Advent

December 18, 2022

Scripture Reading:

Matthew 1:18-25
Now the birth of Jesus the Messiah took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been engaged to Joseph, but before they lived together, she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit. Her husband Joseph, being a righteous man and unwilling to expose her to public disgrace, planned to dismiss her quietly. But just when he had resolved to do this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, ‘Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife, for the child conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will bear a son, and you are to name him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.’ All this took place to fulfil what had been spoken by the Lord through the prophet: ‘Look, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son,
   and they shall name him Emmanuel’,
which means, ‘God is with us.’ When Joseph awoke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him; he took her as his wife, but had no marital relations with her until she had borne a son; and he named him Jesus.

We, humans, spend much time trying to make sense of God. The above scripture shows where Matthew tries to outline the birth of Jesus and how God came to us in human form. Mark skips that whole part of Jesus’s birth and goes straight to his ministry. Luke identifies that God relates to the poor and lowly. John tries to describe God-with-us in more theological language. It is good that we seek to know God better as it enables us to commune with God from our sense of ourselves.

I believe that God created each of us unique for a reason. God’s world is like an organism with many parts, all necessary and all designed to work together. We have been trying to figure out how to make that work for thousands of years. While God told us from the beginning that love is the sinew that holds us together. I fear that is hard for us to wrap our hearts and minds around.

This is supposed to be a time to renew our love by reviewing the coming of Emmanuel. Yet we get so caught up in the trappings of Christmas that we miss out on the purpose of the celebration. During this last week of Advent, let us draw closer to God with us and be refilled with God’s love that enables us to love one another.

Prayer: Lord, thank you for loving us by sending your Son to dwell among us. 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.