Preparing our Hearts and asking for the Grace
We prepare this week by stepping up the longing. We move through this week by naming deeper and more specific desires.
Each morning this week, if even for that brief moment at the side of our beds, we want to light a second inner candle. We want to let it represent “a bit more hope.” Perhaps we can pause, breathe deeply and say,
“Lord, I place my trust in you.”
Each day this week, as we encounter times that are rushed, even crazy, we can take that deep breath, and make that profound prayer. Each time we face some darkness, some experience of “parched land” or desert, some place where we feel “defeated” or “trapped,” we hear the words, “Our God will come to save us!”
The grace we desire for this week is to be able to hear the promise and to invite our God to come into those real places of our lives that dearly need God's coming. We want to be able to say:
“Lord, I place my trust in your promise. Please, Lord, rouse your power and come into this place in my life, this relationship, into this deep self-defeating pattern. Please come here and save me.”
Each night this week we can look back over the day and give thanks for the moments of deep breath that opened a space for more trust and confidence in God's fidelity to us. No matter how difficult the challenges we are facing - from the growing realization of our personal sinfulness, to any experience of emptiness or powerlessness, even in the face of death itself - we can give thanks for the two candles that faithfully push back the darkness. And, we can give thanks for the graces given us to believe that “Our God will come to save us” because we were given the courageous faith to desire and ask boldly.
Come, Lord Jesus. Come and visit your people.
We await your coming. Come, O Lord.
Malachi 3:1-4
“I will send my messenger, who will prepare the way before me. Then suddenly the Lord you are seeking will come to his temple; the messenger of the covenant, whom you desire, will come,” says the Lord Almighty.
2 But who can endure the day of his coming? Who can stand when he appears? For he will be like a refiner’s fire or a launderer’s soap. 3 He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver; he will purify the Levites and refine them like gold and silver. Then the Lord will have men who will bring offerings in righteousness,4 and the offerings of Judah and Jerusalem will be acceptable to the Lord, as in days gone by, as in former years.
Philippians 1:3-11
Thanksgiving and Prayer
3 I thank my God every time I remember you. 4 In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy 5 because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now, 6 being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.
7 It is right for me to feel this way about all of you, since I have you in my heart and, whether I am in chains or defending and confirming the gospel, all of you share in God’s grace with me. 8 God can testify how I long for all of you with the affection of Christ Jesus.
9 And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, 10 so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, 11 filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ—to the glory and praise of God.
Luke 3:1-6
John the Baptist Prepares the Way
3 In the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar—when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea, Herod tetrarch of Galilee, his brother Philip tetrarch of Iturea and Traconitis, and Lysanias tetrarch of Abilene— 2 during the high-priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John son of Zechariah in the wilderness. 3 He went into all the country around the Jordan, preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. 4 As it is written in the book of the words of Isaiah the prophet:
“A voice of one calling in the wilderness,
‘Prepare the way for the Lord,
make straight paths for him.
5 Every valley shall be filled in,
every mountain and hill made low.
The crooked roads shall become straight,
the rough ways smooth.
6 And all people will see God’s salvation.’”
This week in our workbook is focused on Finding New Hope in History.
The Old Testament reading in Malachi provides us with a historical focus and reminds us that ours is a historical religion. Our knowledge of God comes from our understanding of His work throughout all history. We respond to what He has done, not only what He says. It adds depth to the words of the prophets showing us that they spoke at a specific time to people who were facing specific challenges.
- The Old Testament is divided into two historical periods: First was the period of slavery in Egypt and the second was the exile in Babylon. In the first they were a tribe who happened to have a special knowledge of God; in the second they knew they were a chosen people who just happened to have a tribal / national identity.
- Malachi brings God’s word to them after the exile which was a time of rebuilding, but also of disappointed hope. He dealt with a people who had come home again and rebuilt the city walls and Temple, only to discover that the human beings who inhabited the renewed city were still all too human.
- During this time of discouragement, God sent Malachi to restore the vision and assure the people that God was still at work in their lives.
- It has been said that “where there is no vision, the people perish,” but where there is vision it can easily turn into discouragement when we are unprepared to deal with the reality of human self-centeredness and blindness.
- Malachi is speaking to people like us who would like to have the vision without the commitment. He asks them if they can expect God to fulfill the vision when they have not committed themselves to that vision. How can they expect God to serve them when they fail to honor God? It is this background that helps us understand why the prophet calls for a day of reckoning . . . that the coming day will be a day of judgment, without which there can be no renewal of the covenant. He’s speaking to a people who long for God to come – he tells them they may be surprised by the reality of it. God will not act simply to give the people what they want – He will act to bring about His purpose and that purpose may be very far from popular expectations.
- Isn’t this our problem as well? We like to think of ourselves as Christian people, but something is missing, just as it was during Malachi’s time. We find ourselves bitterly divided (with other Christians) during this time of “political correctness.” Are we in a better position than Malachi’s people to look forward to hope or do we also need to be purged and purified first? To what extent are you willing to hold up your life to God’s judgment? Could you “endure the day of his coming”?
The Epistle, the letter to those in Philippi, can be easily taken out of context because Paul’s advice is often not linked to particular historical circumstances; he tells us he is in prison – living with the consequences of his teaching. What he taught upset the people so much that they were able to have him locked up more than once.
- We learn that Philippi was one of the earliest Christian communities and where Paul first preached the Gospel.
- Philippi is made up of many Roman citizens and many slaves with no hope of citizenship. It is to these people that Paul writes saying, “our citizenship is in heaven”. Heaven is not a hope for some distant future, but a present reality.
- Paul talks about suffering and how it can be productive. He tells the readers (including us) that it is a privilege to suffer for Christ’s sake – that suffering is not a punishment or a failure, but an opportunity to use in the work God has given us.
- Paul prays that “you will be sincere and blameless on the day of Christ.” What matters most is who we are at the end.
- Would Paul tell us not to worry because our “citizenship is in heaven” or would he challenge us to bring that citizenship to bear on our earthly community in a way that makes a difference?
- Luke was a historian
- He lets us know he has done his research by dating this as the beginning of John the Baptist’s ministry and Jesus’ ministry – he identifies officials - Pilate and Herod, Anas and Caliaphas thereby providing historical dates.
- Christian hope is not wishful thinking – God has acted for our good in the past and will also act for our good in the future.
- “God’s word came” – God was the initiator – not John.
- John was waiting in the wilderness – when God’s word came he did not remain there waiting for people to come to him – he called them to the Jordan River to be baptized.
- God does not send a word to you as a private possession.
- Ancient Baptism
- Essenes – initiation into community, ceremonial washing and purifying.
- John learned about these baptisms from the Essenes not far away.
- John’s baptisms – demonstrate repentance, change of heart and desire for forgiveness.
- Current Baptism
- Some - like the one John administered
- Others – act of God by which forgiveness and new life are given even to infants
- Luke tells John was doing what Isaiah prophesized 500 years before – part of God’s age old purpose for the human race – John was a key player in the long history of witnesses who call us to repent and renew our relationship with the Creator God who works in history toward that purpose.
We are reminded that history matters – it is because we see that God acted in history and we can expect Him to act during our time and in our lives. How is God acting now? What new hope can we find for ourselves today?
- In your workbook - please read Joy Breaks Through (pages 43 - 53); answer questions on pages 54 - 55 and be prepared to discuss. Keep the Focus on Christ and Our Joy on page 56.
- For those following along on the blog who do not have a workbook - the Scriptures for the Third Sunday of Advent are: Zephaniah 3:14-20; Philippians 4:4-7 and Luke 3:7-18
- The following Scriptures were submitted from the group and placed in our Advent Calendar we made . . . please include these as part of your daily devotional and quiet time this week of Peace:
- Isaiah 9:6
- Romans 15:13
- Matthew 11:28-30
- Romans 14:17-18
- Isaiah 55:12
- John 16:33
- Luke 15:7