Daily Advent Devotional: Recent Episodes
Phillips Seminary
Phillips Theological Seminary is providing you, our gracious donors and supporters, with a daily Advent Devotional podcast. Phillips is grateful that we can offer you this resource. You may also read the devotional on the Phillips website.
This year has been difficult and strange in so many ways. But we have the hope, peace, joy and love that Advent brings. I personally hope and pray that each devotion speaks to your life and is a balm in this weary time.
The devotional is an important part of our goal to support and educate the whole church. We value your contribution to the seminary and consider you a part of our community.
We have hope in the unchanging, sacrificial love of God, love of each other, our congregations and the love that brings equality and justice into the world through the birth of Jesus. We hope that as you read this booklet you are inspired to deepen your faith and you renew your hope.
Peace and Blessings,
Malisa Pierce
Senior Director of Stewardship and Alumnae/i Relations
Luke 1:26–38
He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give to
him the throne of his ancestor David. Luke 1:32
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Judges 13:2-24
Then Monoah entreated the Lord and said, “O my Lord, I pray, let the man of God whom
you sent come to us again and teach us what we are to do concerning the boy who will be
born.” Judges 13:8
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Hebrews 1:5-14
“You have loved righteousness and hated wickedness; therefore God, your God, has
anointed you with the oil of gladness beyond your companions.” Hebrews 1:9
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Hebrews 1:1-4
(Jesus) is the reflection of God’s glory and the exact imprint of God’s very being. Hebrews
1:3
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Malachi 3:16-4:6
But for you who revere my name the sun of righteousness shall rise, with healing in its
wings. You shall go out leaping like calves from the stall. And you shall tread down the
wicked, for they will be ashes under the soles of your feet, on the day when I act, says the
Lord of hosts. Malachi 4:2-3
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Psalm 125
The people who trust in the Lord are like Mount Zion: never shaken, lasting forever.
Mountains surround Jerusalem. That’s how the Lord surrounds his people from now until
forever from now! Psalm 125:1-2 (CEB)
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1 Kings 18:1-18
When Ahab saw Elijah, Ahab said to him, “Is it you, you troubler of Israel?” He answered,
“I have not troubled Israel; but you have, and your father’s house, because you have
forsaken the commandments of the LORD and followed the Baals.” I Kings 18:17-18
“Never, ever be afraid to make some noise and get in good trouble, necessary trouble.”
John Lewis.
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Isaiah 61:1-4, 8-11; I Thessalonians 5:16-24
Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances, for this is the will of
God in Christ Jesus for you. I Thessalonians 5:16-18
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Matthew 21:28-32
Jesus said to them, “Truly I tell you, the tax collectors and the prostitutes are entering
the kingdom of God ahead of you. For John came to you to show you the way of
righteousness, and you did not believe him, but the tax collectors and the prostitutes did.
And even after you saw this, you did not repent and believe him. Matthew 21:31c-32
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Habakkuk 3:2-6
O Lord, I have heard of your renown, and I stand in awe, O Lord, of your work. Habakkuk
3:2
Song: “It is Well with My Soul” (hymnist Horatio Spafford and composed by Philip Bliss.)
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Psalm 126
May those who sow in tears reap with shouts of joy. Those who go out weeping, bearing
the seed for sowing, shall come home with shouts of joy carrying their sheaves. Psalm
126:5-6
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Luke 1:5-17
Then there appeared to him an angel of the Lord, standing at the right side of the altar of
incense. When Zechariah saw him, he was terrified, and fear overwhelmed him. But the
angel said to him, “Do not be afraid, Zechariah, for your prayer has been heard. Your wife
Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you will name him John. Luke 1:11-13
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Psalm 27
The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The Lord is the stronghold of my
life; of whom shall I be afraid? Psalm 27:1
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Isaiah 26:7-15
O Lord, may you ordain peace for us, for indeed, all that we have done, you have done for
us. Isaiah 26:12
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Psalm 85:1-2, 8-13
Steadfast love and faithfulness will meet; righteousness and peace will kiss each other.
Psalm 85:10
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Ezekiel 36:24-28
Then you shall live in the land that I gave to your ancestors, and you shall be my people,
and I will be your God. Ezekiel 36:28
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Acts 11:19-26
Now those …traveled as far as Phoenicia, Cyprus and Antioch, and they spoke the word...
Acts 11:19
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Hosea 6:1-6
Let us know, let us press on to know the Lord; his appearing is as sure as the dawn; he will
come to us like the showers, like the spring rains that water the earth. Hosea 6:3
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Micah 5:1-5a
But you, O Bethlehem of Ephrathah, who are one of the little clans of Judah, from you shall
come forth for me one who is to rule in Israel, whose origin is from of old, from ancient days
... and he shall be the one of peace. Micah 5:2, 5a
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Revelation 18:1-10
“Alas, alas, the great city, Babylon, the mighty city! For in one hour your judgement has
come.” Revelation 18:10b
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Isaiah 2:1-5
…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 any more. Isaiah 2:4b
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1 Corinthians 1:3-9
Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. 1 Corinthians 1:3
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Tis the Season to…
Titus 3:4-7
When kindness and benevolence appeared through G*d, our savior, appeared, it was not a result of those deeds…. Titus 3:4-6 (A. Carter Paraphrase)
It’s commonplace to describe our society as results driven. Metrics, measurables, and product, with good reason, have become outcome-oriented benchmarks that establish and legitimate organizational value, worthiness, and rationale. Such perspectives are important correctives that challenge rigid power structures and inequities. Carrying associations with positive outcomes, metrics often function as indicators and, thus, metaphors for success.
We can, however, become over invested in mutated forms of these metric metaphors. With Christmas at times seeming the busiest time of the year, we are occasionally lured into metric-based approaches to Christmas: our love measured in gifts, travel, and tree height; our faith by the relaxation, consumption, service attendance, or donations.
This Christmas is an opportunity to remind ourselves anew of the essence of Gd’s love. In today’s passage, many translations render the Greek terms chrystotes (kindness/good) and philanthropia (philanthropy, love for humanity) as good and kindness. Such renderings, while accurate obscure the author’s nuance. For the author of Titus, kindness and benevolence are transformative, they characterize Gd’s orientation to and love for humanity. Neither society’s metrics nor the Church’s measurements can warrant G*d’s liberating love, not even our pursuits for justice. If salvation was metric-based could today’s church in any way justify such sacrifice given by Christ?
Titus thematically centers on divine grace and its impact on human social-being. Recognition of such grace inspires us to reflect Christ’s love. The author of Titus measured such love partially by the absence of social discord. Unfortunately, interpreters often seek in Titus, not an articulation of divine grace and love, but decontextualized metrics for faith by legislating of power in church and society through mutated metaphors.
This Christmas, might we humbly hear this letter’s testimony on love: a reminder that the source of human salvation has but one immeasurable source, the awe-inspiring kindness and benevolence of G*d.
Arthur F. Carter, Jr. Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of New Testament
Director, Black Church Traditions & African American Faith-Life
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Love
John 1:1-14
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. John 1:1
“In the beginning was the Conversation and the Conversation was with God.”
When the Gospel of John was translated into Latin from its original Greek, translators of the first few centuries used the Latin word sermo for the Greek word logos in this passage.
There’s a perfectly good Latin word that denotes a single linguistic utterance—it is verbum, word in English.
Sermo, according to Victoria Loorz in her book Church of the Wild, “means not ‘word’ but ‘conversation.’ Sermo indicates not a one-way sermon but a lively discourse, a dialogue, a manner of speaking back and forth: a conversation” (p. 109). Sermo, more than verbum, connotes the riches of meaning in the word logos. For this is a relational word full of all the words of the divine life-force that holds all of life together.
“In the beginning was the Conversation and the Conversation was with God.”
I imagine Mary having a conversation with the infant in her womb much as I did when I was pregnant. “Shush now and let me sleep,” I murmured, and the baby kicked back: “I will not be ignored.” Conversation. The baby’s father leaned toward my full belly, “Daddy to baby, daddy to baby,” he chanted; and the baby squirmed, in delight I imagine. Conversation. The baby emerges from Mary’s body into the dimness of a manger and cries. Mary hugs him close and soothes him, “it’s alright, you’re alright.” Conversation.
Christmas Eve is a night of remembering holy conversations, the speaking of holy words from one to another, between infant and parent, between God and humanity, between and among one another. This eternal, life-giving, embodied and re-embodied, conversation was in the beginning. It is now. And it will be our end.
Dr. Nancy Claire Pittman
President
and Stephen J. England Associate Professor of the Practice of Ministry
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God is at Work
Luke 2:1-14
In those days a decree went out from Emperor Augustus that all the world should be registered. Luke 2:1
Shootings. Extremes of wealth and poverty. Food insecurity. Racial-ethnic tensions. Corporate greed. Military invasions. Divisive leadership. Limited access to healthcare. Cultural and political divisions. Societal intolerance and violence. And so forth.
One might wonder, where is God in the midst of our broken world? What is God doing? If anything?
The first-century world had its own issues and damage. It was very broken.
Verse 1 names the source of the brokenness.
In those days a decree went out from Emperor Augustus that all the world should be registered. (Luke 2:1)
In this act of decreeing a registration or census, the Emperor Augustus asserts his absolute power over some 65 million or so people. It is an act of domination, of economic exploitation through taxation, of territorial control, enforceable by military might if disobeyed. And Jupiter’s decree sanctions this world order.
It doesn’t matter that there is no historical evidence for Augustus’ decree. Its role in the Gospel narrative is to set the scene for Jesus’ birth and for the Gospel’s incredible proclamation.
In the midst of Augustus’ imperial world, in the midst of his overwhelming power that stretches even to this minor province of Judea, the Gospel promises, explains, and declares: God is at work.
And divine work does not sanction Augustus’ empire. It takes a different route for a different purpose: a baby (very powerful as every parent knows), anointed to save the present world from a system of domination, exploitation, elite privilege, and injustice. Yet ironically, he anticipates a future world marked by the full establishment of God’s empire that dominates all.
Dr. Warren Carter
LaDonna Kramer Meinders Professor of New Testament
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Week Four
December 22, 2022
Facing the Vortex
Isaiah 33:17-22
But there the Lord in majesty will be for us a place of broad rivers and streams, where no galley with oars can go, nor stately ship can pass. Isaiah 33:21
The late Civil Rights champion, James Baldwin once asserted that not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced. During Advent, we must face that fact that we are living during perilous times.
Our era has been accented by the enactment of blatant anti-democracy policies and punctuated by the theologically bankrupt system of white christian nationalism. Many thought our nation was rid of such scandalous schemes, yet like a vicious monster in a low-budget horror movie, they keep reemerging and seemingly will not die.
Daily installments of these absurdities are forming a swirling vortex of misery that can seemingly sweep away any hope we have for a more just future.
However, we who are motivated by love to seek justice are not hopeless. We await the coming king, one whose beauty and majesty will cause us to focus not on insolent people, but the promise of an immovable sanctuary city, Jerusalem, not in the heavenly realm but in the world we know.
People will experience him as a place of broad, nurturing waterways where no offending force can prevail. Through him, people will flourish and be saved.
We know this king to be Jesus. Through his love, we are able to withstand the vortex of fear and hate.
The love of Jesus confers onto us the boldness necessary to forge equitable relationships with people in underserved ZIP codes, and the courage required to have hard conversations on ways we can leverage our privilege in the name of justice. Through the love of Jesus, we are given the honor of living as agents of hope.
O, come, O come, Immanuel. Amen
Rev. Dr. Jack Sullivan, Jr.
Adjunct Instructor, The Center for Ministry and Lay Training and
Executive Director, The Ohio Council of Churches
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Grandparent Stories
Matthew 1:1-17
An account of the genealogy of Jesus the Messiah, the son of David the son of Abraham. Matthew 1:1
The late New Testament scholar Doug Adams contrasted parent stories to grandparent stories. Parent stories tend to clean up and prettify their own youthful years in order to claim the moral high ground. “When I was a child, I never talked to my parents that way.”
The grandparent version of the same story might be: “No, you did not talk back to me but instead gave me a grin that dripped with sarcasm and disrespect.”
The Bible, said Adams, is full of grandparent stories. Matthew’s Ancestry.com construction of Jesus’ sometimes-shady relations provides examples.
• Judah’s sons by Tamar. Tamar was Judah’s daughter-in-law, who after her husband’s death seduced her father-in-law posing as a woman-for-hire on the side of the road, and Judah hired her.
• Salmon the father of Boaz by Rahab. Did Matthew mean for his readers to recall the only Rahab in the Bible who was the sex worker who hid the spies prior to the destruction of Jericho?
• Boaz the father of Obed by Ruth. Ruth a Moabite woman. A foreigner in Israel, from whom both David the great king and shameful actor and Jesus were descended.
And those examples are merely from the first third of the genealogy. Included in the rest of the list are persons of low moral stature and unwise decision. And, of course, at the end of the list Matthew names Joseph, who Matthew is about to tell us is not Jesus’ biological father.
To paraphrase Adams: biblical grandparent stories are told with love rather than to establish moral superiority. Why? Because we need love in order to embrace, yet not to be determined by, our own stories.
Dr. Gary Peluso-Verdend
President Emeritus and Executive Director of the Center for Religion in Public Life
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The World Upside Down
Samuel 2:1-10
Hannah prayed and said, “My heart exults in the Lord; my strength is exalted in my God. My mouth derides my enemies because I rejoice in my victory… the bows of the mighty are broken, but the feeble gird on strength. Those who were full have hired themselves out for bread, but those who were hungry are fat with spoil. The barren has borne seven, but she who has many children is forlorn. 1 Samuel 2:1, 4:4-5
Hannah has just left her long-desired infant son with the priest at the temple in Shiloh. She has fulfilled her vow to God: If she were given a son, she would give him to the temple to become a nazarite, a servant of God, for his lifetime. She had been barren, enduring both the clumsy sympathy of her husband and the jeers from his fertile, second wife.
Now she breaks out in a prayer of praise to God. But this is not the expected joyful thanksgiving for a son. It is a song praising God’s power to create reversals: rich to poor, low to exalted places, bringing to Sheol and raising up.
Scholars believe this is an ancient Hebrew hymn, placed in Hannah’s mouth since her story emphasizes a particular example of Yhwh’s theology of reversal. These great reversals can also be seen in Mary’s prayer of praise in Luke, and even in Jesus’ Jewish theology in his Sermon on the Mount. This upside-down world of our Judeo-Christian tradition is truly a call for joy in this Advent season, our “hope for years to come.”
Sandy Shapoval
Dean of the Library
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Staying Open to Closed Doors
Genesis 17:15-22
God said to Abraham, “As for Sarah your wife… I will bless her, and moreover I will give you a son by her.” Genesis 17:15-16
Imagine (or recall) a whole life of your partner leaving the toilet seat up even if you (or child) continuously falls in, or a whole life of having a roommate that won’t stop leaving the kitchen cabinet doors open after literally thousands of pleas to STOP THE MADNESS AND CLOSE THE CABINET DOORS, THE CAT IS GETTING THE DISHES HAIRY. At some point you will likely run out of hope that things can change. You may even begin to question if the “offending party” even loves you—if they did, wouldn’t they care about your comfort?
Now imagine one day the cabinet doors are miraculously closed, or the toilet seat is down… and it never happens again. Would you feel seen? Loved? In case of Abraham and Sarah, The Holy One sees their advanced age and blesses them with a geriatric pregnancy (which sounds harsh but is also the contemporary medical terminology for pregnancy after 35 years old. I’m only a messenger!), making good on promises for progeny that would rule nations.
Advent is a season of waiting, anticipation, and expectation. By this time in the scripture Abraham and Sarah have lived and waited through many seasons together—long enough to know the unglamorous ebbs and flows of spending a whole life with someone. It’s easy to become dismissive of hope for things to change after living a lifetime with them the way they are. They must have given up some hope in their heart for a child—yet by grace Sarah becomes a mother. A closed door opens.
In this season of hope and anticipation, what does it mean for us to anticipate (or expect) God’s love? Maybe it means responding to seemingly closed doors (or open cabinet doors) in faith, trusting the reality of love we can’t see rightly when we aren’t looking. We receive God’s love with every breath, every heartbeat, every bout of inspiration, in every act of kindness, compassion, or mercy, in simple expressions of love, peace, creativity, bravery, sacrifice, or beauty.
Perhaps to expect God’s Love in the world is to live with openness and readiness to receive love in unexpected ways, at unexpected times, and in humbling abundance.
Cortney Lemke
Director of Admissions
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Dreaming During Advent
Matthew 1:18-25
When Joseph awoke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him... Matthew 1:24a
Deeply embedded within African American culture, dreaming is a resource for surviving the everyday traumas of being Black in America. In the days of my youth, dreams were understood to be messages from God as guidance for daily living. Everyone, whether within the church community or the extra-church community, understood the messages from dreams to promote individual and communal well-being. Dreaming, like praying, kept African Americans close to and in constant conversation with God.
Because dreaming was such a normal part of life in my childhood, the sharing of dreams represented a spiritual discipline. As powerful as the experience of dreaming is, dreaming is nothing without dream interpretation. Within African American dream interpretation, dreams are less about symbolic representations but are understood to be direct and literal communications. Dreams are intended to keep the dreamer from harm by revealing what was previously hidden or by revealing the person’s responsibility or irresponsibility.
Joseph’s dream, using an African American cultural interpretation, is seen as a visitation and direct communication from “an angel of the Lord.” “When Joseph awoke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him.” Joseph did not reflect on the symbols of the dream; nor did he hesitate and explore multiple ways to interpret the angel of his dream. Once he awoke, he accepted the message as direct from the Lord and did as he was instructed. By Joseph following his dreams, he became an active agent within God’s plan for redeeming creation. May we all, like Joseph, follow our dreams as divine messages from God!
Dr. Lee H. Butler, Jr.
Vice President of Academic Affairs and Academic Dean
William Tabbernee Professor of the History of Religions and Africana Pastoral Theology
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Embracing the Both/And
John 3:31-33
The one who comes from above is above all; the one who is of the earth belongs to the earth and speaks about earthly things. The one who comes from heaven is above all. He testifies to what he has seen and heard, yet no one accepts his testimony. Whoever has accepted his testimony has certified this, that God is true. John 3:31-33
“In a world that tries to push us to either/or, the true gift we give ourselves is embracing the both/and.” These words from my late mentor, Gail O’Day, deeply resonate with me as I think about the invitations of the fourth canonical gospel. A quick read of this text may have us thinking that Jesus’ heavenly origin was more important than his earthly experience. But I believe the real wisdom is in the both/and.
John 3:33 says, “Whoever has accepted his testimony has certified this, that God is true.”
What is the testimony that certifies God is true? It was certainly that Jesus came of divine origin. It was also his practices on earth of attending to those harmed, engaging with those not popular, decentering normativity through his parables, and believing that a more just world was possible through our practices. These things and so much more were Jesus’ testimony. They are the signs and markers of a God that is true.
In the midst of this Advent season, as we find ourselves waiting and wondering while still working and trying to navigate the chaos of this world around us, perhaps we might find comfort, hope, and possibility in considering the both/and. Yes, Jesus is divine and also, Jesus’ witness to God’s nature is also shown through his life here on earth.
Yes, the world is full of grief and yes, we can feel gratitude for the things around us that spark peace and enliven joy. Yes, we may have some real questions for God about all that’s going on in this world and also yes, we can still believe God is love and is still calling us to be that love on this earth.
May we find an invitation this season in the beloved opening of the both/and and the testimony of Jesus that reminds us of who God is.
Dr. Chelsea Brooke Yarborough
Assistant Professor of African American Preaching, Sacred Rhetoric,
and Black Practical Theology
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What is My House?
2 Samuel 7:18-22
Then King David went in and sat before the Lord, and said, “Who am I, O Lord God, and what is my house, that you have brought me thus far? 2 Samuel 7:18
The ark of the covenant carried God’s presence. Up to this point, the ark was being carried around in a mobile tent, with no permanent home. After David is anointed as king, he defeats the Philistines and after defeating them, David is tasked with building a house for God’s presence to dwell in. David sees this as an honor.
In David’s response to God’s instructions, David first shows his humility. He says, “who am I, O Lord God, and what is my house that you have brought me thus far?” David is not from royal blood. His origin is one of lowliness and struggle. However, God takes a shepherd and makes him a king.
Just like David, many people today do not come from royal blood. Our origin tells the story of who we are and where we have come from. Although there are times when we may see ourselves as unworthy to fulfill the tasks and assignments that God has called us to, God is faithful to love us well, to reveal God’s grace to us, and to bless us.
Not only does David show humility, but David also shows gratitude. David recognized that what God had instructed him to do was a small thing in comparison to the promise that would come. May David’s response to God be a reminder to us all during this Advent season that no matter what the origin of our lives may be and no matter how small the instructions may seem, God has great destiny and promise for you and your house.
Jas Geiger
Student Senate Member, MDiv Student
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No Bartering Required
Psalm 80:1-7, 17-19
May You honor the people at Your right hand. May You honor the nation You have raised up for Yourself. Then we won’t turn away from You. Give us new life [and we] will worship You. Psalm 80.17-18 (NIRV)
Like many of us, I have favorite Psalms, but the ones I like least are what I call Psalms of Barter. They acknowledge God’s greatness, ensure God understands how desperate and dire things are, and then make conditional promises: “We’ll do this for You, if You’ll do this for us.” Psalm 80 is one of them: “God, You’re all-powerful. You can save us if You will—and why wouldn’t You? And if You’ll save us, we’ll worship You forever.
I dislike Bartering Psalms because they’re empty offers to do what God’s people should have already been doing. We’ll stop straying and start worshipping You if You’ll…. Maybe I dislike them, though, because they confront me.
We barter picking up a Bible, praying every day, attending worship every week, inviting someone to church if God will…. There’s something altruistic about bartering for peace to reign or pandemics to end. Then there’s the peace at this year’s Christmas gathering or enough money to purchase just-the-right presents. Peace and harmony. More than enough. All the makings of joy.
I was told of an aged woman who, like most in her tiny Italian village, hobbled down a steep hill every day to the village square. The villagers didn’t have much and lived lives most of us reading this would consider desperate and dire; yet they had no dearth of joy. When asked what could possibly bring them such joy, the woman responded, “You find joy when you get what you want; we let joy find us.”
No bartering required. One of Christmas’ secrets had found the villagers: there’s only one Giver of Joy, who can’t be bought or bribed.
Dr. Kris Tenny-Brittian
Adjunct Professor, Center for Ministry and Lay Training
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Joyful Action
Zechariah 8: 1–17
These are the things that you shall do: Speak the truth to one another, render in your gates judgments that are true and make for peace, do not devise evil in your hearts against one another, and love no false oath; for all these are things that I hate, says the Lord. Zechariah 8: 16–17
In this section of Zechariah, the prophet speaks of a God who makes a lot of promises. God promises to restore Jerusalem in many ways. God promises long lives and joyful children as part of an overall rebuilding on Jerusalem. God promises a world that is not restored to its former glory, but made even better, stronger, and more righteous. This is all a part of God’s overall promise to dwell among them and be their God. The prophet presents this not as God doing these acts begrudgingly, but as God taking delight in God’s people.
And what does God ask in return? For our own joyful action. For this joyful society to exist, the people need to speak truth and show love and peace through their actions. This should not be done begrudgingly or unwillingly, but as acts of joy.
While it may be hard to believe, we in modern day times, also get to create a society that is joyous, peaceful, and loving by consistently doing the same acts of truth, love, and peace. May we truly believe in this possibility, act accordingly, and move forward with joy.
Dr. Annie Lockhart-Gilroy
Associate Professor of Christian Education and Practical Theology and
Interim Director of the Doctor of Ministry Program
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Time for Wavering
Jude 1:17-25
And have mercy on some who are wavering. Jude 1:22
I’ll be honest: being assigned this passage felt a bit like sitting next to someone on an airplane who, after a few minutes of pleasant chitchat, mentions sotto voce that we are clearly living in the end-times. “Oh no,” one thinks. “This is going to be a long flight.”
At only 24 verses, the book of Jude at least spares us a lengthy voyage; it’s more of a puddle-jump. Nevertheless, the author is eager to let the reader know that the end is nigh. Having just quoted the apocalyptic text of I Enoch (v. 14-15), the author drives the point home: “In the last times there will be scoffers who follow their own desires.”
Yes, well, I suspect he’s right. I imagine, too, that in the last days there will be people who misplace important items and are cranky when they don’t get enough sleep. While these might not be our favorite behaviors, they are reliably human ones.
But as this short flight begins its initial descent, there is a moment of gentleness from our apocalyptic seatmate: “have mercy on those who are wavering,” he says. It’s that verse which sticks with me as I gather my metaphorical luggage from the metaphorical overhead bin. For the apocalypse didn’t, as it turns out, show up shortly after the author of Jude wrote this letter.
The congregation which so worried him because of its inclusion of interlopers, transgressors, selfish people, grumblers, and the like: they ended up having a while to work things out. So that mercy he called for was, in retrospect, a decent investment. Perhaps we would do well to remember that in our own moments of apocalyptic moral urgency.
Dr. Sarah Morice Brubaker
Associate Professor of Christian Systematic Theology
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Seeking What is Holy
Psalm 42
As a deer longs for flowing streams, so my soul longs for you, O God. Psalms 42:1
A popular Psalm and possibly even a more popular song derived from the Psalm invoking images of a deer thirsting for water symbolizing the author’s thirst for the divine. In a world where having clean water and even having access to water is a growing threat to the wellness of creation, we are reminded of the simple need to live in balance and harmony recognizing the divine or holy in all of creation.
Many of us in the United States have even distanced ourselves from the natural desire to drink straight from natural water sources, but yet we still thirst for what gives us life. Sometimes, without even knowing, we possess this thirst and even a hunger to be in fellowship with what is holy.
During this moment in the church calendar, those who have found a home in the Christian movement are asked to remind themselves of the coming light and of the coming goodness we celebrate during this season.
In the same manner as our Psalmist, let us not forget the intimacy that we desire with our Creator and all of creation as we seek to live a life of abundance. And as our meditations and actions move us closer to the divine, may our prayers and thoughts center around our entire global community as we navigate a world that often disappoints.
May our lives point to the same presence that gives us life and may we also be reminded that this presence is found in all the world around us. May the joy we seek be a joy that is experienced by all.
Rev. Chebon Kernell
Executive Director, Native American Comprehensive Plan
Phillips Seminary Board of Trustee Member
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Week Three
December 11, 2022
Joy and Grief
Matthew 11:2-11
When John heard in prison what the Messiah was doing, he sent word by his disciples and said to him, “Are you the one who is to come, or are we to wait for another?” Matthew 11:2-3
Imagine John in prison defeated, frustrated, angry, grief stricken. Then he hears rumors of a man—the man he baptized—teaching and healing. Then John receives confirmation that Jesus is the one that he was proclaiming.
The scripture does not mention how John reacted when the messengers came back to him verifying the rumors. We can only speculate how John felt. Joy. Gratitude. Elation. How would you feel seeing your life’s work affirmed and fulfilled? Then add to that knowing the purpose of this man, the Messiah. Joy in overabundance coming forth in the knowledge of what the future holds.
My father died just a few months ago. I still feel as if I am in a bit of a prison of grief. So, this year during Advent, I may not experience joy in overabundance, and John may not have either, but I am determined to find joy and experience it in even the smallest, fleeting ways. Memories of my dad reading the Christmas story. The joy of watching my niblings’ excitement while they open presents. The joy of lazy winter holiday naps—which my dad loved. Joy and grief can coexist.
Throughout the rest of the Advent season, as we wait, let’s make a point to stop what we are doing, focus on our breath for 20 seconds and then focus on our surroundings. What joy can you find in the moment?
Malisa Pierce
Assistant Vice President of Advancement
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Week Two
December 10, 2022
A New Kind of Music
1 Samuel 2:1-8
He raises up the poor from the dust; he lifts the needy from the ash heap, to make them sit with princes and inherit a seat of honor. 1 Samuel 2:8a
Faithful Hannah sings thanksgiving and praise. With God’s help, she who was thought barren, has brought new life to the world! Her nation is in crisis. Her son, Samuel, will be Israel’s dynamic prophet-leader. Kings Saul and then David whom he anoints, will lead the Israelites to defeat the Philistine invaders. The nation will know peace.
But first, a grave internal threat must be resolved—the moral crisis of corrupt religious leaders. Hannah’s firstborn son will succeed them as Israel’s faithful religious leader.
In a time of crisis, God’s freely loving power to transform despair into hope can begin that holy work as quietly as the song of a new mother. As Hannah’s ode to joy continues, it overflows with hope that the gracious God will strengthen the feeble, fatten the hungry, raise up the poor, and lift up the needy.
Christians await Emmanuel while so many of our neighbors await the blessings of the transformations Hannah sings—God’s gracious reversals—want, poverty, hunger, and weakness swept away!
JRR Tolkien wrote that all creation was sung into existence. Illuvatar, the uncreated creator, introduced a melody and the angelic Ainur harmonized.
In a very real way, Christ’s followers harmonize with the Gospel’s melody. Realities of poverty—social, political, and spiritual—challenge believers to “sing” a new world into existence. Together we are called to weave our prayerful actions into The Melody to help create a new and liberated world blessed by the peace of God’s passionate possibilities for all trapped in a barren wilderness of want. Will we sing along with Hannah?
Rev. Charles Ragland
Alumni Board Member and Secretary (1982)
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Week Two
December 9, 2022
A Second Coming
2 Peter 3:11-18
Therefore, beloved, while you are waiting for these things, strive to be found by him at peace, without spot or blemish, and regard the patience of our Lord as salvation. 2 Peter 3:14
At a committee meeting in the 4th century, a date was set for Easter; an annual celebration of the passion, death, and resurrection of Jesus would occur on the first Sunday, after the first full moon, after the spring equinox. A date for Christmas came next and then the development of pre and post seasons. Easter came first. Everything else, we celebrate in relationship to Easter.
Because we most easily connect Advent to Christmas, we spend the season in anticipation of the birth of a child. But the theology of advent is inseparable from the theology of Christmas which is inseparable from the theology of Easter. This child we await will be crucified, die, and rise again.
Our passage from 2 Peter reminds us that the story is not over, Christ will come again—this time, like a thief in the night (2 Peter, vs. 10). The thought of Jesus coming to us in the form of a baby engenders feelings of peace more readily than the thought of the heavens disappearing and the earth laid bare!
A faithful celebration of the season of Advent requires us to think apocalyptically. This world of ours has seen salvation AND is in desperate need of a savior. Where do we see glimpses of salvation, here and now? What needs to be destroyed in the heat of God’s fire? What does it look like to prepare for the end? What does it look like to be at peace as we wait for a new heaven and new earth?
Dr. Allie Utley
Assistant Professor of Liturgy and Practical Theology
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Week Two
December 8, 2022
Peace
Psalm 146:5-10
Happy are those whose help is the God of Jacob, whose hope is in the Lord their God...Psalm 146:5
Peace has of recent become more of a wish than a reality! Something so elusive, almost unattainable. When was the last time we thought we could be in a state of “completeness, wholeness, or safety?” We talk about the realities of our times: covid (and its strains), monkey pox, inflation, Russia and Ukraine. It almost feels like the world is accepting and learning to live with the way things are rather than hoping for the unattainable.
I recently read an article about seven habits that slowly take away one’s peace. These included things like checking social media first thing in the morning, having ears plugged with earphones all the time, taking pictures of everything, leaving messes uncleaned, overworking or obsessive thinking, and being pessimistic. These seven things were PEACE STEALERS!
This got me thinking about what my own list of things that steal my peace would look like. What does peace mean to me, as an individual, in my life, in my career, in my plans? How does God’s definition for peace differ from mine? There is no peace for the wicked, is one scripture that came to mind (Isa.48:22). Can I have peace without God being the source of my peace?
In Psalm 146:5-10, we are called upon to put our trust in God. Our hope (or our Peace) is to be found only in God. Isaiah in chapter 9:6 calls Jesus the Prince of Peace, and as we go through this Advent season, let us seek Jesus as the source of true peace that we can depend on!
Judith R. Nakibuuka
Financial Accountant
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Week Two
December 7, 2022
Spirit into Action
Matthew 12:33-37
Either make the tree good and its fruit good, or make the tree bad and its fruit bad, for the tree is known by its fruit. You brood of vipers! How can you speak good things when you are evil? For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. The good person brings good things out of a good treasure, and the evil person brings evil things out of an evil treasure. Matthew 12:33-35
Most if not all of us have had the experience of expecting good fruit to emerge from bad trees. We grow frustrated with ourselves when sermons don’t write themselves after we’ve neglected our personal studies. We’re discouraged when our compassion isn’t as sharp as we’d like following a season of disconnection from our communities. We become disappointed with others when we’ve failed to mentor them as they deserve.
Institutions are partly to blame for this recurrent experience. Many of us are expected to be machines who generate fruit at rates that exceed photosynthesis, yet others are surprised when we arrive at a critical moment without sustenance for those around us. It seems none of us can keep up with the demands of the fruit market.
Yet, Jesus’s admonition to his “brood of vipers” is not a mere matter of victim blaming. This is no pep talk on the merits of self-care for maintaining corporate productivity growth. He is speaking to the cultivation of our moral and theological imagination. Our words are shaped by our spiritual formation, which means they are the fruits we bear to those around us—and which organize our spirit into action.
The challenge of a pericope like Matthew 12:33–37 is that it speaks to the spiritual capacities that unlock our understanding of it. A diet of spoiled pears will leave us fixated on the wrong fruits. We encounter a hermeneutic circle that demands of us spiritual practices and fortitude to navigate without spiraling.
Dr. Peter Capretto
Assistant Professor of Pastoral Care in Religion and Culture
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Week Two
December 6, 2022
Peace and Power = Bold Peace!
Romans 15:14-21
Nevertheless, on some points I have written to you rather boldly by way of reminder, because of the grace given me by God to be a minister of Christ Jesus to the gentiles in the priestly service of the gospel of God, so that the offering of the gentiles may be acceptable, sanctified by the Holy Spirit. Romans 15:15-16 (NRSVUE)
As we come to the close of 2022, I embrace the thought of desiring and praying for peace. With life’s experiences, I need the peace that surpasses all understanding daily. Many things in life I struggle with the motives, meanings, and purposes. I want to see the love and peace of God in humanity; however, it is hard many times.
My walk in life needs peace to influence people who are hurting and suffering from the trials of life. One can only imagine the pain of losing loved ones and possessions in war. Why? Why did we witness the neighboring country of Russia attack Ukraine on February 24, 2022? Why did peace not prevail over the actions of Russia towards Ukraine? I will continue to pray for peace.
Paul, in Romans 15:14-21 writes a letter to the Gentiles in Rome concerning a divine assignment to proclaim the word of God. Paul is seeking to bring unity to the Roman churches. I consider Romans to be a book with bold peace. Romans 15:14-21 is a declaration of Paul’s idea of using peace and power in the churches in Rome. I believe Paul understands the struggle of not being present; however, Paul knows the church must choose peace and power, not just power. Bold Peace!
Well, 2022 is coming to a close. I believe God is calling God’s people to spread bold peace over our positions. Bold peace is the act of combining peace and power. Many times, those in power impose their will over others through the lens of power only.
Bold peace is the act of using peace and power to operate within a structure that’s productive for all. Bold peace is needed today. Bold peace will remove senseless wars. Bold peace will remove racism, bigotry, abuse, and hatred. We should want each other to freely operate with peace and power.
BOLD PEACE! Peace and Power = Bold Peace!
Rev. Ulysses D. Allen
Director of Recruitment and Retention
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Week Two
December 5, 2022
Steadfast Love
Psalm 21
In your strength the king rejoices, O Lord, and in your help how greatly he exults! […]
His glory is great through your help; splendor and majesty you bestow on him.
“You bestow on him blessings forever; you make him glad with the joy of your presence.
For the king trusts in the Lord, and through the steadfast love of the Most High he shall not be moved.” Psalm 21:1, 5-7
Psalm 21 constitutes an expression of gratitude for victory, likely used in liturgy for the coronations of kings. The psalm acknowledges that royal success has come through the goodness of God, whose steadfast love has prompted the king to trust in God and receive God’s strength. Some of us might see how such a festive psalm could feel natural in times of great accomplishment or unexpected flourishing, but how might these words be relevant in times of failure, discouragement, or disempowerment?
Many of us have felt called to walk with those who are in pain, and to bring about positive change for all whom the powerful have sought to marginalize. When finding ourselves up against centuries-old systems of oppression and violence, however, it is easy to feel overwhelmed, helpless, and even hopeless.
What can I do that will truly make a difference in the face of so much evil? we may ask ourselves. How can I possibly make the world a better place when so much in my own life is falling apart?
Thankfully, we are not in this alone. God sees us, remembers us, and has not abandoned us. In a few weeks, at Christmas, we will celebrate the arrival—in person—of the steadfast love of the Most High. Even as we name our grief and sit with our disappointment, both individual and collective, may we find comfort and empowerment in the presence of the One who is with us, strengthening us, and partnering with us to establish peace and justice in this world.
Dr. Briana Wong
Assistant Professor of the History of World Christianities
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Week Two
December 4, 2022
Envision the Impossible
Isaiah 11:1–10
They will not hurt or destroy on all my holy mountain; for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea. Isaiah 11:9
In Isaiah 11:1-10, we find words attributed to Isaiah of Jerusalem, the 8th century BCE prophet, directed at the nation of Judah. In 722/21 BCE, the Assyrian empire had conquered the northern kingdom of Israel and forced Judah to pay tribute. This new financial strain was not born by the wealthy of Judah; it was passed along to those who had little to spare.
The prophetic vision, found in Isaiah 11:1-10, seems to echo the dreams of a people who were desperate for a better life. Since the fate of the nation of Judah was controlled by their human ruler and their relationship with the Holy, the best hope that Isaiah could offer was the promise of a future when a just and righteous ruler would end all the suffering of the poor and punish their oppressors. This new ruler would usher in a time of unprecedented peace, reflected both in nature and in the political realm.
While Isaiah envisioned a future king for Judah, the vision expanded to the possibility of any leader (or community) who would help to create a world in which natural enemies work in mutuality for the common good and everyone knows a life of wholeness (shalom) that only comes from the Divine.
To our 21st century minds, such a vision seems unimaginable. Perhaps Advent is a time to envision the impossible and then work to make it a reality.
Dr. Lisa Davison
Johnnie Eargle Cadieux Professor of Hebrew Bible and
Disciples Director of Denominational Formation
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Week One
December 3, 2022
Hope
Isaiah 40:1–11
“Comfort, O comfort my people, says your God. Speak tenderly to Jerusalem…” Isaiah 40:1-2 (NRSVUE)
When it comes to Isaiah’s chapter 40, there’s a tendency to jump into the drama of preparing a way in the wilderness, straightening out twisting highways, leveling mountains, lifting the tilted slabs of the desert. Big drama. God stuff, on a cosmic or at least geological scale.
Which means we rush past the quiet introduction, as we so often can end up doing. Hear it almost whispered, not in the trumpet refrain announcing the usual Way of the Lord:
“Comfort… oh, comfort…”
Can you hear it? Can you hear God calming and reassuring us, the people of God?
In fact, the prophet, who has already had red hot coals pushed toward his face and seen the dust of earthquakes in the Temple chambers, is told very specifically: speak tenderly.
Rev. Jeff Gill
Adjunct Faculty, Center for Ministry and Lay Training
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Week One
December 2, 2022
Legacy of Love
Acts 13:16–25
…God has brought to Israel a Savior, Jesus, as he promised… Acts 13:23
In Antioch of Pisidia, Paul (Saul’s newly-mentioned Gentile moniker) and Barnabas sit down in the synagogue on the sabbath day. After the Torah and the Prophets are read, Paul is asked to share a word of exhortation. He outlines the history of God’s covenantal actions: from the exodus to the wilderness to the Promise Land to the judges and the prophets to the kings. Paul recounts how God has provided for God’s people up to and including John and Jesus.
This is not supersessionism, but it foreshadows his image as a leader in the Gentile integration movement. Paul extends the faith tradition in light of “The Way” which John proclaimed through baptisms and Jesus modeled through his life and death. God extends continuity of care from Israel to Jesus through the Pauline church and eventually to the ends of the earth. Even to us on this day and in this place.
By remembering our history as God’s people, we recognize God’s investment in us and acknowledge those who remain enslaved and displaced. The traditions of Torah and Gospel draw our attention to God’s ever-expanding love for humankind and our responsibility to help bring about the good that God intends.
We are, after all, part of the same covenantal system in which God proclaimed “all the families of the earth will be blessed” (Gen 12:3). During the Advent season of watching and waiting, let us not only have hope that this legacy will carry us forward, let us act in ways that make it so.
Traci Gardner
Student Senate Member, MA(SJ) Student
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Week One
December 1, 2022
Hope
Psalm 72:1–7, 18–19
May he live while the sun endures, and as long as the moon throughout all generations. Psalm 72:5
What if we had a powerful leader who established justice, prosperity, and conditions for righteousness to flourish for all generations? The psalmist imagines an advocate who endures as long as the sun, as long as the moon. I share the profound longing for someone who would defend the afflicted and save the children of the needy. But I cannot muster much real hope for those possibilities. What does hope mean after we realize that the sun and the moon will endure beyond all human dreams?
The James Webb telescope is gifting our world with images that unite us in wonder beyond national borders. Photographs from the telescope include galaxies whose light took billions of years to reach us. Scientists say we are looking back in time as we see these images. My mind staggers as I try to comprehend the implications. If images travel through time, or our gaze defies time this way, how could our concept of hope change?
In an expanding, everchanging pluriverse, I find assurance that the love, compassion, and justice of the Holy endures beyond space and time. I can understand people who want a powerful figure to deliver us all from tribulations. My hope in this season of Advent and this season of human history is that we follow the stars to allow ourselves to be led by beauty and wonder. Blinded by the light of day in so many ways, we are often oblivious to infinite possibility surrounding us all. Continuing to search motivated by our longing is an act that manifests hope.
Dr. Kathy McCallie
Associate Professor of Ministerial Leadership and Ethics
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Week One
November 30, 2022
Love Wins
Isaiah 54:1–10
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. Isaiah 54:10
In this scripture, the Holy’s love becomes steadfast, overcoming the stories of “divine wrath” that make up parts of the Hebrew bible and Hollywood movies with an ancient biblical focus.
This shift promises that prior shame, disgrace, and geopolitical disaster aren’t the final word. It is noteworthy that this part of Isaiah also has the Holy taking responsibility for abandoning the people, contributing to their deep loss. “For a brief moment I abandoned you, but with great compassion I will gather you. In overflowing wrath for a moment I hid my face from you, but with everlasting love I will have compassion on you, says the Lord, your Redeemer” (v. 8).
For many who follow the way of Jesus, the hope of our Advent season is to prepare our welcome for the most compassionate one who comes to free and welcome all into the promise of steadfast love. Meditating on the words from Isaiah, I find myself drawn into a discipline of compassion this season, but compassion is hard.
Compassion requires an openness to the feelings of others and where they are. It requires an acknowledgment of my own actions and lifestyle that may contribute to suffering, fear, and anger in the world. Turning away is the easy thing to do. Turning toward and offering hope-building, steadfast-loving compassion is hard.
But with the assurance of the Holy’s steadfast love and covenant of peace, and the promised coming of the Holy into the world, true compassion is possible.
Kurt Gwartney
Senior Director of Communications and
Adjunct Faculty, Center for Ministry and Lay Training
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Week One
November 29, 2022
The Hope of Repeated Promises
Genesis 9:1–17
“…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.” 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.” Genesis 9:16-17
Earlier chapters of Genesis share destruction, flooding, death, and traumatic events, and I can imagine fear taking hold within those present wondering, “What’s next?” Instead, in Genesis 9 there is a new hope given. It shares God’s blessings of prospering and re-filling the Earth, followed by instructions for taking care of creation, and finally a promise by God to never again destroy the Earth by flood. It’s that promise God shares first in verses 8 through 11, repeats in verse 12, and again repeats in verses 16 and 17, that delivers the calming effect.
When we want to make a point to a student, church member, or others, we repeat that concept or phrase; repetition matters. This covenant was so important to God that it is repeated to Noah and his family over and over. Not only that, a part of the promise includes a symbol of a “bow” set up in the clouds so that even when it rains, every living thing doesn’t need to fear but can trust in God’s repeated promise for Earth. Each time a rainbow is set in the cloud it’s a proof of a repeated promise.
Verse 16 establishes the covenant not just between God and Noah for that time but as an eternal covenant. We, the future generation of everything living, benefit without having to have done a single thing. This everlasting promise adds another layer of hope. God is asking nothing from Noah or us in return for this promise, we are just to receive it.
God established this covenant. God has kept and will keep the agreement, and each time we see this sign we take hope in all God’s promises.
Leslie LeSieur
Senior Director of the Center for Ministry and Lay Training
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Week One
November 28, 2022
Restoration
Genesis 8:1–19
God did not forget Noah and all the animals in the ark, and sent a mighty wind over the earth so that the waters began to subside. The springs of the Deep and the windows in the heavens were closed up. The rain from the heavens stopped. The water covering the earth gradually dropped, until at the end of 150 days it was gone. Genesis 8:1-3
The crisis is over. God has not forgotten us. In this third Advent season beyond the squealing of the brakes in March 2020, we can begin to imagine what is next. It is obscured, for sure. The flood waters still hide what will be discovered later — but at least the rain has stopped.
I am fascinated by this story in Genesis, the story of Noah and the flood. It follows the tragedy in the garden, then the tragedy of Cain and Abel. In fact, as the story opens, we read, “YHWH was sorry that humankind had been created on the earth; it pained God’s heart.” When God created humans, the Holy One crowned them with the pronouncement, “...and it was very good.” What happened?
This passage in Genesis reaches back for the beautiful Hebrew word present in the first chapter, “ruah.” It can be translated: breath, wind, or spirit. It is the source of creation, what God breathed into the first human to bring life. Right here, after the world has been destroyed, God once again breathes upon the earth and the direction shifts from devastation toward restoration.
That’s what hope looks like to me. Appearing as a tiny shift, perhaps unnoticed by most, but appearing even so. Hope is like the wind when it shifts direction bringing a change in the weather. Hope is like holy breath. Hope is water receding. Hope is the life that survived against all the odds, waiting to be discovered.
We are in the first week of Advent. The darkness of the womb strongly embraces us. We are too early to catch the first light of the birth canal. Still, hope comes to the fore. May God bring hope like a fresh wind in this season.
Rev. Charla Gwartney
Adjunct Faculty, Century for Ministry and Lay Training
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Week One
November 27, 2022
A Familiar Place
Psalm 122
I was glad when they said to me, “Let us go to the house of the Lord!” Psalm 122:1
Familiar, from the Latin, “belonging to a family, of a household, intimate. Also, famulus, family; familia, household servant.
I like to attend worship. It is familiar and it always feels like home.
During seminary I served as the associate minister at First Christian Church of Stroud, Oklahoma. I worked with the youth groups and participated in Sunday worship. The kind and generous members of First Christian Church were tolerant of my youthful efforts and treated me as one of their ministers. However, I never understood myself to be a minister, not really.
I was ordained during Sunday morning worship at First Christian Church. Following worship, not one but several members said to me, “Congratulations, Reverend Ewing.” It was then, I knew I was a minister. I was home.
During Advent, we arrive at another familiar place. It is a place of arrival and coming. We recognize all those here, as we have been recognized. We are members of a common household, a gathering, in this place marked as a household of service and edged by the Lord’s Peace. In this familiar place, this Coming Place, I recognize home. I am recognized as being at home. It is a home welcoming each one, in this or any time, it is:
— the Great Family of Belonging,
—defined by acts of Service and Justice,
—and becomes the House of Hope.
I was glad when they said to me, “Let us go to the house of the Lord!”
Dr. Terry Ewing
Vice President of Advancement
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Week Four
December 25, 2021
Christmas Day: Life
John 1:1-14
What has come into being through him was life… the light for all people. John 1:4
John’s Gospel opens its presentation of Jesus with a communication metaphor, the Word. And it employs the Hebrew Bible paradigm of Wisdom the communicator.
The Hebrew Bible, notably Proverbs chapter 8, presents Wisdom as a female figure who exists “in the beginning” with God. She comes from God to communicate divine presence and purposes among humans. She seeks to draw people into relationship with God as God’s friends. Among people she experiences acceptance and rejection.
John’s Gospel borrows this paradigm. It presents Jesus as the definitive word who reveals or communicates divine presence and purposes among people.
What does Jesus communicate? “What has come into being through him was life…the light for all people” (John 1:4). Jesus manifests the life-giving, liberating, and loving purposes of God. The word becomes flesh and lives among us (John 1:14). Jesus lives in solidarity with victims of dominating and life-depleting power. He opposes the damage caused by indiscriminate and self-serving power. He pursues justice that honors the dignity of all people and their access to just societal structures and requisite resources for good life.
Communication, though, can be ambiguous. A long tradition has preferred to spiritualize and individualize this “life.” Some interpretations emphasize life that “saves souls” but ignores bodies, that focuses on the future but not the present, that concerns individuals but not societal structures and practices. Such claims ignore that the Word becomes flesh, lives among us, and offers life to all.
Dr. Warren Carter
LaDonna Kramer Meinders Professor of New Testament
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Week Four
December 24, 2021
Good News for the Working Class
Luke 2:1-20
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.” Luke 2:15
Sheep are very dependent animals and require all of their daily needs to be provided. Since they don’t have a strong survival mechanism, they are easy prey for predators. When sheep are in an open, hostile environment, they require a protector, a shepherd who guards and guides the sheep. Without a shepherd, death of the sheep is certain.
Although being a shepherd was a common profession, it was not a very well respected profession. The shepherd was not seen as noble. Instead, the shepherd was regarded as dirty, low class, and unprincipled. The shepherd, who worked outdoors all the time, had to combat the weather as well as combat carnivorous animals like wolves, bears, and lions. On occasion, a shepherd also battled thieves who sought to steal the sheep. Without a shepherd, the sheep might wander away and perish. The shepherd was required to be alert, watchful, fearless, and attentive.
On that holy night, the skies became the backdrop of a magnificent drama that invited the ordinary to participate in an extraordinary event. The night became as day as the good news was proclaimed to the socially impoverished. God calls everyone to experience saving grace. The shepherds did not question, “What is this?” or “What does this mean?” Rather, being inspired by their fidelity, they chose to collectively travel to witness what had been declared to them. Their faith made them a part of the sacred scene that we cherish during this season. Once they arrived at the manger, they kept watch over the Lamb of God who also became the Good Shepherd!
Dr. Lee H. Butler, Jr.
Vice-President of Academic Affairs and Academic Dean and
William Tabbernee Professor of the History of Religions and Africana Pastoral Theology
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Week Four
December 23, 2021
Mary’s Song in Troubled Times
Luke 1:46b–55
[G*d] has come to the aid of Israel, his child, a reminder of mercy. Luke 1:54 (Common English Bible)
Life can bring about uncertain times when it is difficult to recognize G*d’s love. The pressures of life can bombard our senses as we anticipate end-moments, those times when pain ends, and dominance is achieved. Interpretations of Mary’s song often assume this posture: eyes forward we see pre-emptive praise for Christ-mediated end-moments of salvation and victory.
I pose an alternate posture. Mary, a betrothed yet unmarried Galilean woman, was an expectant mother. Imagine her not as mother of Gd but as a young woman in a hostile, patriarchal world holding on to a promise. Imagine this vulnerable woman aware of her condition while not yet showing. Imagine Mary, living daily in ever-present awareness of being discovered and castigated. Have you ever felt vulnerable? To society? To the economy? To a virus? Amidst her danger, Mary held Gabriel’s promise that the Holy Spirit would move on her behalf, and it did. Despite cultural norms and stereotypes Mary found safety with Elizabeth. It was in Mary’s service (to Elizabeth) that she was extolled. Elizabeth’s words fell upon Mary’s ears creating a profound moment of love and affirmation, a moment prompted by the spirit. Might Mary’s song be euphoric praise for the steadfast love of Gd, articulated in the unexpected outpouring and transformational relationship fostered by Elizabeth?
Covid-19 has wreaked havoc on the world. So many of us grapple with how to live safely and authentically in times of vulnerability. I do not know what Sars-CoV2 will be like by Christmas. I’m uncertain if the delta, lambda, or nu variants will shutter church doors, national boundaries, or claim millions more lives. Yet, advent calls us to be reminded of Gd’s love, a promise embodied in Christ’s birth. May we, in our most vulnerable moments, be reminded that Gd’s love is with us, now and tomorrow.
Dr. Arthur F. Carter, Jr.
Assistant Professor of New Testament
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Week Four
December 22, 2021
An Inclusive Faith
Ephesians 2:11-22
He came and preached peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near…. Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with God’s people and also members of his household. Ephesians 2:17, 19
As we near the culmination of the celebration of Advent, the juxtaposition of today’s Hebrew and Christian lectionary texts provide an interesting meditation on the journey and transformation this Advent makes possible. Indeed, the incarnation demonstrates for us what Willie James Jennings in The Christian Imagination calls an “intimate joining” we are called to manifest in our own lives.
As those who have been grafted into another’s story, made fellow citizens and also members of God’s household, one would think by now that Christians would be better witnesses to learning from others’ varied experiences, reconciling and loving across differences. Instead, we too often use religion—whether Christianity broadly or denominations more specifically—to exclude.
By contrast, today’s Hebrew text from Micah reflects a monotheism, to be sure, but not a closed monotheism. Even in “the last days,” it allows that “all the nations may walk in the name of their gods.” Likewise, Revelation 21 surprises us with the mention of “nations” and “kings of the earth” in the New Jerusalem. Both Micah (4:2) and Revelation (21:24) speak to the nations seeking God’s wisdom and coming to walk in God’s paths.
May this Advent season’s example of humility and emptying inspire us anew to empty ourselves and open our hearts, eschewing our own “wisdom” that we may seek God’s alone and walk in the ways set before us.
Kaaryn McCall
Alumna (2020)
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Week Four
December 21, 2021
Life in the Darkness
Romans 8:18-30
For in hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what is seen? Romans 8:24
Today is the Winter Solstice. In the northern hemisphere it’s the darkest day of the year. Sometimes I think darkness gets a bad rap. The fact that the church picked this time of the year as Jesus’ birth is not a coincidence. Christianity baptized many traditions and claimed them as ours. My favorite carol is “In the Bleak Midwinter”—which fills my soul. Today I want to celebrate darkness.
In 1986 I moved to the San Luis Valley in Colorado. My 11 years in that mystical place gave me many gifts. Our home was on an acreage away from the town. Sometimes I would go outside at night just to breath the alpine air. The stars always put on a show. I had been doing this for a while when I realized that what I thought was a collection of clouds, was actually the Milky Way galaxy.
One summer we hosted an international exchange student from Japan. I will never forget walking outside with him on one of his first nights with us. He stopped and pointed to the sky, “Beautiful,” was his only word. He explained that in Tokyo you can never see the stars because “we have too much light” (light pollution).
The eighth chapter of Romans ranks up there with my favorite Christmas carol. It reminds me that at the core of our faith is the truth of hope. That hope is grounded in the reality that “the Spirit helps us in our weakness” (vs 26). In the supposed darkness of these times, whether in our communities or our beings, the forces of light and hope are present.
Rev. Dr. Mark W. Pumphrey
President of the Phillips Alumni Association
Senior Pastor at First Christian Church in Greeley, Colorado
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Week Four
December 20, 2021
Praise the LORD
Psalm 113
Praise the LORD! Praise, O servents of the LORD; praise the name of the LORD. Blessed be the name of the LORD from this time on and forevermore. From the rising of the sun to its setting the name of the LORD is to be praised. The LORD is high above all nations, and his glory above the heavens. Who is like the LORD our God, who is seated on high, who looks far down on the heavens and the earth? He raises the poor from the dust, and lifts the needy from the ash heap, to make them sit with princes, with the princes of his people. He gives the barren woman a home, making her the joyous mother of children. Praise the LORD! Psalm 113:1-9
As I reflect on 2021, I can only pull together thoughts of hope and promise. Hope stands as the foundational breath we need as humans to push from day to day. Promise is the key to a home that reminds all of us of the bountiful blessings bestowed by God to God’s people. It’s the promise that evokes a movement capable of illuminating the power and might to change lives, heal the sick, and save souls. Many lives have seen and felt much pain over the past years.
Psalm 113 is an example of the hope and promise we receive through the public and private practice of praise and worship. This is a psalm for the community to unite and build a strong tower of support. As I envision the imagery of Psalm 113, I can envision people of all races, religions, and walks of life coming together to offer affirmation of praise and gratefulness. Psalm 113 provides us with a picture of a LORD who wants to love and protect us. The LORD is in the blessing business of elevating the poor and needy to a place of importance, royalty!
During this Advent season, please remember the importance of praising the LORD! Praise the LORD who provides for you and your family. The LORD who takes away your troubled pain and gives you the power to strive to greater accomplishments. Praise the LORD who never loses a battle or faces defeat. Please remember to share with your community, family, and friends the sincere benevolence of love, peace, and joy. Praise the name of the LORD! This advent season is your season of glorifed praise. Praise the LORD!
Rev. Ulysses D. Allen
Interim Director of Recruitment and Retention
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Week Four
December 19, 2021
A Song of Love and Justice
Luke 1:46-55
“My Soul Magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for he has looked with favor upon his servant.... He has brought down the powerful from their thrones, and lifted up the lowly; he has filled the hungry with good things and sent the rich away empty.” Luke 1:46-48, 52-53.
The Magnificat has become one of the most potent pieces of justice literature in the entirety of scripture for me. Growing up half-Roman Catholic and half-Pentecostal in rural Oklahoma, I remember hearing about Mary in very different tones depending on which side of the family we enjoyed after-church meals with.
Today, I honor and revere her.
Not just because of the clear connection she has to the expectation we all experience in Advent. Not as a woman created in the image of a rather absurd, westernized “meek and mild” archetype. Not even as the Theotokos, or, the Mother of God. But as an exemplar of the Holy’s commitment to love and justice.
Mary exclaims with Divine conviction that God’s eternal promise to lift the lowly, fill the hungry with good things, fulfill promises, and love with abiding presence will never falter. But it doesn’t stop there, for this only represents half of Mary’s exclamation. The powerful, the rich, the proud, and the greedy find justice in a different way within her prayer. “Meek and mild?” I think not.
The Magnificat shakes me from my privileged torpor to remind me that I am not always to whom the prayer is meant to comfort. Mary’s song is one of both comfort and retribution. Love and justice. Renewal and doom. As I greet the Living God in Christ this Christmas, will I find comfort in Mary’s song? Will you?
May we all be shocked by Mary’s Song. May the Magnificat help us realize justice, and indeed love, this Advent.
Kyle Miller-Shawnee
Interim Director of Admissions and Student Services
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Week Three
December 18, 2021
A Roller-Coaster Season
Isaiah 66:7-11; Luke 13:31-35
The sound of an uproar from the city!...The sound of the Lord repaying his enemies what they have earned. Isaiah 66:6 (Common English Bible)
The Advent season is not for persons who want only “ups” in life. Take Lucy Van Pelt of Peanuts fame. She complained to Charlie Brown, “Why can’t my life be all ‘ups?’ If I want all ‘ups,’ why can’t I have them?...I don’t want any ‘downs!’ I just want ‘ups’ and ‘ups’ and ‘ups!’
In contrast to Lucy, we have Isaiah and Luke, two masters of sending our imaginations on fabulous ups and terrible downs. They juxtapose images worthy of a Salvador Dali painting.
Isaiah’s author tells of Jerusalem’s post-exilic rebirth being like a woman delivering before labor begins. The returnees are newborns drinking from Jerusalem’s milk-swollen breasts. But before and after those joyous and tender images are condemnations of God’s enemies. “The sound of an uproar from the city!...The sound of the LORD repaying his enemies what they have earned.” Downs with the ups.
In Luke, friendly sometimes-sparring partners warn Jesus that Herod wants him dead. Rather than saying, “Thank you,” and taking cover, Jesus tells them he is headed for Jerusalem, the place of danger for those who speak truth laced with justice and compassion. Jerusalem here is not the loving new mother but prophet-slayer. This time, it is Jesus who would play the loving mother. He longs to gather the city’s people as a hen gathers her chicks, but no one comes.
Advent is not a time of pure joy or terror. It is a mixture of warning (the downs), the demand for change (always a gut-jerking ride), and wild promises of a more joyous future (ups!). I would sure prefer Lucy’s world, but that is not where we live, especially during Advent.
Dr. Gary Peluso-Verdend
President Emeritus and
Executive Director of the Center for Religion in Public Life
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Week Three
December 17, 2021
Remembering and Persevering!
Hebrews 10:32-39
So do not throw away your confidence; it will be richly rewarded. Hebrews 10:35 (NIV)
We have heard of stories of people who have waited for loved ones to return from a journey or an assignment and what a joy it is when they finally receive them back. We have also heard of some people who have unfortunately given up “a few minutes” before realizing their dreams.
I once heard a story about a miner who gave up and sold off what he considered a useless mine but unknown to him, he was just a few meters away from the gold that he had been looking for most of his life.
In Hebrews 10:32-39, the author talks about remembering our love or commitment to faith in Jesus. “So do not throw away your confidence, it will be richly rewarded,” (v. 35). “You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what God has promised” (v. 37).
As we await the coming of the Lord, we are being called upon:
To Wait patiently on God’s promise
To Remember our love and commitment to the message of Jesus.
To Persevere in order to receive what the Lord has promised.
Do you know what the Lord has promised you? Knowing what the Lord has promised us is one of the things that will help us to persevere and not give up, especially when the journey gets hard. As we wait on the Lord’s coming, let us do so joyfully and with perseverance, knowing that the Lord is coming soon and will not delay! Are you expectant?
Judith Nakibuuka
Financial Accountant
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Week Three
December 16, 2021
Embodying the Covenant
Jeremiah 31:31-34
“I will put My Teaching into their inmost being and inscribe it upon their hearts. Then I will be their God, and they shall be My people.” Jeremiah 31:33b
The text contains some of the most familiar words of this prophetic book. Jeremiah is speaking to the exiles in Babylon and envisioning the future that God intends for them. Through the prophet, God promises them a future, when God will “build and plant” the people in Judah and establish a “new” covenant.
It is this last promise that needs some closer consideration. What about the covenant will be “new?” God does not say that there will be new commandments or teachings; the content will not change. Rather, it is how people will know the covenant that will be new. Whereas in their past, the Israelites had a tradition of a “written,” or text-based, covenant with God (though that was probably a later development), now God says that the covenant will be “written” on their hearts. There will be no need for monuments containing the commandments or for teaching others about God’s desires. All will know the covenant intuitively.
How could this be possible? Certainly, children and new community members will need instruction in what the covenant requires, wouldn’t they? There is no reason to take this text literally, implying that no one will ever need a reminder about how God wants us to live.
If a community structures its life together with a clear sense of accountability and acts in ways that consider the current need and possible future results, it will embody the covenant requirements. They will love God with all their being and love their neighbors as themselves; their living will “teach” the next generation. Their faith will lead them into a new future.
Dr. Lisa W. Davison
Johnnie Eargle Cadieux Professor of Hebrew Bible and
Director of Formation for DOC Students
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Week Three
December 15, 2021
Sacred Autonomy
Micah 4:8-13
But they do not know the thoughts of the LORD; they do not understand his plan… Micah 4:12a
A common trope in novels, television, and movies is the damsel in distress. A woman, usually young and beautiful, is captured by an evil villain who threatens her life and virtue, thus enticing the hero, usually a young and equally beautiful man, into the villain’s lair to rescue the fair lady at risk. A great fight ensues, the leading man carries away the leading lady, who, of course, falls hopelessly in love with her rescuer, and they ride happily off into the sunset.
In this text, the city of Jerusalem is depicted as a damsel in distress being held captive in Babylon, waiting to be rescued, not by a human hero, but by the LORD. Her captors are drooling over her, thinking that she is there for the taking.
But Lady Jerusalem does not sit around waiting to be rescued. In fact, rescue is not even in the LORD’s plan for her. Instead, God’s plan is for her to take matters into her own hands and provide her own rescue herself.
She has a “king” and a “counselor” within her (v. 9)—her own strong spirit, breathed into her by the God who created her. God’s plan for her, and for all people of all genders, is that we all have sovereignty over our own selves, a king and a counselor within each of us.
We all were created and called very good by a loving God whose desire for all of us is to flourish in lives of sacred autonomy, living out every dream that the Divine has for us and that we have for ourselves.
Rev. Renee Goodwin
Theological Reflection Group Facilitator and
Pastor of First Christian Church of Girard, KS
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Week Three
December 14, 2021
Where Faith Leads
Numbers 16:20-35
…when the ground under them burst asunder, the earth opened its mouth, and swallowed them up with their households, all Korah’s people, and all their possessions. They all went down alive into Sheol, with all that belonged to them… Numbers 16:32-33 (Jewish Study Bible)
What a satisfying ending to anyone’s enemies, no? So ends the tale of Korah, great challenger to Moses’s leadership. The interesting bit about the tale is that at first blush it looks like Korah’s beef with Moses is really about democracy versus divine appointment.
Korah presents Moses with a pretty good complaint, stating that all of the Israelites are holy. He demands, “Why then do you exalt yourselves above the assembly of the Lord?” Think of Pete’s confrontation with Everett in O Brother, Where Art Thou?: “Who elected you leader of this outfit?” Unlike Everett, Moses doesn’t have a snappy comeback. Instead, Moses prostrates himself and begins to consult with G-d.
He perhaps senses a demagogue in Korah. Korah is a Levite and already has special privileges, so why is he looking to end Moses’ leadership? As a prophetic figure Moses knows there is more to leading G-d’s people to G-d, that land of milk and honey, than simply declaring everyone finished in achieving holiness.
Martin Buber suggests that Moses knows, through G-d, that the road to learning how to become a holy people is a long one and must be hewn across generations of choices “between the way of G-d and the wrong paths of their own hearts.” Where does faith lead you this season?
Sandy Shapoval
Dean of the Library and Research Services
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Week Three
December 13, 2021
Korah’s Rebellion
Numbers 16:1-19
And the glory of the Lord appeared to the whole congregation. Numbers 16:19b
Whichever word you use for it — incarnation, real presence, embodiment — a central theme for Advent and Christmas is how the human Jesus reflects the work of God in a flesh-and-blood world. The next question, then, is how and where this holy work manifests in a real way today.
Though the biblical story of Korah’s rebellion requires more exegetical unpacking than we can do here, it does offer an interesting perspective on how a fiery God shows up in the midst of challenge to reveal what is holy. “And the glory of the Lord appeared to the whole congregation” (Num 16:19b).
In Korah’s case, the result was to reinforce the status quo, Moses and Aaron as God’s chosen leaders. Ponder with me the possibility of a different result.
What if we ignite a fire within by challenging our existing assumptions about our own holy work? What if we begin seriously to question the traditions and structures in which we and those around us operate? What if we interrogate ourselves, our own motives, our own conscious or unconscious participation in systems we thought were neutral when it comes to justice and liberation?
Imagine this Advent as a season of rebellion against complacency, a time of self-examination and proactive exploration in which we pay attention to how a fiery God shows up in the challenge and reveals to us anew both the internal and external holy work to which we are called. This, too, is incarnation.
Rev. Susanna Weslie Southard
Dean of the Chapel and Affiliate Instructor for Ministry Studies
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Week Three
December 12, 2021
Extended Warranty
Philippians 4:4-7
Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice. Philippians 4:4
If you are a mainline, Protestant person of a certain age, you likely have a tune going through your head about now. “Rejoice… rejoice… and again I say, rejoice.” You may also be hearing that music as a round that will take a while to exit your brain. You may also be thinking of the lack of things to rejoice about over the past year.
The “rejoicing” expressed in this text is not a happy kind of feeling. Instead, it’s a call to a sense of total well-being in the promises of a Divine One whose desire is for our protection and peace. This is a total protection plan, the most extended warranty of warranties, far beyond anything a telemarketer could offer, regardless of how many times they call.
Folks in Philippi get a reminder in this letter that while they may not live in the most welcoming neighborhood in the Roman empire, they are to trust their faith to lead them to a life of shalom, a peace that “exceeds human imagination” (Charles B. Cousar). They are reminded that their hearts and minds are also guarded by the Divine One, even as they navigate persecution from without and disagreements within their community.
The folks of Philippi know that as faithful followers of Jesus, the one we await this season, they are expected to also share this encompassing love, this peace that “exceeds human imagination” outside of their community, even to those who persecute them, rejoicing in the Lord always and in all ways.
Kurt Gwartney
Senior Director of Communications
Instructor, Center for Ministry and Lay Training
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Week Two
December 11, 2021
Second Kind of Faith
Luke 1:57-66
But his mother said, “No; he is to be called John.” Luke 1:60
Faith is tricky. For some, faith comes easily, a childlike trust that God is always there, a belief that God hears every prayer, a certainty that God has a plan about everything. For others, faith is more difficult, like trying to grasp a handful of fog or see the wind. It’s there, but not easily describable or concrete.
Looking into the future is an act of the second kind of faith. We can’t know what’s there with certainty; we can only peer into it with near-sighted vision. Yet our faith can give us an underlying hope in the future, as in the passage from Isaiah.
For a people in exile, dreaming of a return home, it would have been easy to succumb to hopelessness. But with their faith, the words of Isaiah about the future, about repairing, restoration, and rebuilding were like trying to grasp that fog. It was there and not there at the same time.
Like the amazement surrounding the naming of John the Baptist, there is wonder about both the present and the future. As John’s name was clearly decided, people still wondered about his future—and their own—as they wondered what he would become. His future was not yet written but had promise and potential.
And so it is with us. As we wait through Advent and through life, may we embrace the fog and the wind, and the steadfast God there through it all.
Kelly Youngblood
Student Senate Member and Master of Divinity Student
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Week Two
December 10, 2021
Cheerful Giving and Receiving
Amos 8:4-12 and 2 Corinthians 9:1-15
Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift! 2 Corinthians 9:15
Has shopping for Christmas presents ever felt more like a grudging obligation than a joy? I have to confess that most years at least some of my gift-giving feels compulsory rather than cheerful.
I admire my few, brave, counter-cultural friends who refuse to participate in gift exchanges at Christmas. I wish I would follow their example of rejecting the idolatry of consumerism and commercialism that conscripts so many of us into buying and material junk as a token of love. Yet, I can hardly imagine opting out of the custom.
This lesson from Amos reminds me that greed is a human tendency with serious consequences. Ideally, the practice of gift giving could be a rehearsal for generous sharing — the opposite of greed. In the 2 Corinthians passage we read about one community’s outpouring of love to support another community. When love flows between those who can give to those who are in need, the Commonwealth of God is manifest in visible, tangible ways.
I am intrigued by the line in verse 15 about God’s gift that is indescribable, inexpressible, unspeakable. Can we say anything at all about that gift? Perhaps we come closest to experiencing that gift through the wonder and hope that stems from the miraculous power that can free us from greed. The insatiable, acquisitive drive in me is a cruel master. It is a miracle when I am freed from grasping in order to appreciate and share with others instead of wanting more for myself.
May your giving and receiving be filled with potent cheerfulness this Christmas.
Dr. Kathleen D. McCallie
Associate Professor of Ministerial Leadership and Ethics
and Director of the Doctor of Ministry Program
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Week Two
December 9, 2021
Faith Leads Us to Peace
Isaiah 12:2-6
Yes, indeed— God is my salvation. I trust, I won’t be afraid. God- yes God!— is my strength and song, best of all, my salvation! Isaiah 12:2 (The Message)
At first glance, you feel the peace presented in this joyful song, but the prophet Isaiah shared these words in a world full of doom and gloom. The people of Judah had struggles, fears, divisiveness, and uncertainty. This passage is a much-needed bright spot sharing of the future day when we draw together to give thanks and praise.
Today’s struggles, fears, inequalities, and other crises echo Isaiah’s time. We also experience personal strife, worry, illness, accidents, and loss. We feel frail and very human. It seems too much to join in or repeat this beautiful song; to trust, and not be afraid.
When we are fearful though, it helps us to understand that God is always faithful. The Spirit reaches to us from the pages and across the centuries to let us know that God is with us, is our strength, stands beside us, and even carries us through painful moments or worrying times. Grace and love are gifts bestowed upon us; compassion and comfort are blessings that sustain us, enabling us to withstand what overwhelms us. This verse is a promise that can help us get through troubles and personal challenges.
During this season of Advent, as nights seem so dark and the relentlessness of this world keeps us worried, we wait, just like the people of Isaiah’s time, for “the future day” when God’s salvation will come to us in all its fullness, we won’t be afraid. We are drawn toward that, ready to “sing praise-songs to God. Let the whole earth know what’s been done!” (Isaiah 12:6). We celebrate with the whole people of God. Can we get any more peace than that?
Leslie LeSieur
Senior Director of the Center for Ministry and Lay Training
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Week Two
December 8, 2021
A Hope Filled Longing for Joy
Isaiah 35: 3-7
Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf unstopped; then the lame shall leap like a deer, and the tongue of the speechless sing for joy. For waters shall break forth in the wilderness, and streams in the desert; the burning sand shall become a pool, and the thirsty ground springs of water; the haunt of jackals shall become a swamp, the grass shall become reeds and rushes. Isaiah 35:5-7
Alienation is one of the conditions of living in exile. In Isaiah’s writings, we encounter people living under chaotic, disorienting experiences of oppression where there is a scarcity of hope.
For many living in the middle of an ongoing pandemic and the heightened racial and political tensions of the last five years, there is a profound sense of estrangement. One consequence of isolation and ongoing tensions is the struggle to maintain a sense of hope. The reminder that joy is more than a possibility it is a promise of abundant justice and healing.
In the wilderness of separation parched by feelings of loneliness and uncertainty about the future, the memory of connection and wholeness lingers in the distance like a mirage. The longing for refreshing springs of renewed health and relief from the suffering of Creation and her Peoples.
Isaiah reminds us there is still hope and the potential for joy as we remind one another and bear each other up while navigating the desert. God’s promise bubbles forth and the thirst abates and gives way to song. Even in precarious surroundings, we are not alone in our sojourn. Together, we can participate in compassion in such a way that a place of communion is created.
Dr. Lisa A. Dellinger
Visiting Assistant Professor of Constructive Theologies
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Week Two
December 7, 2021
Someday At Christmas
Isaiah 19:18-25
In that day there will be a highway from Egypt to Assyria. The Assyrians will go to Egypt and the Egyptians to Assyria. The Egyptians and Assyrians will worship together…The LORD Almighty will bless them, saying, “Blessed be Egypt my people, Assyria my handiwork, and Israel, my inheritance.” Isaiah 19:23, 25 (NIV)
Someday at Christmas, men won’t be boys,
Playing with bombs like kids play with toys.
One warm December, our hearts will see
A world where men are free.
—Stevie Wonder, “Someday at Christmas” (1967)
When I was a child, we put up decorations while listening to this holiday classic every Christmas. As a child, the music moved me. But now, as an adult, I value the lyrics equally. The song’s message is just as important now as it was in 1967. In my view, it is such a fitting song for Advent.
I often wonder if Stevie knows how his song dovetails nicely with the prophetic and eschatological themes of Advent. Like the prophet Isaiah, he penned a vision of the future where joy, peace, hope, and love will be the order of the day. However, what’s important to note is that no one will be left out of this vision. In the oracles from Isaiah, we read that although God will hold Egypt and Assyria accountable for their oppression of God’s people, yet still God includes them in this reconciling work.
This Advent, may we consider how anticipating Christ’s coming into the world involves drawing the circle of grace wider. We embrace those already in the fold, those pushed to the margins, and yes, even our enemies. In Advent, we anticipate restorative justice not through building walls but through paving highways that all may enter the ever-inclusive Kin-dom of God. The fruit of our faithful labor may not be immediately apparent. But as Stevie would put it, the fulfilment will come “maybe not in time for you and me, but someday at Christmastime.”
Keith Anthony Bethell
Student Senate Member and Master of Theological Studies Student
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Week Two
December 6, 2021
A Word of Comfort
Isaiah 40:1-11
The grass withers, the flower fades; but the word of our God will stand forever. Isaiah 40:8
I used to work at a summer camp. During training, we would rehearse a list of values and principles that would guide our work together. Most of them have faded from my memory but one embedded itself in my life: When confronted with changes big and small, the twinge (or wave) of anxiety I feel is met with the phrase, “I am flexible and adapt to change.”
It helps us all to be flexible and adapt to change because change is inevitable. Viruses mutate. People get sick. People die. People grow. People move. New jobs start. Families grow. Families divide. Seasons pass. Grass withers. Flowers fall. Grass grows. Flowers bloom. The list could go on and on and on.
But, as Bon Jovi sings, “the more things change, the more they stay the same.” It often seems like a lot of the troubles in our world endure as steadfastly as God’s love. Global warming continues to progress at a terrifying pace. Police brutality and the killing of oppressed peoples persists. The pandemic rages on. Again, the list could go on and on and on.
Hear a word of comfort and call this advent season: in the midst of it all, God is steadfast and sure. We are flexible and adapt to change! We work with God, responding to the needs of the world, ushering in change that brings relief to the suffering and liberates the oppressed.
Dr. Allie Utley
Assistant Professor Liturgy and Practical Theology
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Week Two
December 5, 2021
Work in Progress
Philippians 1:3-11
I am confident of this, that the one who began a good work among you will bring it to completion by the day of Jesus Christ. Philippians 1:6
My mother is an artist. All my life I have been in an artistic environment, within a family of artists. I spent most of those early years around my mother’s art and watching her paint.
Artists see differently. Where I might see a tree or a person, my mother sees a leaf or a pair of hands. Upon a blank canvas she would begin using broad and sweeping strokes as she sketched the shapes. Then, these vague sketches would begin to take form, becoming clear and distinct.
As she prepared her palette with different colors of paint, I would imagine how those colors might be applied. I would be baffled as she began to apply the paint: mixing, combining, creating texture and leading the colors to follow her vision.
Soon, I was able to see these forms as a landscape, portrait or still life. Gradually, the painting would be revealed. I could see it. Then, my eyes saw what she had seen all along.
In this season of preparation, waiting and arrival we gather around the Artist once more. We have lived within a sketch of the world, jumbled and indistinct, plain and without color, empty of the form we long to see, to now stand in awe before the promised masterpiece of forgiveness and compassion, spoken of across our generations. Our eyes have been sharpened and grown accustomed, by faith, as we peer over the Artist’s shoulder, once more.
May this season of Advent become the living gallery in which our wandering sight opens wide and we fall upon our knees before a work of sprawling majesty, in which, we too are portrayed.
Dr. Terry Ewing
Vice President of Advancement
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Week One
December 4, 2021
Too Big To Fail, Too Small To Matter?
Malachi 4:1-6
See, the day is coming, burning like an oven, when all the arrogant and all evildoers will be stubble; the day that comes shall burn them up, says the Lord of hosts, so that it will leave them neither root nor branch. But for you who revere my name the sun of righteousness shall rise, with healing in its wings. You shall go out leaping like calves from the stall. Malachi 4:1-2
“Too big to fail.” The phrase littered public discourse during the 2007-2008 global financial crisis. The theory, though, had been postulated decades earlier: that certain corporations are so complex, massive, and interconnected that their failure would bring ruin to the entire worldwide economic system. As a result, they simply cannot be allowed to fail, even if failure is the natural result of their incompetence and corruption.
It doesn’t take a genius to see how this leads to abuse and injustice. If an organization or individual is seen as so essential to a system’s survival that they cannot be allowed to fail, then that organization or individual may commit any abuse they like in service of their success. Those with less power may suffer, but what other options have they got? The disempowered depend upon the system’s survival for their own survival, but the system only depends on the one deemed too big to fail.
Which is why the “sun of righteousness” image in this passage from Malachi is so audacious. Every living creature is at the mercy of the sun for its survival. What sort of sunshine is simultaneously hot enough to burn evildoers to stubble, yet gentle enough to coax tender grass out of the ground so that young cows may be set to graze on it? When have the cosmos ever shown themselves to be partial to righteousness? Can God, the maker of the cosmos, intervene on behalf of the dispossessed? Has it ever been so? Will it ever be so?
Dr. Sarah Morice Brubaker
Associate Professor of Christian Systematic Theology
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Week One
December 3, 2021
Meeting People Where We/They Are
Philippians 1:18b-26
Yes, and I will continue to rejoice, for I know that through your prayers and the help of the Spirit of Jesus Christ this will turn out for my deliverance. It is my eager expectation and hope that I will not be put to shame in any way, but that by my speaking with all boldness, Christ will be exalted now as always in my body, whether by life or by death. For to me, living is Christ and dying is gain. Philippians 18b-21
Sometimes circumstances can leave us feeling stuck. These days we don’t have to look far to experience fear, dismay, anger, sorrow. In our communities, across the nation, on the far side of the globe, and perhaps in our own homes, opportunities for distress abound. Our present realities press in on us, and we can be left feeling numb, and without focus.
Under house arrest and chained to a guard for the better part of two years, the Apostle Paul faced trying circumstances. Circumstances that most of us, fortunately, will never experience. I can hardly imagine a less inspiring environment from which to proclaim the message of Christ. It would have been easy for Paul to give up and accept his confinement as the end of his ministry. After all, he didn’t even know if he would live or die.
Instead, Paul was consumed by passion and a determination to continue to boldly proclaim the gospel no matter his personal outcome. You’ve heard of meeting people where they are? Paul took the phrase to the extreme and continued to build up and to reassure and rejoice with the believers in Philippi from his place of incarceration. He went as far as to say that whether he lived or died, he couldn’t lose. Wow.
Holy One, help us to meet people where they are no matter where we happen to be. Remind us that in times of virtual distancing and limited face-to-face interaction, your desires for our lives remain steady. Give us the courage to face all circumstances, even those that produce suffering, as opportunities to make a difference in the world each day.
Sharon Russ
Executive Assistant to Advancement and Donor Relations Specialist
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Week One
December 2, 2021
Light is Coming
Luke 1:68-79
By the tender mercy of our God, the dawn from on high will break upon us, to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace. Luke 1:78-79
To be at all cognizant of one’s location in history is to know the moments when blessings have flowed. Or, rather, faithful existence requires that we practice some degree of even-keeled honesty over trying seasons before us, when grief takes the form of future stories lost.
What perhaps makes this honesty most challenging is that it demands as much sobriety in the face of God’s gifts as it does for times when God feels absent. For faith practitioners of a progressive persuasion, the problem often is not our ability to sustain faith during seasons of drought; it is instead the audacity to consider that God actually remembered us. Self-worth is a theological issue prone to overcorrection.
In the opening chapter of Luke’s Gospel, we witness Elizabeth and Zechariah navigate this tension over God’s providence in a disarming fashion. Their hope for a child had long vanished by the time the angel of the Lord visits Zechariah, revealing that Elizabeth would soon give birth to a son named John. To the delight of those of us who resent perfect believers, Zechariah is not without his doubts. Before praising the Lord God of Israel in verse 68, he interrogates the angel of the Lord in verse 18, inquiring into how it is possible for God to remember him in the eleventh hour.
For those of us prone to despair in the darker and colder months of Advent, the closing words of Zechariah’s prophecy in Luke 1 pose a possibility that may take time to accept: “By the tender mercy of our God, the dawn from on high will break upon us, to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace.”
Dr. Peter Capretto
Assistant Professor of Pastoral Care in Religion and Culture
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Week One
December 1, 2021
This Too Shall Pass?
Psalm 90
For a thousand years in your sight are like yesterday when it is past, or like a watch in the night. Psalm 90:4
Psalm 90 points out that time is experienced differently for God than it is for us. What we experience is just a blip in time, “a thousand years…are like yesterday.” We run the risk of allowing this time-perception difference to minimize what is happening right now in our lives.
In the middle of a pandemic (third wave, fourth wave, who knows anymore), fires destroying land and forests, and weather destroying cities and people destroying each other—this time seems like an eternity, a never-ending horror movie. We can’t run fast enough. We just seem to keep falling down and making things worse. Will we ever be able to leave this phase of peril and destruction? This isn’t just a blink of the eye to us; it is our all-consuming existence.
Enter Jesus. The celebration of the birth of Jesus offers us moments of peace, hope, joy and love in the middle of what feels like death, chaos and destruction. A friend recently gave birth. I sat and held the sleeping newborn. The only reminder of the world circumstances I had was the mask on my face.
Nothing else mattered in that moment. Time slowed down. The contentment and peace the baby had as she slept transferred to me. This magical transference is mystical, divine, the peace and love and joy and hope that we all need.
All the chaos around them had to completely disappear when Mary and Joseph held Jesus. That is what Jesus brings us now. The hope and joy and peace and love that we all need. During this Advent season may we steal those moments in the midst of the current chaos.
Malisa Pierce
Senior Director of Stewardship and Alumnae/i Relations
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Week One
November 30, 2021
Our Responsibility
2 Samuel 7:18-29
…for you, O Lord God, have spoken, and with your blessing shall the house of your servant be blessed forever. 2 Samuel 7:29b
In our reading from 2 Samuel, David is sitting before the Lord, confidently spinning out a theology of conquest, celebrating the way God has chosen Israel, and seen fit to use Israel’s military success to establish his, God’s (or might David mean his own) reputation. David’s humility is eloquent, deferring to God’s power and righteousness, but celebrating too—and just a few chapters away from his own fall in the seizing of Bathsheba—how God will establish the house of Israel “forever.”
It is a very human longing—the promise, the guarantee, of forever, of eternal rewards—a longing for divine power, for love that doesn’t end, for certainty, for abundant fullness—that is the longing for a protective God—for a transcendence untouched by pain that protects us and rewards us for our obedience. The problem, perhaps, is not simply with David’s pride going before a fall, but with this vision of God itself—a God whose power protects us in exchange for our right belief, our worship and faithful obedience.
This advent, I wonder afresh at the vulnerability of the child born to Mary and Joseph, the painful ambiguity of her pregnancy, the courage of her yes to the angel, and the courage of Joseph’s yes as well, and I grieve for all the “innocents” slaughtered by Herod, without angels to protect them. What if this Advent we take seriously the presence of immigrant children, separated from families, lost in bureaucracies, pawns of ideological struggles, as figures of Jesus in need of a place of rest, and needing the courage of our response? What if, in seeing all of nature itself in climate travail, we trust not in God’s power to heal the world, but the call to our own responsibility to love and care for the world?
Dr. Joe Bessler
Robert Travis Peake Professor of Theology
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Week One
November 29, 2021
A Patient God
2 Peter 3
But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day. The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance. 2 Peter 3: 8-9 (NIV)
This has been a whirlwind of a year. If I were to write this devotion in the beginning of the summer, like I had planned, when COVID seemed to be under control, I would have written about hope in the movement of the Holy. People were getting vaccinated, ICUs stopped being overrun. It would have seemed like a great analogy as the coming of the Lord mostly represents hope to me. I think about being a child sick in school and having the nurse tell me that my mother was coming to get me. I knew that when she came, she would make things better.
But now, it is the end of the summer. Delta variant is more easily spread affecting many who chose not to get vaccinated to protect themselves and the more vulnerable around them that could not get vaccinated and in my county, the hospitals are more overrun than they have ever been. I am tired of humanity.
Now I feel like the little sister that has been mistreated and threaten my assailant by saying, “My big brother is coming for you! I knew that he would make things better and get ‘em!”
Thankfully, we are not under my control. Peter tells us that we are under the control of a more patient God. 2 Peter tells us that God is not slow, but patient and giving humanity time to get it right. That means that we have the ability to change course and do what is right. Maybe God believes we can get it right and I should too.
Dr. Annie Lockhart Gilroy
Assistant Professor of Christian Education and Practical Theology
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Week One
November 28, 2021
Hope
Luke 21:25-36
Now when these things begin to take place, stand up and raise your heads, because your redemption is drawing near. Luke 21:28
I am, down to the very bottom of my soul, an optimist. I am the person who, when pushed off the roof of a 20-story building, shouts to the person standing at the 10th-story window, “So far, everything is going great!”
Except this year. This year our communities continue to deal with COVID-19 and the information and misinformation that divide us. This year the women of Afghanistan, not to mention the men and children, are under siege again by a body-destroying, soul-sapping form of sexism. This year rallies in support of white supremacy attract more devotees while chronic frustration ignites arguments and fistfights in airports. This year my friends in New Orleans and California deal with the social and economic turmoil of climate change. This year my beloved partner of almost 35 years passed away.
This year I read the warnings of the Lukan apocalypse without optimism. I fill each word of disaster with the scenes of the year almost gone—bombs exploding at airport gates, wreckage floating, houses burning, hospitals filled with people literally coughing their lungs up. And my optimism turns into a net with a large hole at the bottom of my fall from the 20-story building.
Which means that now I can truly hope. My heart is no longer weighed down by a false optimism that keeps me from feeling the pain of the world or from sensing my own deep wounds. I can look out for signs of the presence of the Messiah among us, both transcendent and immanent, both beyond time and in time. And I can pray with you for the strength and the courage to hope in the face of all that has gone awry.
Dr. Nancy Claire Pittman
President and
Stephen J. England Associate Professor of the Practice of Ministry
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ADVENT WEEK FOUR
December 24, 2020
Peace: A Way of Life
Luke 2:1-14 (15-20)
“Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace among those whom he favors.”
Luke 2:14
Peace is such a Christmas theme, isn’t it?
I’ve heard sermons on how you can have peace in your heart
- when you’re doing Christmas shopping,
- when you’re cooking Christmas dinner,
- when you have a houseful of relatives you don’t like.
Peace in your heart—no doubt there are apps and breathing exercises for that.
But it’s not what the angels proclaim in this first Christmas cantata.
“Peace on earth.” (Luke 2:14)
They’re not talking about cardiac peace but peace on earth.
First Isaiah proclaims a child who is to be Prince of Peace (Isa 9:6). The Christian tradition has often read this passage in relation to Jesus (reinforced by Handel’s Messiah). But Isaiah was not talking about Jesus—perhaps King Hezekiah (ruled 715-687 BCE).
Judea was threatened by Assyrian imperial oppression. The prophet anticipates a time when that menace would end. “The rod of the oppressor” will be broken; there will be “endless peace” (Isa 9:4, 7). The vision is not just of the end of military threat. It’s a vision of “justice and righteousness” (Isa 9:7).
Peace in the biblical tradition is not the absence of stress, anxiety, war. It’s not based on domination, military conquest, quests for greatness.
Biblical peace concerns a society marked by just interaction among all people. It embraces the dignity of all people made in the image of God regardless of race, gender, sexual orientation, social status. It works for equal access for all people to the resources and opportunities necessary for good and satisfying life.
Peace is a fine Christmas, angelic vision but biblical—Christmas—peace requires a year-long way of life.
Dr. Warren Carter PhD
LaDonna Kramer Meinders Professor of New Testament
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ADVENT WEEK FOUR
December 23, 2020
A Triumphant Love
Mark 11:1-11
Then those who went ahead and those who followed were shouting, “Hosanna! Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord!” Mark 11:9
Love is a word that is used in our homes, workplace, and with our friends. And yet love is the one thing that we long to have in our lives. Most of the time it is utilized to identify with someone how we feel concerning them. However, love should be used by showing action of how one feels and not merely the talk of it. God exhibits this type of love toward us all. You do not have to be in a certain social or economic class for God to love you. God gives an Agape love to everyone. It is unconditional no matter your thoughts, deeds, or actions. God sent Jesus in this world because God loves us and to redeem our souls.
Jesus made a triumphant entrance into Jerusalem. Jesus was not a part of the elite or wealthy but was walking and talking as if he had authority. The actions of Jesus caused the leaders at that time to make plans to punish him. One example of this is when Jesus sent his disciples out to retrieve the donkey. Not just any donkey but a specific one and to tell anyone who asked that the Lord needed it. It was God’s infinite love for people that Jesus was granted such power and authority to give hope. As Jesus entered Jerusalem the people were crying out to God to be saved through praises.
It was God’s victorious demonstration of love that gave Jesus the mandate to be a sacrifice for you and me. As we continue during this Advent, let us remember God is love and gives love to all. Let us continue to live obediently and know that it will lead us to victory every time.
Claudette President
Student Senate Member and Master of Divinity Student
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ADVENT WEEK FOUR
December 22, 2020
America’s Wanting Love: Mercy as Covenant
Luke 1:46b – 55
What we need today in the onward march of humanity is a public sentiment in favor of common justice and simple mercy … [T]wo things are wanting in American civilization—a keener and deeper, broader and tenderer sense of justice [and] a sense of humanity… — Frances E. W. Harper, 1875
Today’s devotional text presents Mary as theologian and lyricist. Drawing from Jewish scripture she asserts that, “G*d’s mercy (exists) in generation after generation on behalf of those who respectfully revere him.” The divine mercy depicted in Mary’s song, however, reverses neither her moral nor religious state but alienation caused by societal strictures that denied her full humanity: poverty, Jewishness, femaleness, premarital pregnancy.
Mercy, traditionally, offers lenient judgment to admittedly guilty and blameworthy petitioners. Such mercy judges Mary’s class, ethnicity/race, religion, gender, and circumstance as undesirable, of her own making, and requiring transcendence. Judicial mercy demands full submission to institutions in hopes that those controlling said institutions use their privilege to protect petitioners from the very same systems. This toxic mercy buttresses unjust systems and beats the downtrodden into a posture where relief requires submission and pardons become propaganda.
Mary’s song, with its psalter allusions, invokes an alternative covenant-oriented mercy as love or hesed (steadfast love, loyalty). Here, mercy symbolizes that unbreakable, steadfast love and loyalty that is the essence of Gd’s covenantal devotion toward humanity. Despite society’s judgment, Mary’s soul rejoices because Gd’s hesed recognizes her value and worth.
Some 145 years ago, Frances Harper poignantly described America at social, moral, and religious crossroads. Her calls for common justice and simple mercy tragically fell before a hard-hearted nation. In this 2020, marred by COVID-19 and routine evidence of police brutality against unarmed Black folk, Mary’s song and Harper’s call exhort Christian America to commemorate and model Christ’s advent as more than judicial relief but as covenantal love and simple mercy.
Dr. Arthur F. Carter, Jr.
Assistant Professor of New Testament
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ADVENT WEEK FOUR
December 21, 2020
Pour Out Your Heart
1 Samuel 1:1-19
“Do not regard your servant as a worthless woman, for I have been speaking out of my great anxiety and vexation all this time.” 1 Samuel 1:16
The season of Advent lifts up this story of answered prayer from the beginning of First Samuel, because the birth of Samuel is seen in Christian tradition as a precursor to the birth of Jesus. And the text from I Samuel is read not only as a precursor in the historical sense of coming before, but also in the Christian allegorical sense of speaking about a longing that would be fulfilled only with the birth of Jesus.
Instead of focusing on this traditionalist, and supercessionist logic of precursor/fulfillment, I would like us to stay close to the story’s depiction of Hannah’s tears. She has been tormented for years by Peninah for being barren, and she pleads with God to lift the stigma of barrenness from her. Eli takes her to be drunk as she moves her lips while “pouring out her soul before the Lord,” “speaking out of great anxiety and vexation.”
There is desperation in Hannah’s anxiety, just as there is in so many of our prayers in these days of the COVID-19 pandemic. Prayers and tears over loss of jobs, eviction from homes; tears of profound grief across the world for those who have already been ill and died. And in Hannah’s vexation we can hear as well the outrage of a nation and world over the injustice of George Floyd’s death—a death representing so many countless others—voicing a prophetic call for the courage to turn our hearts around and stand for justice with those who are suffering.
With Hannah, let us pour out our hearts this Advent, longing for newness of life and for the mystery of God to draw near to us.
Dr. Joe Bessler
Robert Travis Peake Professor of Theology
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ADVENT WEEK FOUR
December 20, 2020
God of Love
Luke 1:26-38
“I am the Lord’s servant,” Mary answered. “May your word to me be fulfilled.” Luke 1:38
“Gods don’t love humans.” If there was one common understanding among most of the peoples of the ancient Hellenistic world, it is this. To love was to be attached to someone beyond oneself, to be vulnerable to pain or rejection inflicted by that someone, to be open to change brought by that someone. Such qualities implied weakness and would inevitably lead to dishonor and shame. And since the gods were not weak and would not tolerate dishonor, they did not love humans. The most humans could do to get them to act on their petitions was to appeal to their vanity, their honor, or their power.
But the Jewish people of the first century had a different claim about their God. Their God loved them. Loved them corporately and loved them individually. In fact, many were coming to believe, not only did God love them, God loved everyone. Which left God open to pain, to change and to caring about what happens to people. Which left God weak.
Almost as weak as a young woman with little status and no power. Yet, in contrast to similar stories of gods impregnating young women, Luke’s telling of Mary’s encounter with Gabriel gives space for her to say no. But she said yes. Just like that. And though the word “love” appears nowhere in this passage, it permeates it. The love between God and a young woman. The love between the young woman and her people as she joined with her body their hopes for a more loving future. The love among God, a woman, a people and a world.
Dr. Nancy Claire Pittman
President and
Stephen J. England Associate Professor of the Practice of Ministry
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ADVENT WEEK THREE
December 19, 2020
Unbridled Joy
Judges 13:2-24
Then the Manoah entreated the Lord, and said, “O Lord, I pray, let the man of God whom you sent come to us again and teach us what we are to do concerning the boy who will be born.” God listened to Manoah, and the angel of God came again to the woman as she sat in the field; but her husband Manoah was not with her. So the woman ran quickly and told her husband, “The man who came to me the other day has appeared to me.” Judges 13:8-10
As the third week of Advent ends with its theme of Joy, I reflect on the joy in Judges 13:2-24. The joy of the woman was unrestrained as she “ran quickly” to tell her husband that the prayer for the guidance of the child they were expecting was here.
It is not that there was a time limit, and that is why she needed to run. She was running for excitement to share in the answered prayer with her husband. Unbridled joy is that feeling of so much joy a person cannot help but react. Smiling, laughing, as a physical reaction to release the amount of joy as you feel you might burst.
Although it can be difficult to pinpoint moments of joy in the day-to-day, like: 1:02 p.m. August 9, 2020, joyous moment for 108 seconds, my cat purred in my lap, reassuring me of its love. It is much easier to recall unbridled joyful moments as this is the “best day ever” feeling. Frequently, these are in walking across graduation stages, the words “I do,” a baby’s first cry, and other major life moments.
It might be challenging for a person to attempt to capture an unbridled joyous moment they had just this past week. However, I am sure it is possible. It might be something seemingly insignificant, like the joy in seeing someone who makes you happy when it has been a rough week. It could also just be the joy of knowing that you are a beloved child of God. Any moment of joy is one for celebration, no matter how bridled.
Lukus Ebert
Student Senate Member and Master of Divinity Student
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ADVENT WEEK THREE
December 18, 2020
Dance with Joy
2 Samuel 6:12-19
David, dressed in a linen priestly vest, danced with all his strength before the Lord. This is how David and the entire house of Israel brought up the Lord’s chest with shouts and trumpet blasts. 2 Samuel 6:14-15 (Common English Bible)
On a brisk, sunny morning last January, our assembly of jet-lagged seminary students passed underneath the Dung Gate of Jerusalem, emerging in awestruck joy within the walls of Old Jerusalem. The sacred geography pressed me with its weight of time and managed to give me a strange kiss of responsibility and challenge whispering: What will you do with this place?
Thousands of years before our moment of awe, David, fresh from victory against the Jebusites, makes his ingenious political move to denominate ‘Ir David, Jerusalem, as a neutral seat of his government.
Unlike our entrance, his entrance is made with tremendous fanfare, dancing, music, and holy sacrifices. David is dressed in priestly garb, representing his role as king-priest, leading the seat of Yahweh, the mobile God, into this place selected for what will be its unifying role for the people of God. Yahweh seems to have had to consider being ready for domestication, having killed an attendant in a twitchy moment a few months beforehand. But the partnership now becomes settled, and the people are celebrating this new relationship’s beginning as expressively as possible. God is here among the people, kindling joy within them and their new experiment in kingship.
Jerusalem is still resplendent with sacred celebration. Christian bells, Muslim calls to prayer, and Jewish chants intermingle in constant calls for respite and unity with God. Dance and be joyful as the holy story continues.
Sandy Shapoval
Dean of the Library and Research Services
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ADVENT WEEK THREE
December 17, 2020
Faithful to all Generations
Psalm 89:1-4
I will sing of your steadfast love, Lord, forever; with my mouth I will proclaim your faithfulness to all generations. Psalm 89:1
Few things have stretched my understanding of God’s faithfulness to all generations than the past year. A wonderful Advent celebration followed by a Lenten season that found us wondering if the world would ever be the same again. Our solemn gatherings grew silent as we gathered online and, for the first time in my life, Easter was celebrated without every seat in the sanctuary filled and “Christ The Lord Is Risen Today” being sung as loud as my small congregation could manage. We had entered a new day.
We find ourselves in the middle of Advent again and a new normal has taken hold. We have had to adapt to a new way of living together and protecting one another, a new awareness of how to share our love, and in the midst of this beginning to the Christian year we are once again reminded that God’s faithfulness is to all generations.
Even in the darkest hours light shines through and God is faithful to us as we gather and as we worship and we hope and find Joy in new beginnings, in the God made flesh, in the Christ Child. As our time of Advent begins to draw to an end and Christmas is upon us, as the miracle of birth brings Joy and wonder to us all, let us remember that even the darkness of the past year will not overcome the light that has been brought into the world and that we can proclaim God’s faithfulness to all generations.
Rev. Jeremy Skaggs
Alumni Board Member (2002) and
Senior Minister, The Welcome Table Christian Church, Arlington, Texas
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ADVENT WEEK THREE
December 16, 2020
Accessibility of Joy
Mark 9:9-13
As they were coming down the mountain, he ordered them to tell no one about what they had seen, until after the Son of Man had risen from the dead. Mark 9:9
If there were ever a moment to invoke joy from the Gospel, it would be during Advent. It is not that we as persons of faith are not to pursue joy at every turn. But, rather, it does not take much meandering into the gospels to glean the prospects of discipleship that Jesus promises his followers: contempt, persecution, and a material fate similar to his own.
Jesus is so attuned to this difficult future for his followers that, in today’s passage from Mark 9, he swears them to what is known as the Messianic Secret: don’t let anyone know who I truly am quite yet, or you’ll get us all killed before my mission is complete.
Perhaps the reason why joy feels more accessible during Advent is because we have not yet arrived at the horizon of Jesus’s birth and potential. It can be easy to lose sight of why it is that Jesus must swear his followers to secrecy: he has brought a form of justice so radical that its shockwaves are too much for many of us to bear.
The difficult joy of Advent thus is understanding that while Jesus’s life brings profound conflict, this is only because it brings profound healing first. The invitation is to create space for ourselves to dwell on the euphoria of Jesus’s care for others, even while knowing the eventual costs of discipleship.
Dr. Peter Capretto
Assistant Professor of Pastoral Care in Religion and Culture
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ADVENT WEEK THREE
December 15, 2020
One Big Family Tree
Acts 3:17-4:4
These prophets, along with the covenant God made with your ancestors, are your family tree. Acts 3:25a (The Message)
Decades ago, we enrolled our daughter Joy in our public school’s “magnet” multicultural Kindergarten program. This meant she would have to ride a bus to school each day.
On the first day of school we all waited for the bus: Nancy and I, our daughter, and her great-aunt. We waited and waited. But because of new semester confusion, no bus ever showed up.
That waiting seemed like an eternity. When we ask our now-adult daughter about this, she doesn’t remember the waiting or even missing school that day. She only remembers that what we had promised her came true: she experienced an amazing year of new adventures, friends, and teachers.
Advent is about joy waiting for something wonderful to happen, at just the right time. About reminding us that our timetables are not often the same as God’s. This week is all about waiting for that perfect moment when an angel suddenly appears, saying, “The waiting’s over! It’s begun! Now sing your songs of joy with me!”
Peter proclaims this in today’s passage: there is a time coming when through Jesus all things will become fresh again, will be renewed again—and just at the right moment. Moses told us this. So did Samuel. All the prophets made such promises, says Peter, and these are for all of us: for every kind of family, for everyone on earth. Says Peter: we’re all part of one big family tree.
This, then, is how we joyfully wait for God’s timing: we do it together. Kindergartners, moms, dads, great aunts, you, me—whoever! No exceptions. We’re all part of the family of God. We’re all in this together.
Dr. Thomas Hoffmann
Adjunct Faculty
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ADVENT WEEK THREE
December 14, 2020
Joy in Trust and Security
Psalm 125
Those who trust in the Lord are like Mount Zion, which cannot be moved, but abides forever. Psalm 125:1
Can you imagine a place so secure you have no fear or anxiety? A place that would keep you from harm both physical and mental? I imagine this place would look much like an impenetrable fortress and you wouldn’t have anything for which to worry. You would only have those there you trust and love. Access would be denied, or any breaches foiled by those who wish you harm or evil. With all the uncertainty we face in this world, wouldn’t it be wonderful to live in a place where you feel so secure?
In reality, I know of no place on this earth that can make this promise. As we read this psalm, and you should read and re-read it when you feel anxious, the intention is to show us that while there may not be a place to provide security and stability, there is a who, God. All that is required is to “trust in the Lord” as the psalm begins. It is through this trust that provides that protection from wicked and grants peace shared in the rest of the song.
The psalm sets the image by using the city of Jerusalem and the protection provided by mountains. Mountains are secure and, in many ways, Jerusalem is more secure because of the protection provided. The song goes on to say that just like Jerusalem, the Lord surrounds his people with this same immovable protection. It finally shares, the righteous and those who trust will also see the end to the evildoers.
What immense joy we should have because we really do have that impenetrable fortress in God. Through the implicit trust and conviction, we find the safety, security and refuge we desire and need in this uncertain world.
Leslie LeSieur
Director of the Center for Ministry and Lay Training
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ADVENT WEEK THREE
December 13, 2020
Joy to the COVID World
Isaiah 6:1-4, 8-11
“Keep listening, but do not comprehend; keep looking, but do not understand.” Isaiah 6:9b
Joy tends to be defined with deep spiritual meaning, and happiness tends to be defined with the temporal and fleeting. I wonder: is this distinction between joy and happiness splitting strands of hair, or is it the split ends of a single strand of hair? I think Isaiah experienced joy and happiness as a single, illusive strand that he desperately longed to know as a unity in the presence of God. As Isaiah considered the social and political realities of his day, he faced a dream deferred by the death of King Uzziah.
To be in the presence of the Lord fills many believers with thoughts of joy. Who among the faithful would not be filled with joy by seeing and hearing the Holy One? Unfortunately, the words spoken to Isaiah were not words that inspired joy or happiness within Isaiah. And the words God instructed Isaiah to speak also did not inspire joy among the people. “Keep listening, but do not comprehend; keep looking, but do not understand.” For Isaiah, God appeared in the time of trouble, but God’s joy is declared after the struggle.
This has been a year of profound trouble and struggle as millions have been victimized and more than one million have died worldwide from Coronavirus. As we seek God’s face this Advent, our hearts long for the experience of joy in the COVID world. Yet God’s word to Isaiah instructs us to not overlook the desolation wrought by coronavirus. Despite the devastation and death, we are in the presence of our Holy God; and it is only by turning from conventional wisdom that we will be restored to life.
Dr. Lee H. Butler, Jr.
Vice-President of Academic Affairs and Academic Dean
William Tabbernee Professor of the History of Religions and Africana Pastoral Theology
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ADVENT WEEK TWO
December 12, 2020
Peace, be Still
Matthew 21:28-32
Truly I tell you, the tax collectors and the prostitutes are going into the kingdom of God ahead of you. For John came to you in the way of righteousness, and you did not believe him, but the tax collectors and the prostitutes believed him; and even after you saw it, you did not change your minds and believe him. Matthew 21:31b - 32
We are living in unusual times due to COVID-19. Churches are finding different ways to connect through online media outlets. The normal aspect of life is no more, and our peace is being disturbed. The death of George Floyd by the deadly force of a white police officer going viral through national and social media platforms is the catalyst to a stronger commitment to the movement of Black Lives Matter. This explosion of support and commitment is forcing all Americans to pay attention to the unjust policing of black and brown humans. A combination of events created a national platform for voices to speak directly to people who need to get in the game and off the sidelines of silence and disconnect.
Peace, be still! A new democracy for America must trend away from glorifying violence, brutality, and destruction. The new democracy is a true foundation of peace, freedom, and protection for all. The current American democracy stands as the second son in the scripture. America said it would be a place of freedom and liberty for all, but in all honesty, America is still not a land for all to receive equity. The taste and smell of being built on a foundation of capitalism, systemic racism, privilege, discrimination, and slavery is still prevalent. A 21st century makeover must push for a new democracy of love, peace, and justice.
During this advent season, please remember the importance of living with peace. Knowing that God is the sustainer of the earth who operates in love, care, joy, and peace provides hope for overcoming obstacles. This advent season is your season of peace. Blessings to all!
Peace, be still!
Rev. Ulysses Allen
Recruiter
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ADVENT WEEK TWO
December 11, 2020
Thanksgiving in a Time of Chaos
Psalm 126
May those who sow in tears reap with shouts of joy. Psalm 126:5
This communal “Song of Thanksgiving” celebrates the saving works of God both in the lives of those who have gathered for worship and in the lives of their ancestors in the faith. This particular type of psalm is often thought to have been spoken on the other side of a lament, when the community has made it safely through a time of suffering or trial.
The words of Psalm 126 seem to echo the prophetic promise delivered by Isaiah (see 43:16-21) to the Babylonian exiles. The “new thing” the exilic prophet had spoken about has been realized in the restored “fortunes of Zion.” When the people returned to Jerusalem, they found the city needed a great deal of restoration. Plowing their fields, once again, brought tears and laughter, as they remembered both the pain of exile and the joy of homecoming.
Could this psalm have been spoken by those who returned to Jerusalem after Cyrus issued the edict allowing those placed in exile by the Babylonians to go home? Perhaps, but they could also be the words of a community that has felt God’s presence in a multitude of other ways.
This is the beauty and enduring value of the Psalter. These prayers (even though grounded in a particular context) can become the words of the faithful in very different contexts. While we have voiced many laments in 2020, can we also be thankful for the Holy’s faithfulness in a time of chaos? In this season of advent, Psalm 126 can provide us with an opportunity to reflect on how the Divine presence has been known to us, even in a time of the COVID-19.
Dr. Lisa W. Davison
Johnnie Eargle Cadieux Professor of Hebrew Bible
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ADVENT WEEK TWO
December 10, 2020
I am Not Standing Still, I am Lying Wait*
Habakkuk 2:1-5
For there is still a vision for the appointed time; … If it seems to tarry, wait for it; it will surely come, it will not delay. Habakkuk 2:3
In the first chapter of Habakkuk, the prophet laments and asks the question many of us have been asking this year, “How long, O Lord?” We ask, we lament, and we wait for things to get better. And the waiting gets to be too much. So, we make a move, but we move too fast and we reap the repercussions of moving too soon. I understand, however, the motivation to act. One does not want to feel like one is just standing still doing nothing as the world goes on around them.
Yet, in chapter 2 of Habakkuk, the prophet used another tactic. After lamenting, the prophet waits and expects God to reply. “I will stand at my watch post, and station myself on the rampart; I will keep watch to see what he will say to me, and what he will answer concerning my complaint.” Both the watch post and the rampart are defenses used in battle. The waiting this prophet is doing is not about sitting around, it is about being ready.
God answers and tells the prophet that there is still a vision for the appointed time. God has not forgotten us. God hears us. God is still at work and we should be too. So, we stand at the watch posts God has given us whether it is a classroom, pulpit, youth center, or the streets. And we gird ourselves so that we are ready for the changes that God will empower us to make.
Dr. Annie Lockhart-Gilroy
Assistant Professor of Christian Education and Practical Theology
*Title taken from Hamilton: An American Musical (Original Cast Recording)
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ADVENT WEEK TWO
December 9, 2020
Surprise!
Luke 1: 5-17
”Do not be afraid, Zechariah, …” Luke 1:13
Zechariah had been chosen to preside over the altar that day. He paused before entering the sanctuary. He had waited his whole life for this moment, and he wanted to remember it. Taking a deep breath, he stepped inside at last, leaving behind the crowds of people and the sounds of their murmured prayers.
He bowed his head for a moment, eyes closed as the incense slowly drifted upward. It was when he opened them that he saw an angel of the Lord standing before him. Almost falling on the floor, he was so scared, he heard the angel call his name: “Do not be afraid, Zechariah …”
What he heard the angel announce next seemed unbelievable: his dear wife Elizabeth would bear him a son! This child would be filled with the Holy Spirit even before he took his first breath! He would prepare the people’s hearts for God! Usher in the Way—a forerunner of the Chosen One!
I imagine Zechariah came to regret the words that came blubbering out of his mouth later in response: What? My wife? At her age? Her body isn’t as nimble as it once was! Her hands and face are as wrinkled as mine! And now you tell me she’s going to have a baby?!
Maybe it was the shock of the whole experience. Maybe he was just too overwhelmed with joy. After all, he was only human. The news would leave him speechless.
God of surprises, hold me up by your grace when I become overwhelmed by the unexpected.
Rev. Gina Woods
Alumni Board Member (2014) and
Associate of Pastoral Care, Fellowship Congregational Church, Tulsa, Okla.
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ADVENT WEEK TWO
December 8, 2020
Wait to Wait
Psalm 27
When evildoers assail me to devour my flesh— my adversaries and foes— they shall stumble and fall. … I believe that I shall see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. Wait for the Lord; be strong, and let your heart take courage; wait for the Lord! Psalm 27:2, 13-14
I remember how the chapel smelled: of must and fabric softener, typical of a basement in an old house, but also the sweet beeswax smell of a lit votive candle. It sat burning next to the small box (called a tabernacle in Roman Catholic parlance) to indicate that some consecrated wafers were contained therein. The body of Christ. This was the small subterranean chapel of the Dorothy Day Catholic Worker house in Washington, D.C., where I once lived. We would gather there for morning prayer, and longtime community member Art Laffin loved to lead us in a sung call-and-response version of this Psalm.
And then we would go on about our business of distributing food and clothing to low-income neighbors and medium-term shelter to families… and protesting the violence inflicted on God’s image-bearers for the sake of the military might and prosperity of the United States.
I could have, and did, pray that Psalm through while believing every word of it. I was also young, privileged, and idealistic, with plenty of resources to fall back on if and when my experiment with radical Christian living didn’t pan out. Sometimes we got shouted at during our protests, which was terribly exciting. Sometimes friends got arrested on purpose. But today, 20 years later, the category of “adversaries and foes” seems at once broader and more concrete. The arrests are not protest theatre; our adversaries do much more than just shout at us. Begging the Psalmist’s pardon, I don’t see them doing a lot of stumbling and falling. Frankly, I’m not sure that I do believe that I shall see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. Wait? Be strong? Seriously?
God who loves the bold and the discouraged, when we find we cannot even wait for you, help us to wait for a time when we can wait for you. Make good on your promises. Show us your goodness. Amen.
Dr. Sarah Morice-Brubaker
Associate Professor of Theology
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ADVENT WEEK TWO
December 7, 2020
Seek Peace
Psalm 27
You face, Lord, do I seek. Do not hide your face from me. Psalm 27:8b-9
In whose face or faces do you see God?
Seeking God’s face is a plea for God’s favor which leads to shalom, a sense of peace, security, and wholeness. And shalom is not an individual experience; it’s a state of being for all God’s creation.
Nevertheless, individual peace and security that is not an end unto itself can be the beginning or the sustaining middle of a larger effort toward shalom-bringing. And when the soul grows weary under torment and constant struggle, it’s easy to join the psalmist’s loud cry, “Be gracious to me and answer me! … Your face, Lord, do I seek.”
What we seek is not the kind of shallow peace that suggests everything is OK when it is definitely not OK,
But the kind of deep peace that provides sustaining energy to stay engaged in the work of justice.
What we seek is not the kind of resigning peace that encourages the acceptance of suffering because that’s just the way it is,
But the kind of visionary peace that allows the imagining of a vibrant life free from torment and turmoil.
What we seek is not the kind of powerless peace that gives permission for cozying up and hiding permanently in the corner while ignoring the struggles of people all around,
But the kind of powerful peace that motivates and compels attentiveness to the world around and unrelenting action as a shalom-maker.
As the psalmist declares, “I believe that I shall see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. Wait for the Lord; be strong, and let your heart take courage; wait for the Lord!”
Amen.
Rev. Susanna Weslie Southard
Interim Director of Supervised Year in Ministry Program, Chaplain,
and Instructor in Ministry Studies
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ADVENT WEEK TWO
December 6, 2020
Embrace the Wilderness
Mark 1:1-8
… the voice of one crying out in the wilderness: “Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight,” Mark 1:3
What a year. The verse above speaks to me right now, even more than in times past, because I have found myself crying out a lot lately. We are surrounded by racial brutality, a world heath crisis, political divisiveness, economic injustice, and social isolation. This year has certainly felt like a wilderness to me.
The author of Mark’s gospel opens by echoing Isaiah 40:3 and tapping an experience residing deep in the psyche of the hearers—the wilderness. Mark’s proclamation would have instantly called to memory the narrative when the Israelites were led out of slavery in Egypt, by way of the wilderness, toward a promised land. As well, there was Moses who headed to the wilderness to run away from his past: there was also Hagar who negotiated with God in the wilderness to ensure the survival of her son.
So how does the wilderness experience seem to operate within most of these biblical tales? The wilderness elicits soul-searching. The wilderness requires acute focus. The wilderness clarifies mission and identity. As well, in each instance, the wilderness operates as a space of transition when a people or a character transform from an “old” self into a “new” self.
Rather than cursing this wilderness we all find ourselves in, what if we embrace it as an opportunity to engage in deep and comprehensive soul-searching and become clearer and more intentional about our focus, mission, and sense of identity? I am certain such a discipline can help us draw to the surface destructive beliefs and self-defeating behaviors that hinder our transformation. Let us embrace this time in the wilderness and do the internal work to prepare the way of the Lord.
In the words of Rumi, “Yesterday I was clever, so I wanted to change the world. Today I am wise, so I am changing myself.”
MaryAnn Morris
Dean of Students
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ADVENT WEEK ONE
December 5, 2020
More Questions Than Answers
Mark 11:27-33
Again they came to Jerusalem. As he was walking in the temple, the chief priests, the scribes, and the elders came to him and said, “By what authority are you doing these things? Who gave you this authority to do them?” Jesus said to them, “I will ask you one question; answer me, and I will tell you by what authority I do these things.” Mark 11:27-29
If you’ve ever spent much time with a 4-year-old child, you know they have a lot of questions. The simplest, “But, why?” holds a yearning to understand how their wants, needs, and desires fit within the world around them. As weary as we may grow of answering these questions, they are an integral part of shaping their young, impressionable minds.
Questioning the world around us is normal. It’s healthy, and it helps us shape our opinions, our attitudes, and our actions. Asking questions can bring healthy dialogue, encouraging us and others to think outside of the box. Questioning people, systems of power, and the universe itself can aid in our desire to act on issues that conflict us at the deepest levels.
It’s surprising to note that Jesus asks more than 300 questions in the Gospels, but answers very few. What does that say about Jesus, and what can we learn from this example? Jesus asked questions with a goal of engaging others and bringing about transformation. What are our motives in questioning people, society, and the world around us? Jesus’s questions confront us with our own thoughts, beliefs, and biases. Are we open to change, growth and action as we seek answers to difficult questions?
Holy One, may you bless both our questions and our answers. May our questions bring about healthy dialogue and guide us into actions that bring love, compassion, and justice to a world with far more questions than answers.
Sharon Russ
Executive Assistant to Advancement and
Donor Relations Specialist
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ADVENT WEEK ONE
December 4, 2020
Hope is Doing
Jeremiah 1:4-10
See, today, I appoint you this day over the nations and kingdoms, to pluck and to pull down, to destroy and to overthrow, to build and to plant. Jeremiah 1:10
Too often, I find myself cheapening the annual advent journey with messages and anecdotes of silent, passive reflection. Pensively yearning for what should be amid the frustration for what is, hope can be distant and nebulous. To be sure, reflection and introspection are vital. But Advent, a season of preparation for Christian communities, requires more. Advent beckons and requires Christians to a hope that does more than wait.
What might an active hope look like in an era characterized by racial, political, and ideological division? How do we foster hope in the devastating wake of COVID-19?
The Mystery meets the self-doubting, hopeless Jeremiah with a “how-to” guide, detailing the process of hope. The Holy uses six verbs back-to-back in this litany of instruction, teaching us that hope is not something a person has, but rather something a person does. To do hope is to root out injustice. To pull down oppressive systems, destroy that which creates inequity, and throw down the idols that blind us to the suffering of creation. Hope is building up the dominion of God even when it is not politically advantageous to take a risk or get involved. Hope is planting the seeds of justice with determination and reckless abandon.
Hope is doing. It is doom and renewal. It is destruction and rebirth.
Advent, a season of hope, is far more than a time for reflection. It is pregnant with the impetus to act. May we choose to live into this season with faithfulness, advocating for the abandoned, the disinherited, and the rejected.
May we do hope.
Kyle Miller-Shawnee
Admissions Officer, Student Senate Member and Master of Divinity Student
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ADVENT WEEK ONE
December 3, 2020
Restoring Right Relations with All My Relatives
Psalm 85: 1-2; 8-13
The Lord will give what is good, and our land will yield its increase. Psalm 85:12
The ancient faith community hearing the words from this psalm still remembered that the land was not only a gift from God, but in a very real way, still belonged to God. It is a word of hope that God’s actions to bring the community into right relationship would bring a restoration of peace amid turbulent times.
This theology also reflects a Native American worldview, often reflected in the ceremonial realm in which interpersonal, intercollective, and interspecies relations are emphasized, established, renewed, and mended. Among the Sioux people, the ritual phrase mitákuye oyás’in, often translated as “all my relatives or all are related” exemplifies this principle of relatedness between human and non-human creation. Together we are all responsible for our conduct and the maintenance of the earth.
In Spirit and Reason, Lakota scholar, Vine Deloria, Jr. wrote, “The idea of covenant… is an early and important concept for tribal peoples. … A covenant places responsibilities on both parties and provides a means of healing any breach in the relationship.” A covenant involves not only mutual respect and responsibility but also the acknowledgement of our common kinship: that we are all related. Covenants also have an inherent mechanism for healing or mending temporary ruptures in times of stress, crisis, and trauma.
In this seasonal time of waiting, we need to be reminded of our covenant with God and all of God’s creation and return to our roots as stewards rather than “owners” of this world. Salvific healing and peace come when we can recognize that within creation, God is present and incarnate for us when we strive to live in covenantal relationship with all our relatives.
Dr. Lisa D. Barnett
Assistant Professor of the History of Christianity
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ADVENT WEEK ONE
December 2, 2020
Be Present
Luke 21:34-38
“Be alert at all times, praying that you may have the strength to escape all these things that will take place, and to stand before the Son of Man.” Luke 21:36
As I write this devotion in mid-August, pandemic alcohol consumption and pot sales are way up. So is violence in cities, with Chicago and Portland often in the news. Racist and bigoted behaviors in public seem to be everywhere, as do protests against racism, bigotry, and state-sponsored violence. Mental health professionals warn of the mental health crisis that is sliding toward us like a broken ice sheet heading for the sea. Economists ring the alarms about jobs.
Then there is the small matter of the presidential election and its possibly unprecedented aftermath.
I’m feeling anxious. Really anxious. And, like everyone else, I’m trying to chill.
But our call is to be present. According to Luke’s version of Jesus’s last week, he was in the temple, teaching every morning. At night, he retreated to the Mount of Olives—praying, we imagine (hold on to that image of him praying at night to fuel his day). Among Jesus’s final words, Luke claims he said: “Take care your hearts aren’t dulled by drinking parties, drunkenness, and the anxieties of day-to-day life. Don’t let that day (the coming of the day of the Lord) fall upon you unexpectedly, like a trap.”
Jesus’s counsel (v. 36) in a time when it feels like the world is coming apart, because it may really be coming apart: Stay alert. Pay attention. Be present. Pray.
I confess—these words feel inadequate, weak, untimely. I want everything resolved in favor of personal and social shalom NOW. But hope is not the same as optimism. Hope is rooted in trusting in God. Trust may best grow by paying attention, just as Jesus practiced and counseled.
Dr. Gary Peluso-Verdend
President Emeritus and
Executive Director of the Center for Religion in Public Life
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ADVENT WEEK ONE
December 1, 2020
Now to Then
Micah 4:6-13
In that day, says the Lord, I will assemble the lame and gather those who have been driven away, and those whom I have afflicted. Micah 4:6
There is no new normal. There is now and there is then. Now is really hard, especially for people in our world who already had it hard. And while we distress over the challenges of our now, this is not new.
Today’s scripture is about one of those times. The prophet speaks hope to the ancient peoples whose lives were turned upside down because the part of the world where they lived was undergoing radical change and their political leaders were making things worse. This is not new.
The actions of the political leaders made it especially hard for those who were barely getting by before the heaping on of the additional troubles. The prophet’s words were meant to help those just hanging on to have hope, even while they suffer. This is not new.
Moving from the now of suffering to the then of hope isn’t new either. It’s a frequently repeated story in our faith’s scriptures.
The prophet’s words do not take away, deny, or otherwise disparage suffering but rather point to the promise of God’s liberation for those most in need. These words of hope are meaningful because the speaker acknowledges the pain happening now, especially for the lame, driven away, and dispossessed.
May we embrace the pain and suffering in our world this Advent as we prepare for the arrival of the one who comes to liberate all.
Kurt Gwartney
Senior Director of Communications
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ADVENT WEEK ONE
November 30, 2020
Hope in Joy and Peace
Micah 4:1-5
… but they shall all sit under their own vines and under their own fig trees, and no one shall make them afraid; for the mouth of the Lord of hosts has spoken. Micah 4:4
The portion of today’s scripture that gives me the most hope is the result of the peace that verse four describes. All will have their place of shade and safety (vines) and food (fig tree). It doesn’t say that people won’t have fear—but won’t be made to fear by others.
In early August, I had a day when everything weighed heavy on me. My ability to keep moving forward and deal with life ceased to exist… my coping capabilities took a vacation.
I was worried about: people with the virus, people treating the virus, black people, trans people, people unable to pay their rent, people losing jobs, people being hungry, compassionless people, family safety, and a family mental health crisis. Concern, too much information that breeds fear… and then… the postal service? I think the effort to destroy the postal service may have been the straw that broke the camel’s back for me. It was too much.
I hit my limit of overwhelming concern for others and had to off-load. I sat with a friend and melted into a puddle of tears. I felt better, however I realized I needed to disconnect and take care of myself. So, I went camping which gives me strength and restoration. I restricted my social media and tried to be in the moment. To just be. I needed hope that the world would make it through this difficult period and that I could make it through with care and compassion… without breaking. I sat under the vine and ate the figs and let go of the fear.
Hope seems impossible these days, and not everyone is allowed time to take off work, go camping, or take a mental break, but I must believe there is hope for peace and joy for all.
May we rest under the vine and have plenty of figs to eat and not made to be afraid.
Malisa Pierce
Senior Director of Advancement and Alumnae/i Relations
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A Bounty
Mark 13:24-37
“But about that day or hour no one knows, neither the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. Beware, keep alert and pray.” Mark 13:32-33b
Dr. Terry Ewing
Vice President of Advancement
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Welcome to the 2020 Advent Devotional podcasts from Phillips Theological Seminary. The words of Malisa Pierce, senior director of advancement, introduce this new series.
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Phillips Theological Seminary offers a daily Advent devotional starting the first Sunday of Advent, Nov. 29. Subscribe to listen to each day's podcast.
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