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Advent Devotional 2022
for the week of December 4
Throughout this holiday season of scurry, we are likely to welcome help as we prepare to celebrate the birth of Christ, to seek that light amidst darkness. We will need to slow down occasionally, to reflect on the miracles surrounding us and the Miracle that will occur again this year, in just a few weeks.
Ann Weems (1934-2016), a Presbyterian elder, writer, speaker, and liturgist, raised her hand to volunteer to help us by composing a series of poems about Advent, Kneeling in Bethlehem (Westminster Press, 1980). She wrote those poems out of the conviction that “each of us awaits expectantly the birth of Christ in this place, this time. We will not give Christmas away to commercialism or to the past. For Christians, the Advent is now and here.”
Each week during Advent you will find one of Weems’ poems here in our newsletter, accompanied by a brief commentary by me and some Scripture and reflection questions by one of our pastors.
Preparing to Kneel in Bethlehem
My prayer is that those of us who think
that we’re in charge of the world and the church
will remember that the stable was filled
with such as these:
those who could not be kept
from rejoicing!
Throughout the pandemic, I longed to be inside this church on Sunday mornings—and on Thursdays, too, for church suppers and choir practice, rain or shine. I was grateful to our staff and our Session for their protective wariness and for the technology that allowed us to grow spiritually even as some of us sat in our pajamas in our homes, our church home empty and silent. But I longed to return.
Each Sunday for months now, ever since we could return to Thach Avenue for worship, I have watched our homecoming in progress, usually from the back of the sanctuary while waiting to process with the choir or from the choir loft during worship. I see hearty Presbyterian socialization, people delighted to chat with each other before Tyra performs the prelude on the organ that she reawakened only months ago. A growing body of worshipers praises God through song, sounding more confident and more committed as the weeks roll by. Some Sundays, there are barely enough seats in the choir loft. All that “noise” of worship assures me that if we are not yet completely “back,” we are getting there.
I hope that your best judgment will bring you to the sanctuary for worship throughout Advent, where you can help make the noise of worship, can raise hallelujahs on your way to Bethlehem, and, on Christmas Eve, can raise your lighted candle as you sing “Silent Night” with your church family—all of us in the same big room, “those who could not be kept from rejoicing!”
Terry Ley
Against Our Better Judgment
Ann Weems
We told her she couldn’t go;
she was too young
to stay up that late.
She told us that
Baby Jesus would be there
and he was younger than she.
We told him he couldn’t go;
he was too old
to brave the cold night air.
He told us he’d rather greet heaven
from the Christmas Eve service
than be found slumped by the TV.
So we bundled them up
against the extreme cold
against their own defenselessness
against our better judgment
and they went out with joy.
My prayer is that those of us who think
that we’re in charge of the world and the church
will remember that the stable was filled
with such as these:
those who could not be kept
from rejoicing!
For Reflection
Scripture:
Isaiah 12:5-6
“Sing praises to the Lord, for he has done gloriously; let this be known in all the earth. Shout aloud and sing for joy, O royal Zion, for great in your midst is the Holy One of Israel.”
Questions:
- What song of praise to the Lord is rejoicing over and over in your mind during this season?
- Why does it hold special meaning to you?
- Does it hold more meaning to sing it alone or to sing it with other rejoicers?
Prayer:
Merciful God, you come into our midst longing for communion with us, becoming one of us. You are our guide and ultimate assurance. We sing for joy that you are in our midst! Alleluia, Amen!
A downloadable copy of this devotional can be found here.
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