Daily Advent Devotional

Week One December 4, 2021 Too Big To Fail, Too Small To Matter? Malachi 4:1-6 See, the day is coming, burning like an oven, when all the arrogant and all evildoers will be stubble; the day that comes shall burn them up, says the Lord of hosts, so that it will leave them neither root nor branch. But for you who revere my name the sun of righteousness shall rise, with healing in its wings. You shall...

Week One December 3, 2021 Meeting People Where We/They Are Philippians 1:18b-26 Yes, and I will continue to rejoice, for I know that through your prayers and the help of the Spirit of Jesus Christ this will turn out for my deliverance. It is my eager expectation and hope that I will not be put to shame in any way, but that by my speaking with all boldness, Christ will be exalted now as always in m...

Week One December 2, 2021 Light is Coming Luke 1:68-79 By the tender mercy of our God, the dawn from on high will break upon us, to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace. Luke 1:78-79 To be at all cognizant of one’s location in history is to know the moments when blessings have flowed. Or, rather, faithful existence requires tha...

Week One December 1, 2021 This Too Shall Pass? Psalm 90 For a thousand years in your sight are like yesterday when it is past, or like a watch in the night. Psalm 90:4 Psalm 90 points out that time is experienced differently for God than it is for us. What we experience is just a blip in time, “a thousand years…are like yesterday.” We run the risk of allowing this time-perception difference to min...

Week One November 30, 2021 Our Responsibility 2 Samuel 7:18-29 …for you, O Lord God, have spoken, and with your blessing shall the house of your servant be blessed forever. 2 Samuel 7:29b In our reading from 2 Samuel, David is sitting before the Lord, confidently spinning out a theology of conquest, celebrating the way God has chosen Israel, and seen fit to use Israel’s military success to establi...

Week One November 29, 2021 A Patient God 2 Peter 3 But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day. The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance. 2 Peter 3: 8-9 (NIV) This has been a whirlwind...

Week One November 28, 2021 Hope Luke 21:25-36 Now when these things begin to take place, stand up and raise your heads, because your redemption is drawing near. Luke 21:28 I am, down to the very bottom of my soul, an optimist. I am the person who, when pushed off the roof of a 20-story building, shouts to the person standing at the 10th-story window, “So far, everything is going great!” Except thi...

ADVENT WEEK FOUR December 24, 2020 Peace: A Way of Life Luke 2:1-14 (15-20) “Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace among those whom he favors.” Luke 2:14 Peace is such a Christmas theme, isn’t it? I’ve heard sermons on how you can have peace in your heart when you’re doing Christmas shopping, when you’re cooking Christmas dinner, when you have a houseful of relatives you don’t lik...

ADVENT WEEK FOUR December 23, 2020 A Triumphant Love Mark 11:1-11 Then those who went ahead and those who followed were shouting, “Hosanna! Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord!” Mark 11:9 Love is a word that is used in our homes, workplace, and with our friends. And yet love is the one thing that we long to have in our lives. Most of the time it is utilized to identify with someon...

ADVENT WEEK FOUR December 22, 2020 America’s Wanting Love: Mercy as Covenant Luke 1:46b – 55 What we need today in the onward march of humanity is a public sentiment in favor of common justice and simple mercy … [T]wo things are wanting in American civilization—a keener and deeper, broader and tenderer sense of justice [and] a sense of humanity… — Frances E. W. Harper, 1875 Today’s devotional text...

ADVENT WEEK FOUR December 21, 2020 Pour Out Your Heart 1 Samuel 1:1-19 “Do not regard your servant as a worthless woman, for I have been speaking out of my great anxiety and vexation all this time.” 1 Samuel 1:16 The season of Advent lifts up this story of answered prayer from the beginning of First Samuel, because the birth of Samuel is seen in Christian tradition as a precursor to the birth of J...

ADVENT WEEK FOUR December 20, 2020 God of Love Luke 1:26-38 “I am the Lord’s servant,” Mary answered. “May your word to me be fulfilled.” Luke 1:38 “Gods don’t love humans.” If there was one common understanding among most of the peoples of the ancient Hellenistic world, it is this. To love was to be attached to someone beyond oneself, to be vulnerable to pain or rejection inflicted by that someon...

ADVENT WEEK THREE December 19, 2020 Unbridled Joy Judges 13:2-24 Then the Manoah entreated the Lord, and said, “O Lord, I pray, let the man of God whom you sent come to us again and teach us what we are to do concerning the boy who will be born.” God listened to Manoah, and the angel of God came again to the woman as she sat in the field; but her husband Manoah was not with her. So the woman ran q...

ADVENT WEEK THREE December 18, 2020 Dance with Joy 2 Samuel 6:12-19 David, dressed in a linen priestly vest, danced with all his strength before the Lord. This is how David and the entire house of Israel brought up the Lord’s chest with shouts and trumpet blasts. 2 Samuel 6:14-15 (Common English Bible) On a brisk, sunny morning last January, our assembly of jet-lagged seminary students passed unde...

ADVENT WEEK THREE December 17, 2020 Faithful to all Generations Psalm 89:1-4 I will sing of your steadfast love, Lord, forever; with my mouth I will proclaim your faithfulness to all generations. Psalm 89:1 Few things have stretched my understanding of God’s faithfulness to all generations than the past year. A wonderful Advent celebration followed by a Lenten season that found us wondering if the...

ADVENT WEEK THREE December 16, 2020 Accessibility of Joy Mark 9:9-13 As they were coming down the mountain, he ordered them to tell no one about what they had seen, until after the Son of Man had risen from the dead. Mark 9:9 If there were ever a moment to invoke joy from the Gospel, it would be during Advent. It is not that we as persons of faith are not to pursue joy at every turn. But, rather,...

ADVENT WEEK THREE December 15, 2020 One Big Family Tree Acts 3:17-4:4 These prophets, along with the covenant God made with your ancestors, are your family tree. Acts 3:25a (The Message) Decades ago, we enrolled our daughter Joy in our public school’s “magnet” multicultural Kindergarten program. This meant she would have to ride a bus to school each day. On the first day of school we all waited fo...

ADVENT WEEK THREE December 14, 2020 Joy in Trust and Security Psalm 125 Those who trust in the Lord are like Mount Zion, which cannot be moved, but abides forever. Psalm 125:1 Can you imagine a place so secure you have no fear or anxiety? A place that would keep you from harm both physical and mental? I imagine this place would look much like an impenetrable fortress and you wouldn’t have anything...

ADVENT WEEK THREE December 13, 2020 Joy to the COVID World Isaiah 6:1-4, 8-11 “Keep listening, but do not comprehend; keep looking, but do not understand.” Isaiah 6:9b Joy tends to be defined with deep spiritual meaning, and happiness tends to be defined with the temporal and fleeting. I wonder: is this distinction between joy and happiness splitting strands of hair, or is it the split ends of a s...

ADVENT WEEK TWO December 12, 2020 Peace, be Still Matthew 21:28-32 Truly I tell you, the tax collectors and the prostitutes are going into the kingdom of God ahead of you. For John came to you in the way of righteousness, and you did not believe him, but the tax collectors and the prostitutes believed him; and even after you saw it, you did not change your minds and believe him. Matthew 21:31b - 3...

ADVENT WEEK TWO December 11, 2020 Thanksgiving in a Time of Chaos Psalm 126 May those who sow in tears reap with shouts of joy. Psalm 126:5 This communal “Song of Thanksgiving” celebrates the saving works of God both in the lives of those who have gathered for worship and in the lives of their ancestors in the faith. This particular type of psalm is often thought to have been spoken on the other s...

ADVENT WEEK TWO December 10, 2020 I am Not Standing Still, I am Lying Wait* Habakkuk 2:1-5 For there is still a vision for the appointed time; … If it seems to tarry, wait for it; it will surely come, it will not delay. Habakkuk 2:3 In the first chapter of Habakkuk, the prophet laments and asks the question many of us have been asking this year, “How long, O Lord?” We ask, we lament, and we wait f...

ADVENT WEEK TWO December 9, 2020 Surprise! Luke 1: 5-17 ”Do not be afraid, Zechariah, …” Luke 1:13 Zechariah had been chosen to preside over the altar that day. He paused before entering the sanctuary. He had waited his whole life for this moment, and he wanted to remember it. Taking a deep breath, he stepped inside at last, leaving behind the crowds of people and the sounds of their murmured pray...

ADVENT WEEK TWO December 8, 2020 Wait to Wait Psalm 27 When evildoers assail me to devour my flesh— my adversaries and foes— they shall stumble and fall. … I believe that I shall see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. Wait for the Lord; be strong, and let your heart take courage; wait for the Lord! Psalm 27:2, 13-14 I remember how the chapel smelled: of must and fabric softener, t...

A DVENT WEEK TWO December 7, 2020 Seek Peace Psalm 27 You face, Lord, do I seek. Do not hide your face from me. Psalm 27:8b-9 In whose face or faces do you see God? Seeking God’s face is a plea for God’s favor which leads to shalom, a sense of peace, security, and wholeness. And shalom is not an individual experience; it’s a state of being for all God’s creation. Nevertheless, individual peace and...