With Advent just around the corner beginning on Sunday, December 2, a few friends and I have a gift for you this season: a free, reflective devotional. Collaboration across oceans, made possible by technology, this is our labor of love to friends and family.
During this busy time of the year, make space for reflection as we ponder once again the birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ.
Faithful readers,
As promised, our contemplative Advent devotional is ready now for download. Beginning Friday, December 1 through December 25, enjoy a reading and contemplative exercise each day.
“Silence & Sound Advent 2017 is our gift to you this Advent season. We hope that through this devotional, you are called to deeper understanding and fuller practice of the faith we share in Christ! We worked together across the world to compile these readings and thoughts as short daily readings with accompanying contemplations or actions you can pick up at any point in the day or integrate into your personal advent practice.”
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“Silence and sound are two vital themes in the Old Testament. Although this pair are often discussed as opposites, we have placed them on a spectrum–silence can sound like many different things. From the beginning, we encounter the silence of the void into which the Creator speaks, a certain silence of good creation at peace as the Creator rests; but also the silence of Adam during the Temptation, the silence of Eve as she gives the serpent too much shrift, the silence of dread that must have filled their ears, knowing the Lord God would show up. Silence gives the foundational mythos of Scripture its cadence, while sound accompanies the interventions of the Creator. God speaks, and the world is created, and so the morning stars sing for joy. Prophets prophesy and kings decree; people cry out in repentance, and then praise.
“All the way through, silence and sound punctuate this holy history of the Old Testament. The silence of pain: from the uncomfortable silence between Abraham and Isaac on Mount Moriah to the deathly silences Esther endured to save her people. The sound of distress: the sound of Israelites groaning under their slavery, the repentant sound of Nineveh’s decree, and the reluctant sound of Jeremiah’s prophecies. The silence of blessing: from the stupefied silence as his brothers are reconciled to Joseph to the hushed silence as the ark of the covenant is placed in the Temple. The sound of victory: the sound of the Lord God cursing the serpent, the sound of the ram’s horn and warrior’s shout crumbling Jericho, the sound of Isaiah’s response “Here am I.”
“Beyond these guiding narratives, we find silence and sound woven through the lives and the faith of believers throughout history. Silence and sound can be sources of strength when we have trained ourselves to hear them. If we will attune our ears and attend to the message, we will hear the glory of God in the sounds and silences of life. The Advent season is a reminder to us of the power of waiting and listening as well speaking out. May the voice of the Lord guide your lives and faith!”
Writers:
Bethany Stallings
Charlotte Cline-Smith
Meridith Matson
Nathan Bingaman
Scott Matson
Artist:
Ellie Stager
letterandjournal.com
The arrival of advent awaits us. Beginning December 3, the church begins a season of expectation and waiting, culminating on Christmas Day as we celebrate the birth of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
A few friends of mine have put together a contemplative advent guide, which will be available for free. Check back here later this coming week for a link to download. This guide is meant to help you create some calm in the midst of this often busy season. We hope it is a blessing and refreshment to your soul this season.
Check back here for a few of my original writing and poetry, as I’ll post on the day each one is read in the guide.
Peace to you this Christmas season.
Malachi 3:1 “’I will send my messenger, who will prepare the way before me. Then suddenly the Lord you are seeking will come to his temple; the messenger of the covenant, whom you desire, will come,’ says the LORD Almighty.”
These were last words God spoke. For 400 years.
The people waited.
And they kept waiting.
400 years passed;
God was silent.
146,000 silent nights.
But all the people were watching and waiting,
and watching some more.
They were not fighting each other.
They were not worshipping other gods…
for the first time in a LONG time.
They knew God was with them as they watched and waited,
but, the promise…
from the prophet Isaiah:
For unto us a son is born
Unto us a son is given
The peace, justice, righteousness…
they knew these were coming.
They knew HE was coming.
But, do you think the people wanted to give up?
Did they get tired of waiting?
Did they think God’s promises weren’t going to come to be?
Maybe.
But the next time God spoke, it wasn’t through a judge, king or prophet.
It was in the cry of a Baby.
God would break the silent nights, with a not so silent night,
through the screaming cry of a baby.
The Son of God,
Emmanuel,
GOD WITH US.
Two people waited expectantly day and night in the temple worshipping God, waiting for the Messiah, or the Christ.
Luke 2:25-32 “There was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon. This man was righteous and devout, looking forward to Israel’s consolation, and the Holy Spirit was on him. It had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death before he saw the Lord’s Messiah. Guided by the Spirit, he entered the temple complex. When the parents brought in the child Jesus to perform for Him what was customary under the law, Simeon took Him up in his arms, praised God, and said:
‘Now, Master, You can dismiss Your slave in peace, as You promised.
For my eyes have seen Your salvation. You have prepared it in the presence of all peoples— a light for revelation to the Gentiles and glory to Your people Israel.'”
Luke 2:36-38 “There was also a prophetess, Anna […] . She was well along in years, having lived with her husband seven years after her marriage, and was a widow for 84 years. She did not leave the temple complex, serving God night and day with fasting and prayers. At that very moment, she came up and began to thank God and to speak about Him to all who were looking forward to the redemption of Jerusalem.”
Simeon and Anna both were waiting,
and after waiting so long, they finally gazed into the eyes of God-
a baby.
Someone asked me last week – why do we celebrate Jesus coming at Christmas time so much? What’s so special about it?
Jesus was and still is the hope of all mankind.
Jesus was and is God – who came to earth to live as one of us,
to share in our sufferings, our struggles,
to live as we live,
and years later – this baby, now a man
would die on a cross and rise again
because of one reason:
LOVE.
God’s love for us – you and I and this entire world
is so big that he didn’t leave us alone,
He didn’t leave us to walk this life alone
He came to be with us,
He came to rescue us.
And that indeed is good news,
the good news of love
that was worth waiting for all those years.
Love.
Father God,
Creator of all things –
the sun, the sky, the trees and all that we see,
the one whose voice said “let there BE,”
And there was.
The one whose voice still speaks to us today.
We open our hearts and our ears to hear you speak again
for You are God alone
and we are humbled to be in your presence today.
God,
who creates
will you create in us today a new understanding of who you are,
so that we may love you in a new way today, and each day.
Thank you for your creative work all around us
and thank you for creating us to also create
and do good works through Your Son, Jesus Christ and we pray these things in His name,
Amen.
Letting go.
Letting things die
so i can live..
so I can really live, again.
There is life, even in death
because some things need to die, so other things can live
like dreams
But why do we keep praying for clarity?
We are never promised clarity
But … but
we can walk by faith, and not by sight
we can choose trust instead of the questions
And somehow in the mess
there is beauty
in the ashes
and in the end
we may experience a joy that only comes from Him in the midst of the
madness, chaos, confusion and doubt..
and a seed of joy is planted
growing bit by bit
sprouting into a tree. A tree of life. Again.
Psalm 130:5-6 ESV
I wait for the Lord, my soul waits,
and in his word I hope;
my soul waits for the Lord
more than watchmen for the morning,
more than watchmen for the morning.
Psalm 130:5-6 NET
I rely on the Lord,
I rely on him with my whole being;
I wait for his assuring word.
I yearn for the Lord,
more than watchmen do for the morning,
yes, more than watchmen do for the morning.
This morning I was spending time reading this Psalm in a couple different translations. I’ve thought a lot about waiting over the past year. What does it mean to wait for the Lord? In short, the Hebrew verb for wait also can be translated “to look” or “expect”…. also the word “linger.”
To linger in expectation of the Lord. Waiting doesn’t mean doing nothing. Waiting means anticipating. Looking. Lingering. There is an active sense to this word that sometimes seems so passive at first glance.
I love the NET, “I wait for his assuring word.” Sometimes that’s all we need, right? Just his assuring word. His gentle guidance and leading.
“More than watchmen waiting for morning.” Cities at the time the Psalmist writes this psalm were fortified by walls in order to keep those inside the city safe from outside forces. Watchmen were responsible for watching through the night to ensure the safety of those residing within the city walls. I could be reading into this, but I’m sure there was a sense of relief once the morning came, and the shift of the night watchmen came to an end. There is something comforting about daylight, and having the advantage of seeing in daylight possible danger coming from a distance to a city.
Yet the psalmist longs for the Lord more than even these watchmen on duty at night longed for the first signs of daylight on the horizon.
There was an intense expectation for the Lord to move, act and deliver on his word. The psalmist is sure of God’s action, yet without promise of the Lord’s timing in his waiting.
We all wait at different times and in different ways as we go through life. Sometimes, we just wade through dry, desert seasons and expectantly wait for God’s presence and guiding word to come to us. Other times, we wait through intense storms and difficulty.
Find encouragement today. As you linger in expectation. Waiting involves action to look, and expect his presence to show up. So don’t give up hope.
Keep waiting.
Keep watching.
Keep lingering.
“All these years I have only wanted one thing —
to know and do the Will of God.
And now even in this hard and deep darkness —
I keep wanting only that.
The rest He has taken all —
and I think, He has destroyed everything in me. —
The only thing that keeps me on the surface — is obedience.”
Mother Teresa, Come Be My Light
Lord, High and Holy, Meek and Lowly,
Thou hast brought me to the valley of vision, where I live in the depths by see thee in the heights; hemmed in by mountains of sin I behold thy glory.
Let me learn by paradox
that the way down is the way up,
that to be low is to be high,
that the broken heart is the healed heart,
that the contrite spirit is the rejoicing spirit,
that the repenting soul is the victorious soul,
that to have nothing is to possess all,
that to bear the cross is to wear the crown,
that to give is to receive,
that the valley is the place of vision.
Lord, in the daytime stars can be seen from deepest wells, and the deeper wells the brighter thy stars shine;
Let me find thy light in my darkness,
thy life in my death.
thy joy in my sorrow,
thy grace in my sin,
thy riches in my poverty
thy glory in my valley.
— Puritan Prayer, The Valley of Vision
When we follow the Spirit
and wait for the Lord
We find strength for tomorrow
and trust for His word
I wanna follow You
I wanna go with You, Jesus
somehow beautiful 
