Prayer

Unexpected God,

your advent alarms us.

wake us from drowsy worship,

from the sleep that neglects love,

and the sedative of misdirected frenzy.

awaken us now to your coming

and bend our angers into your peace.  Amen

 

Scripture

Isaiah 4:2-6

In that day the branch of the Lord shall be beautiful and glorious, and the fruit of the land shall be the pride and honor of the survivors of Israel. ³ And he who is left in Zion and remains in Jerusalem will be called holy, everyone who has been recorded for life in Jerusalem,⁴ when the Lord shall have washed away the filth of the daughters of Zion and cleansed the bloodstains of Jerusalem from its midst by a spirit of judgment and by a spirit of burning.^[a] 5 Then the Lord will create over the whole site of Mount Zion and over her assemblies a cloud by day, and smoke and the shining of a flaming fire by night; for over all the glory there will be a canopy. ⁶ There will be a booth for shade by day from the heat, and for a refuge and a shelter from the storm and rain.

 

Meditation

We are learning to be beach people.  This will be our second summer in Fremantle and we are beginning to understand that there are necessities for a trip to the beach, at least a trip that is more that looking at the sunset.  We have never been beach people, hard to be a beach person when you live in Indiana.  Sure the Michigan coast line is a few hours away but that does not make you a beach person.

One thing we have noticed is that the sun is hot when it is shining down on the beach.  You can really feel the heat.  So after a few trips to the beach last summer we began to notice beach tents that people would set up to shade themselves from the sun.  We knew that if we were going to be beach people we would need a sun shade tent.  Our first trip to the beach this year revealed that we are really not beach people yet.  I just set up the tent.  There it was done now to enjoy the beach, but the sun located in the sky at the perfect angle to shine right in my tent rendering the tent useless.  I must admit that this is user error.  I need to pay attention to where the sun is located and track where it is heads to make the appropriate set up and adjustments that are needed for the tent to be all it can be for us.  I have high aspirations for that tent.

The Lord provides a tent for the heat of the day and a refuge from the storm.  In the in between, the now and not yet, our lives can seem to be a continuous trip on a hot beach with the sun beating down on our backs and no tent in sight. Sometimes we have the tent but it doesn’t seem to be facing the right way to cover us.  We call out for cover.  God hears us and provides.  His Son Jesus is our tent.  He covers us from the heat and storm.  He covers us with His righteousness.  He covers us with His hope.  He covers us with His love.  He does this in the Spirit, through His word and His body the church.  We, in Christ, are the tent for each other.  He has fashioned us into the cover in the hard and hot times.  We cover each other because we have been covered by Christ.

Prayer

Unexpected God,

your advent alarms us.

wake us from drowsy worship,

from the sleep that neglects love,

and the sedative of misdirected frenzy.

awaken us now to your coming

and bend our angers into your peace.  Amen

 

Scripture

Isaiah 54:1-10

“Sing, O barren one, who did not bear;
break forth into singing and cry aloud,
you who have not been in labor!
For the children of the desolate one will be more
than the children of her who is married,” says the Lord.
² “Enlarge the place of your tent,
and let the curtains of your habitations be stretched out;
do not hold back; lengthen your cords
and strengthen your stakes.
³ For you will spread abroad to the right and to the left,
and your offspring will possess the nations
and will people the desolate cities.

⁴ “Fear not, for you will not be ashamed;
be not confounded, for you will not be disgraced;
for you will forget the shame of your youth,
and the reproach of your widowhood you will remember no more.
⁵ For your Maker is your husband,
the Lord of hosts is his name;
and the Holy One of Israel is your Redeemer,
the God of the whole earth he is called.
⁶ For the Lord has called you
like a wife deserted and grieved in spirit,
like a wife of youth when she is cast off,
says your God.
⁷ For a brief moment I deserted you,
but with great compassion I will gather you.
⁸ In overflowing anger for a moment
I hid my face from you,
but with everlasting love I will have compassion on you,”
says the Lord, your Redeemer.

⁹ “This is like the days of Noah^[a] to me:
as I swore that the waters of Noah
should no more go over the earth,
so I have sworn that I will not be angry with you,
and will not rebuke you.
¹⁰ For the mountains may depart
and the hills be removed,
but my steadfast love shall not depart from you,
and my covenant of peace shall not be removed,”
says the Lord, who has compassion on you.

 

Meditation

When we are in the in between, the now and not yet, we encounter a sense of diminished returns.  We since that all the work that we might put in to things that we care about will not provide the type of return that we feel we should get.  At the same time we might feel that our past performance has predicted our future outcome.  That those things and actions that turned my eyes away from God predicates an inability for me to live a whole life in Christ.  That God cannot step in and provide a way for the person I am to be fully blessed.  Hear Him say, “Compassion.” Allow that to push you toward compassion with those around you who are struggling in the in between, the now and not yet.  They miss step just like you.  They fracture relationship just like you. Compassion!  That is the cry in the in between.

Prayer

Unexpected God,

your advent alarms us.

wake us from drowsy worship,

from the sleep that neglects love,

and the sedative of misdirected frenzy.

awaken us now to your coming

and bend our angers into your peace.  Amen

 

Scripture

Genesis 9:8-17

⁸ Then God said to Noah and to his sons with him, ⁹ “Behold, I establish my covenant with you and your offspring after you, ¹⁰ and with every living creature that is with you, the birds, the livestock, and every beast of the earth with you, as many as came out of the ark; it is for every beast of the earth. ¹¹ I establish my covenant with you, that never again shall all flesh be cut off by the waters of the flood, and never again shall there be a flood to destroy the earth.” ¹² And God said, “This is the sign of the covenant that I make between me and you and every living creature that is with you, for all future generations: ¹³ I have set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and the earth. ¹⁴ When I bring clouds over the earth and the bow is seen in the clouds, ¹⁵ I will remember my covenant that is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh. And the waters shall never again become a flood to destroy all flesh. ¹⁶ When the bow is in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth.” ¹⁷ God said to Noah, “This is the sign of the covenant that I have established between me and all flesh that is on the earth.”

Meditation

Is God forgetful?  I know that for many of us we see God in Heaven keeping track of all the good things we do and all the bad things we do.  We hope that at the end of each day or at least at the end of our lives the good will outweigh the bad so that God will cut us some slack and let us in to heaven.  Some of us wish that God was forgetful.  We hope He doesn’t remember the way we talked to the ones we love, that He wouldn’t remember those negative thoughts that rush through our minds when we see that certain person, that He wouldn’t remember just how often I place my trust in something other than Him and His love for me.

What does God chose to remember?  According to this passage He doesn’t want to forget His covenant, His everlasting covenant; when He sees the rainbow He remembers.  Stop and think about how amazing this is? The Creator of the universe, the all-knowing Holy One sets a reminder of His covenant.  How can we possibly hold ourselves to a higher standard than this?  We are filled with shame when we forget His love for us and turn to other things.  We hide for fear that He will judge us in the here and now.  The truth is that God in Christ has removed this stain and shame.  He judges us not in the here and now but in the already done.  He is the one who sets a reminder of His grace and everlasting covenant.

We need that reminder as well. In the in between, the now and not yet, we can get forget the steadfast love of God.  We forget His pursuit of us for His sake.  That He has made us His people and that we are His sons and daughters.  When we forget take heart and recall that God has set a reminder for Himself.  Take heart that the one thing He does chose to forget is our unrighteousness.  He has removed it as far as the east is from the west.  Psalm 103:12

Prayer

Unexpected God,

your advent alarms us.

wake us from drowsy worship,

from the sleep that neglects love,

and the sedative of misdirected frenzy.

awaken us now to your coming

and bend our angers into your peace.  Amen

 

Scripture

 

Psalm 124

If it had not been the Lord who was on our side—
let Israel now say—
² if it had not been the Lord who was on our side
when people rose up against us,
³ then they would have swallowed us up alive,
when their anger was kindled against us;
⁴ then the flood would have swept us away,
the torrent would have gone over us;
⁵ then over us would have gone
the raging waters.

⁶ Blessed be the Lord,
who has not given us
as prey to their teeth!
⁷ We have escaped like a bird
from the snare of the fowlers;
the snare is broken,
and we have escaped!

⁸ Our help is in the name of the Lord,
who made heaven and earth.

 

Meditation

 

I don’t know if this has ever happened to you but if it has I am not one who would sit in judgment of the error that you have experienced.   You are walking to leave an establishment, a store or restaurant, and you put your hand on the door that you had previous entered in through.  As you push on the door you notice that there seems to be some resistance to your weight and the door does not move.  You decide that you might need to exert a little more energy so you push a little hard, perhaps even adding a little bit of your body into the push but still no movement.  You take a step back to see what could be wrong, assess the situation and push again to no avail.  If you are lucky then you notice that there is a pull sign on the door and push before anyone sees your struggle; but if you are like me than you probably don’t notice till someone or many people shout out, “Pull!”

Our sin or struggles are like that for us.  It seems to have a hold on us.  Whether it be some besetting sin that we just seem to gravitate back to time and again or some new thing that seems to be grabbing us we can feel as though we are not moving forward; that we are nowhere near becoming a maturing follower of Christ.  We neglect to see that we have escaped the snare and that it is broken which means it no longer has mastery over us.  Often times we believe that when we recognize sin in our lives that it is God’s way of letting us know we have a long way to go and we better get to work.   When a struggle arises it is our fault or an attack that we need to defend against.  We think that it is proof that we are still trapped. We push because we think that is what is needed.

If we believe the Truth that the snare is broken then when we recognize our falleness we should be moved to grief and then celebration.  Grief that we have trusted something other than God for wholeness but celebration that the snare is broken and we are not enslaved by it; celebrate that God is gracious to reveal a place of brokenness that He has made whole.

It is not up to us to save ourselves.  Stop putting on the broken snare like a bracelet and trust that even in the in between, the now but not yet God’s work is accomplished for you.  He is on your side.  He has not given us as prey.

1st Sunday of Advent 27/11/2016

Note to begin

Each day I will post a prayer (it will be the same one through the week starting on Sunday), a scripture and short meditation.  The prayer and scriptures are taken from “The Revised Common Lectionary” found on the Vanderbilt Divinity Library

Prayer

Unexpected God,
your advent alarms us.
Wake us from drowsy worship,
from the sleep that neglects love,
and the sedative of misdirected frenzy.
Awaken us now to your coming,
and bend our angers into your peace. Amen.

Scripture

Isaiah 2:1-5 (ESV)

The word that Isaiah the son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem.

² It shall come to pass in the latter days
that the mountain of the house of the Lord
shall be established as the highest of the mountains,
and shall be lifted up above the hills;
and all the nations shall flow to it,
³     and many peoples shall come, and say:
“Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord,
to the house of the God of Jacob,
that he may teach us his ways
and that we may walk in his paths.”
For out of Zion shall go forth the law,^[a]
and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.
⁴ He shall judge between the nations,
and shall decide disputes for many peoples;
and they shall beat their swords into plowshares,
and their spears into pruning hooks;
nation shall not lift up sword against nation,
neither shall they learn war anymore.

⁵ O house of Jacob,
come, let us walk
in the light of the Lord.

 

Meditation

We all like to fantasize about the future.  We have been doing it most of our lives.  When we are small it is just playing make believe.  We pretend to be the people we think we will want to be when we grow up; at least we pretend to have the job we think we will want.  As we get older it changes to thinking about how things could be if things just go our way, or how they could be if this one thing changes.  Often times these flights of fancy are aroused by a difficult time we might be going through.  It seems easier to think of how things could be than to face the reality of how things are.

The in-between, the now and not yet is a hard place to be when things are in strife and struggle.  Dreaming about the future, fantasizing about how we want things to turn out can lead to futile attempts to manipulate circumstance in our favour and desired results.  It can lead to an escapism that builds unintentional isolation from real people in the real world who may be able to carry us through those hard and difficult times.  It can lead to an out and out denial that anything could possibly be wrong or broken.

As we hear the promise from God that He will establish His house.  That He will teach His ways.  That He will judge and cause peace to reign.  That we will walk in His light. This is more than a day dream.  This has happened in Christ and will come to completion in His return.  It is solidly in the real world and should move us to pursue His house, His way and His judgement that will bring His peace and His light into the dark, hard and broken places in our lives.  We do not need to escape but embrace this world because it gives us the freedom to trust what has and is to come.