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Advent Devotional 2022
for the week of December 25
This is the final devotional in our Advent series featuring poetry from Ann Weems’ Kneeling in Bethlehem, with commentary by Terry Ley and our pastoral staff.
It is not over,
this birthing.
At the beginning of this series, I urged you to be alert to angels whispering in your ear during Advent.
Watch, I advised. Listen.
Susan Robb would undoubtedly issue a similar warning. Robb is something of an expert on angels (from Greek, angelos, messengers), for she is the author of The Angels of Christmas (Abingdon Press, 2022).
Angels play very active roles as messengers in the nativity stories and thus offer gifts to present-day readers.
Zechariah is struck mute when Gabriel tells him his barren wife, Elizabeth, will have a son, who will become John the Baptist. In that story, we discover the gift of silence, writes Robb, “in order to contemplate what God has done and is doing in our lives.”
Gabriel’s message to Mary about her impending motherhood “offers us the gift of knowing that we, like Mary, are favored by God.”
An angel tells the sleeping Joseph that he must take Jesus to Egypt, to escape the boy’s death by Herod’s hand. That encounter, says Robb, offers us two gifts: the gift of “believing the unbelievable when we listen to and follow the messages of the angels” and “the gift of courage to protect the Christ child who has been born to us and to the world.”
Responding to the messages of angels, shepherds “bring the gift of joy and affirmation” to the holy family and are “so excited about what they have heard that they can’t help but share the good news with all they encounter!”—and become messengers themselves. Thus, says Robb, “we are given the gift of knowing that we too can become messengers of the good news we receive. We become angels to others.”
Indeed, the birthing is not over when Advent ends, Ann Weems reminds us in our final poem from Kneeling in Bethlehem.
When we leave Bethlehem, we are challenged to use the angels’ gifts from the nativity story to extend and enrich that story by actively bringing it into our present day.
Watch. Listen.
Act.
Terry Ley
It is Not Over
Ann Weems
It is not over,
this birthing.
There are always newer skies
into which
God can throw stars.
When we begin to think
that we can predict the Advent of God,
that we can box the Christ
in a stable in Bethlehem,
that’s just the time
that God will be born
in a place we can’t imagine and won’t believe.
Those who wait for God
watch with their hearts and not their eyes,
listening
always listening
for angel words.
For Reflection:
Scripture
Luke 2:10-15
But the angel said to [the shepherds], “Do not be afraid; for see—I am bringing you good news of great joy for all the people: to you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is the Messiah, the Lord. This will be a sign for you: you will find a child wrapped in bands of cloth and lying in a manger.” And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God and saying, “Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace among those whom he favors! When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let us go now to Bethlehem and see this thing that has taken place, which the Lord has made known to us.”
Questions
The wait is over; Christ the savior is here! But the story is not over. How is Christ’s story still unfolding today?
What are angel words you are listening for? What action do they inspire for you?
Prayer
Dear God, even as the season of Advent ends and we celebrate Christmas, don’t let me forget that the story is not over. Surprise me each day with a new way to see how you are with us. Help me to watch, listen, and act so that I may be a part of the story of Christ in the here and now. In Christ’s name I pray, amen.
A downloadable copy of this devotional can be found here.
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