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.
The following is an excerpt from the free Advent devotional guide “Silence and Sound.” Download your free copy today here.
Week 3 Day 20: Fullness of Time
by meridith matson
In the fullness of time
Not too early, not too late
Time, pregnant with expectation; time, pregnant with hope
The wall, rebuilt
Captives return home
Israel, no longer dispersed, living together in the land
The last prophet, Malachi says, “remember the Law of Moses”[1]
and a promise, to “send Elijah to Israel before the day of the Lord.”[2]
Then, silence as they listened.
No more words from heaven,
just deafening silence.
As they strained to hear.
Has God forgotten us?
Have we sinned so much that God turned his back on us?
No. In silence, God waited too.
God waited for the “Pleroma”- fullness of time.
God waits, as Israel listens.
“When the fullness of time came, God sent forth His son, born of a woman, born under the law,
to redeem those under law, that we might receive the adoption as sons.”[3]
First, God’s voice is heard in the wilderness,
PREPARE THE WAY; repent, for the Kingdom of God is at hand.
A voice calls then; a voice still calls now.
But only those who hear, will hear the message.
Only those who listen intently,
listen in the silence, wait in the darkness
will have ears to hear the message:
The Kingdom of God is at hand.
Contemplation:
In our world today we are surrounded by constant noise: people, media, entertainment, transportation. Today, how can you strive to hear God’s voice? How can you strive to hear others?
[1] cf. Malachi 4:4
[2] cf. Mal 4:5-6
[3] Galatians 4:4-5
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.
That which Christ calls us to do,
he will enable us to accomplish.
This is the message of the Miracle of the feeding of the 5,000.
The only miracle recorded in all 4 Gospels, this seems to be the message for the disciples: when Christ would leave the earth, they would be empowered to carry on his message. And the ability of them to carry out this ministry would not be of their human strength, it would be the power of God. The power through His Spirit.
Christ called them to feed the multitudes, “You give them something to eat.” (Matt. 14:16) And amongst the people, five loaves of bread and two fish were found.
Jesus prays a prayer of thanks, breaks the bread, and from this, the food just kept coming. More and more. More than they needed.
And the disciples did the work to distribute the food to the people. “They all ate and were satisfied.” And “the number of those who ate was about five thousand men, besides women and children.” (Matt. 14:20-21).
Jesus commanded the disciples to feed the people, and through him, they were able to accomplish what he called them to do.
The same is true for us today: That which Christ calls us to do, he will enable us to accomplish.
What is hateful to you, do not do to your fellowman.
This is the entire Law;
all the rest is commentary.
-Talmud, Shabbat 3id
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.
There is something about Advent
Filled with mystery and wonder
in the midst of busy lives filled with noise
noise that simply fills the silence
we are invited to pause, reflect and wonder once again.
Imagine how it is that God himself became man
how it is that God took on human flesh
we stand in awe of the mystery of the incarnation
can we ever humanly understand this beautiful, awful, preposterous thing?
But God dwelled.
God dwelled among his people
Tabernacled with his people
so we could have a mediator
the God-man.
Emmanuel, God with us.
The wonder of Advent is the story,
the story that each moment,
we are invited once again to join
again and again.
Because no, it’s not just a story,
its the reality of mankind:
hope.
And hope is a person: Jesus Christ.
This year as Easter approaches, I feel somewhat caught off-guard. I no longer work in church ministry (for now), and it was strange during Christmas this year I wasn’t planning Easter dramas and music…
I have participated in a very self-revealing Lent this year that has exposed parts of my heart. I gave up all television and movie watching (apart from watching things with friends, and an occasional Sunday I watched a few shows). Six weeks is a long time. But in many ways it has gone by really quickly. I’m still not quite ready for Easter.
There is much to be said about this significant week, you can read some of my posts from Holy Week 2012 for more devotional reads. I was a little more dedicated last year.
As I slaved away this week writing a paper on the sacrificial system in Leviticus, there was a phrase that caught my attention: the wrath of God satisfied. Of course this reminds me of In Christ Alone (what phrases DON’T remind me of a song?), but in this case it was in the context of Leviticus 16, The Day of Atonement. Once a year, the High Priest made an offering for the corporate sins of the Israelite people. This was to show: the constant daily sacrifices made by the people for their sins was not enough. For a Holy God to continue to dwell among his people and for his wrath to not consume them, atonement had to be made.
God. Dwelling in the camp with His people.
I still am blown away by this.
Anyway. I started this post earlier this week, and now it’s Good Friday. I’m saving more on Leviticus 16 for another post, but for now, for today, we rejoice in the brutal, humiliating death of our Lord Jesus Christ. A sacrifice perfect and sufficient. Unlike the Hebrew people needing to continually make sacrifices in Leviticus, this sacrifice satisfied the wrath of God.
Completely satisfied.
My time spent away from blogging more than just songs or devotional thoughts quoted from other authors has not been without reason. And definitely not because I don’t have anything to say. If anything, I have more to say now than ever before in my life. And it would probably be an incredibly beneficial act as a Graduate Seminary student to craft some of the Bible and Theology I’ve been taught into my own words. I also am in a journalism class that will likely be a huge contribution to my stress level this semester, but could possibly transform me into a better writer than I’ve ever been. The book we’re reading now continues to stress that it is important to write regularly, and blog regularly. Both I have failed miserably at recently.
This is an attempt to change my silent, non-blogging days into days filled with words.
We will see how long this lasts.
Time is quickly passing, just life, and time tonight. My mind always comes alive in the early hours of the night. I continue to blame this on “never really getting off West Coast time.”
My simple thought for tonight comes from the book of Genesis, in the first couple chapters of the book. My Old Testament Professor has spent the first three weeks of this semester carefully navigating the first handful of chapters of the Bible. The experience has been one of beauty and wonder.
Examining the fall, in Genesis chapter 3, there are a great number of questions we can ask the text as we study and look at it. One of the most perplexing to me has been: where did evil come from? The enemy of God, the serpent in this portion of scripture, wasn’t “created”; it simply is introduced as a character in the narrative. Many argue the “old age earth” position, saying that this specific description of creation was a second creation, leaving a great deal of room for imagination to step back and consider about all the possibilities.
Regardless of where evil and the enemy of God came from, it is beautiful to see the relationship between God and mankind in the garden; simply amazing knowing God walked with Adam and Eve. God provided for every one of their needs, and they shared in deep, personal relationship with Him.
The picture painted of God caring for mankind, who was made in his own image is one I long for today. Theologians speculate about the change that happened after the fall for humans. Did our God-likeness change? Relationships? Diet? Atmosphere? Needs? Some of those questions are addressed and answered as the narrative of Genesis is told, but the relationship between God and man certainly was no longer what it was in the garden, in the beginning.
At this point it would be easy to pull out the “Jesus” card and talk about Christ as our mediator in our relationship with God. But. I’m not going to. I think it is important to ponder these opening chapters of the Bible and simply consider. Ask questions. Wonder.
Holy Week this week.
Lent has been different this year for me. Not as intentional as I’ve been in the past. Honestly, I tried to give up facebook for the entire 46 days, just to have some extra focus. Then it turned into just checking it if I needed to, and then just not wasting my time on there.
There are more important things going on around in the world than what your friends are saying on facebook. That’s for sure. I value my friends greatly, but more importantly, I value my REAL friends, the ones who are in my life and who pursue me as a friend, and that usually is distinct from facebook.
So much more I COULD say. But I won’t.
This week is interesting, because it’s so full of the ancient, but also the new. This goes in the realm of good, and of evil. It seems the deceiver works extra hard these leading up to Easter days too. Thinking he still has victory, somehow, someway.
But we have the victory.
Because HE lives.
It’s beautiful.
I’ve often thought about this, but I wondered, why is it that I’ve come to embrace and love the cross so much more as I’ve grown older? The answer is simple: because I know I need it. When I was younger, I didn’t see my need for it. I was “good enough”. I didn’t really do anything that bad. But now I know.
Now I know I’m lost without the cross. Without the sacrifice.
This morning I read Matthew’s account of the crucifixion. And cried. Matthew 27. Just the thought of Jesus bearing all the sin of the whole world on his shoulders still makes me weep. I’m not being overly spiritual here. Think about it. The weight of everything we’ve ever done or will do weighing on him. Pulling down on perfection. White becoming black with no reason, no cause. Just love.
Humbling.
Why do we still slap him in the face and hurl insults at him today? We do this through our actions and thoughts. Every moment. We are non-holy beings. How could we ever deserve to be called holy? Righteous? Loved?
I plead with you my friends, can we strive to seek him? Serve him? Turn away from darkness into light?
Through his grace. Through his grace alone.
Isaiah 53:3-6
(emphasis mine)
3 He was despised and rejected—
a man of sorrows, acquainted with deepest grief.
We turned our backs on him and looked the other way.
He was despised, and we did not care.
4 Yet it was our weaknesses he carried;
it was our sorrows that weighed him down.
And we thought his troubles were a punishment from God,
a punishment for his own sins!
5 But he was pierced for our rebellion,
crushed for our sins.
He was beaten so we could be whole.
He was whipped so we could be healed.
6 All of us, like sheep, have strayed away.
We have left God’s paths to follow our own.
Yet the Lord laid on him
the sins of us all.
somehow beautiful 