and says, “Isaiah, you think I do not know that. I am recreating their covenant, so they can be in a relationship with me. See, I am going send another prophet called the Messiah to gather my people to come back to me through forgiveness. But your job is to prepare the Israelites by telling them the good news of grace and love that I will give them. In doing so, I will give them forgiveness of all of their sins. Now some of the Israelites have repented. These Israelites need to comfort the afflicted instead of afflicting the comfortable. The afflicted Israelites need to hear the comforting word of forgiveness. Therefore, you must tell the Israelites the good news of forgiveness that will rebuild their relationship with me.”

God has a plan (When doesn’t he?), and even if Isaiah does not understand God’s complete plan, he is being asked to set events in motion.  As God commissions him, Isaiah has the responsibility to share this strange good news with the Israelites. God will provide a way for his people to be in a relationship with him again. Even if the Israelites feel unworthy or abandoned, God knows that his people are broken and could not be blameless under any circumstance. By doing so, God is starting to rebuild his relationship with his people, including us.

Then we come to the Gospel of Mark.  “The beginning of the good news of Jesus, the Son of God” (Mark 1:1).  Well, we know it is not really the “beginning.” With a trained ear, we know the messenger in Mark 1:2 refers to Isaiah, which the readers of Mark would recall from the Book of Isaiah. The readers of the Gospel of Mark would also see John the Baptist as Elijah as the one who is thought to be coming back to redeem God’s people (Jacobson, et al.).

We also know the story never truly ends, and the beginning is still happening through the way we live out the good news.  We continue to prepare the way for the Lord (Mark 1:3) by living out the good news in a way that draws other people to the Triune God – God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.  The beginning happens with us as we spread the good news of God’s forgiveness for sinners.

Like the Israelites and Isaiah, we may still feel unworthy of God’s grace. We may also feel as though we have been abandoned – maybe by a significant other, a parent, a friend, a sibling, an aunt or an uncle – or even by God.  We still have these feelings, even when we believe in the good news. We try to fight the feelings of unworthiness or abandonment, but because we are human we cannot escape these feelings. They are a part of the human condition.

Part of the point of the season of Advent is about working through our feelings of unworthiness or abandonment and experiencing God’s forgiveness and grace.  How we let these feelings define our lives determines how we accept the good news and therefore God the Father.  Take time this week to experience the feelings of the unworthiness or abandonment in your lives and allow Jesus to love you even in that dark place. Then hear his message of forgiveness, given freely to you through his death and resurrection. This is one way we can prepare the road of our hearts for the big thing that is coming: Jesus!

Come, O Lord, come.

Dear Heavenly Father, Thank you for good news you share with Isaiah and the Israelites.  Help us to be honest about our feelings of unworthiness or abandonment this Advent season in order that we can welcome the good news into our lives. Thank you for rebuilding your relationship with us through Jesus. Amen.

Works Cited

Jacobson, Rolf, Karoline Lewis, David Lose, and Matt Skinner. “Brainwave 207: Lectionary Texts for Dec. 04, 2011.” Brainwave. St Paul, November 27, 2011.

Reflective Questions

Please answer the following reflective questions in the comments below.  Please agree to disagree and be respectful to each other. (If you have not already done so, please also take a moment, to sign the comment covenant.) You can answer as many questions as you would like. 

1. How has God commissioned you to share the good news?

2. How and when has God rebuilt his relationship with you?

3. How do you fight or accept your feelings of unworthiness or abandonment? Have you ever let Jesus love you in the midst of those feelings?