Ask, Search, Knock
Sunday, December 21
Matthew 7:7-11
God bless you this fourth Sunday in Advent! I pray this day and week will be a searched-for treasure to you.
I can remember only two Christmas presents I asked for and received as a child. (There may have been others, but we typically weren’t that kind of family.) One was a set of Rock ’Em Sock ’Em Robots, and I find they’re still a thing today! The other was a genuine microscope, a rare gift from my childhood that I still own. My parents weren’t ones to give everything a child might ask for, regardless of how the toy catalogue was carefully marked. They were lovingly and practically selective. Today’s familiar text is about gift-giving in a big, big way—perhaps more accurately about gift receiving. Yet God is not a fickle parent; rather, he is one who knows how to give good and right gifts in their right time.
Jesus, I ask for much—sometimes the wrong things. Help me to ask well and wisely. Amen.
Sat It Loud: “Come To Save Us!”
Monday, December 22
Psalm 80:1-7, 17-19
I don’t think there are many people who would say this hasn’t been a rough year. Wars are dragging on in Eastern Europe, Israel, Gaza, Africa, and elsewhere. Intense civil unrest both worldwide and domestically. Backward motion on creation care. Even a church rife with various idolatries. How we long for salvation. Have you ever noticed how many lyrics in Advent or Christmas songs ask God to save us, free us, deliver us, ransom us? They’re everywhere.
Observe how the three appeals in Psalm 80 increase in intensity, from “O God” (Elohim), to “O God of hosts” (Elohim of Armies), to “O LORD God of Hosts” (Yahweh Elohim of Armies). It seems to me the psalmist is raising his voice.
Pray Psalm 80 and pray it loudly! Amen.
What’s In A Name? (#1)
Tuesday, December 23
Isaiah 7:10-16
Immanuel. What a word! Don’t get hung up on the spelling. Immanuel reflects the pointed Hebrew text, while Emmanuel is the Greek or Latin form. Literally “immanu el,” the word means “(the) with us God,” a Bible word unique to the prophet Isaiah. Matthew quotes it again in 1:23.
Isaiah gives Ahaz, Judah’s king (and not one of the good ones), the opportunity to seek the very presence of God. But it’s an unpracticed thing for him to do, so Ahaz pompously feigns a false religiosity and refuses. Truthfully, he has no clue how to approach the living, “with us” God. And so Isaiah pronounces judgment that a new leader will come who knows how to do so. The prophecy no doubt had its meaning for Ahaz, but it also points to Jesus Christ. It becomes a sign for the ages.
Jesus is our Immanuel (Matthew 28:20b). The Holy Spirit is our Immanuel (John 14:16). God the Father is our Immanuel (Isaiah 41:10; Revelation 21:3).
Father, Son, Spirit, thank you for your living presence. Amen.
Let There Be Light!
Wednesday, December 24
Isaiah 9:2-7
It’s now three days past winter solstice, that moment when the northern hemisphere has tipped furthest from the sun and begins its return.How curious: the first day of winter is also the first day of winter’s end. Yet it’s no coincidence the early church chose this season as the most appropriate time to celebrate Christ’s birth. Acclaiming something as significant as the incarnation needs to make a statement. Solstice. Now there’s an appropriate time to hail the very Light of the world!
That light begets life is a commonly known biological fact, but the same is true spiritually. John the Evangelist puts it this way: “In him was life, and that life was the light for humanity. The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not overcome it” (John 1:4-5).
Next time you open a closet door, notice what happens: does darkness come creeping into the room in which you stand? No, the opposite. Light dispels darkness.
Sweet Jesus, how the world needs your light. How I need it! Shine through me. Amen.
Who Are You, Child?
Thursday, December 25
Luke 2:1-20
Expectant parents often wonder who their child will be, what their child might become someday. Because of the supernatural beginning of Mary’s pregnancy, can you imagine what might have been going on in Joseph and Mary’s minds as they welcomed this boy into the world? Who are you, Child?
I remember my first encounter with our firstborn, Kate. Gail, in mid-pregnancy, had long preceded me to bed that night. (She was sleeping for two!) I crawled in, scooted over, and put my hand gently over her growing belly. Though Gail had told me she had begun feeling internal fluttering, I had not felt it yet. All of a sudden, bump! What? Then again! “Oh, there you are, little one,” I recall whispering. “How nice to have this little visit, our first. But who are you?” I prayed, “God, can we do this?” How might Mary and Joseph have prayed that day? Imagine it. How might you answer our title’s question this high holy day?
Share with Jesus who he is to you. Amen.
Two Turtle Doves
Friday, December 26
Luke 1:46-55
We celebrate the second day of Christmas today. I don’t know if the “Twelve Days of Christmas” are part of your seasonal observance—Christmas Day through Epiphany, December 25 through January 5—but the celebration sure seems worth stretching out a bit! The traditional English Yule song mentions two turtledoves given as gifts on day two. By wonderful coincidence, turtledoves are a part of the birth narrative in Luke 2:24. As permitted by law for those who could not afford a lamb, Joseph and Mary, being poor, gave a pair of turtledoves as an offering to God for Mary’s purification. It was a humble gift indeed. Compare their small offering that day with the offering of lavish praise Mary offers the Lord in our text today. Line after line calls for justice, extols the glory of God, calls to remembrance God’s faithfulness to his people, and confesses trust in God’s future blessing.
Thank you today, my God, for your inexpressible, indescribable, unspeakable, precious beyond telling, too wonderful for words gift in Jesus (2 Corinthians 9:15). Amen.
What’s In A Name? (#2)
Saturday, December 27
Matthew 1:18-25
“Name him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins” (v. 21, NRSVUE). Yeshua is the name in Aramaic, which is what Jesus was called in his culture. It means “salvation” or “God saves.” Iesous is Greek for “salvation,” which is how Jesus’s name was designated in the Greek New Testament. But in other New Testament descriptions, Jesus is the name in whom we believe and thus become God’s children (John 1:12), the name by which any who calls upon him will be saved (Acts 2:21), the name by whose power we may be healed (Acts 4:10), the name in whom all believers dwell in unity (1 Corinthians 1:10), the name above all names (Ephesians 1:21; Philippians 2:9), the name at which every knee will bow (Philippians 2:10), and the name by which we may be forgiven (1 John 2:12). Jesus’s name has the power to transform lives and cultures, heal relationships, break chains of injustice and fear, and restore hope in hopeless situations.
Jesus, I bow before you. Transform me and use me. Amen.
