Advent
December 14, 2018
Scripture Reading: Philippians 4:4-7
Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice. Let your gentleness be known to everyone. The Lord is near. Do not worry about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
I really like this scripture and take to heart the promises of its first three short sentences. Then we come to sentence four which is an instruction to me that I find myself totally incapable of doing even with the knowledge of God’s continuing presence. The Greek word* translated “worry” here, also sometimes translated as “anxious”, at its root means drawn in opposite directions, sometimes to the point of pulling apart. I have concluded that my tossing and turning about something even in prayer is more for my benefit than anything else. In some cases, I must accept that there is nothing I can do about a situation but turn it over to God and let it go. At other times, I must accept that there is something I can do that I do not want to do but I need to do for the sake of bringing about wholeness, oneness, or justice. At such times, I am wrestling with God as Jacob did the night before his reunion with his estranged brother Esau.
What kind of a world would we have in the absence of God’s presence with us? We get a taste of what life without God would be every time we have pulled apart when our wholeness is shattered, dissent rules, and there is no justice. Thank the Lord in such times, God intervenes and sends someone to save us from ourselves. First, it was prophets and priest eventually, God visited us in human form as God’s son came and dwelt among us full of truth and grace and we beheld his glory. (John 1:14)
At this time of Advent, we revisit the acts of God’s saving grace as we prepare once again to recognize Gods abiding presence with us coming as a newborn child to bring hope and love and reconciliation into the world.
Prayer: God of Truth and Grace,
Cure your children’s warring madness;
bend our pride to your control;
shame our wanton, selfish gladness,
rich in things and poor in soul.
Grant us wisdom, grant us courage,
lest we miss your kingdom’s goal,
lest we miss your kingdom’s goal**. Amen.
*https://biblehub.com/greek/3309.htm
**Verse 3 of God of Grace and God of Glory by Harry Emerson Fosdick see at https://hymnary.org/text/god_of_grace_and_god_of_glory