Tag Archives: Christ With Us

Evil

Advent

December 11, 2019

Scripture Reading: Psalm 1:5-10 (11)
Their ways prosper at all times;
    your judgments are on high, out of their sight;
    as for their foes, they scoff at them.
They think in their heart, “We shall not be moved;
    throughout all generations we shall not meet adversity.”
Their mouths are filled with cursing and deceit and oppression;
    under their tongues are mischief and iniquity.
They sit in ambush in the villages;
    in hiding places they murder the innocent.
Their eyes stealthily watch for the helpless;
    they lurk in secret like a lion in its covert;
they lurk that they may seize the poor;
    they seize the poor and drag them off in their net.
They stoop, they crouch,
    and the helpless fall by their might.
They think in their heart, “God has forgotten,
    he has hidden his face, he will never see it.”


What is evil? According the Mirriam-Webster evil is

1 a. the fact of suffering and wickedness:  the totality of undesirable, harmful, wicked acts, experiences, and things
  b. a cosmic force producing evil actions or states
  c. (1) wickedness, sin (an offense against God)
      (2) the wicked or undesirable element or portion of anything

While the Psalm quoted above describes well the various forms that evil takes in our world, the final verse quoted, verse 11, was not included in the lectionary selection but I think it may be at the heart of evil. Does not evil result when a person or a society reaches the point that They think in their heart, “God has forgotten, he has hidden his face, he will never see it.”?

Evil becomes the norm in our society when we as a people no longer have in our hearts the measure of God’s love by which to judge the efficacy of our actions, when we have lost our moral compass. Like our Hebrew ancestors before they were taken into exile, I fear we are at the crisis point in our society of letting evil win and worse still, claiming our actions are ordained by God as we define God’s intentions to our benefit.

Advent is the time to search our hearts and examine whether we know God is with us, shines God’s face upon us, and sees everything we are and we do. If we find in such and examination that our connection to God is not complete, let us remember that Christ has come, is with us now, and is coming again. We only need to reconnect with God.

Prayer: Lord forgive us when we think that you have forgotten us. Open our hearts to your presence and heal our troubled souls. Amen.

All scriptures are quoted from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicized Edition, copyright 1989, 1995, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights are reserved.

Running and Seeking

run for GodAdvent
December 3, 2015

Scripture Reading: Philippians 1:3-11

And this is my prayer, that your love may overflow more and more with knowledge and full insight to help you to determine what is best, so that on the day of Christ you may be pure and blameless, having produced the harvest of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ for the glory and praise of God. –Philippians 1:9-11

Learning on the run is what most of us have been doing all our lives. We see it in the face of infants when the Aha! moment strikes and their brains record, “so that is how I do that.” And then they often try it over and over again to make sure it stays in their brains, I suppose. We don’t think about it much as we get older but we still learn or, I hope, I am still learning.

The challenge is to actually learn and keep on running. Our call from Christ is an engaged and active call. Yet here we sit in the midst of Advent waiting. What is engaged and active waiting? Pregnancy certainly is. The future mom supported by the future dad exercises, eats right, reads everything they can find on nurturing children, and counts down the days until the birth. We follow that same course as we tread the path with Mary and Joseph pondering the miracle of birth, wondering exactly who this expected child is and will become.

Mary and Joseph’s child came and dwelt among us full of grace and truth. He told us that we were to be actively engaged in preparation for the full fruition of God’s Kingdom. We are still required to learn on the run to grow in God’s truth and to manifest God’s love to the ends of the earth. We may stumble occasionally, even fall, but we never run alone and Christ is always their right beside us teaching through his love.

Prayer: Lord, instill in each of us the desire and ability to seek your truth in all of our running to serve you. Amen.

All scriptures are quoted from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicized 
edition, copyright 1989, 1995, Division of Christian Education of the National Council 
of Churches of Christ in the United States of American. Used by permission. All rights 
reserved.