Advent Devotion

Dear Faith Community:
 
Since I did not get a devotion sent out yeasterday and I liked it so much I am sending yesterday's and today's devotion to you this morning.  I want to thank everyone for their birthday greetings yeasterday.  We had a great encounter with God at church yesterday.  Please have a safe day today.
 
Blessings, Ken 
 
 
December 20, 2009

I'm What?

Excerpt from Luke 1:46b-55

Reflection by Ron Buford

When reading this full text, those of us who take the Bible seriously but not necessarily literally may wonder what Mary really said when the angel told her that she was about to become an unwed teenage mother. This could not possibly have been good news for Mary, a poor peasant girl among an illiterate people who never heard of a thing called "virgin birth."

"I'm what? Pregnant?"

"And you want me to tell people what?"

"You know that in the eyes of all my neighbors, he will always be regarded as a . . . you know what they will call my baby."

And yet the truth of this text is profoundly present in Mary, Joseph, and Jesus, whose birth will so change the world that the years on earth will be measured as being before and after Jesus' birth. And Mary's prophecy in this text is still coming true. People of the light still believe and work for it to this day.

And we remember Mary, with millions still saying, "Hail Mary, full of grace. The Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou among women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus."

And we will still work for justice as God's partners, until the poorest and most vulnerable on the earth realize God's mercy as present "for those who fear God from generation to generation." God's strength has and will continue to bring down powerful despots on thrones; God will continue lifting up the lowly and filling the hungry on the earth, filling them with good things.

No matter what actually happened, I know this text is true.

Prayer

Thanks be to God for Mary, Amen
 
 
December 21, 2009

24/7

Excerpt from Psalm 113

From the rising of the sun to its setting, praise be the Name of God!

Reflection by David Schoen

From the psalmist's perspective, the world was flat and the sun actually did rise and set.

I don't think, however, that the psalmist meant to limit the timing of God's praise for just the daylight hours, since other texts in the psalms remind us of God's presence during the night.

Today we know that the sun setting or rising is just a matter of our perspective.

Some days our praise of God is a matter of our perspective as well. There are days when it is difficult to see or sense God's presence in the world or our lives. There often are days when from our perspective God may seem distant or even absent.

We know that the sun never really sets, it shines twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, around the world: 24/7. This week we celebrate the birth of the one who, like the sun, reminds us that God is with us always: today, tonight, and tomorrow; in life, in death, in life beyond death. Emmanuel, God is with us 24/7.

Let our praise and thanks this week and always be 24/7.

Prayer of Praise

"Hail the Bearer of God's peace! Hail the Sun of righteousness, Light and life our Savior brings, risen with radiant healing wings, Hark! The herald angels sing, "Glory to the Christ-child bring!" (New Century Hymnal, "Hark the Herald Angels Sing," #144)