Ponderings for the First Week in Advent

This Advent I am going to do something (or at least try) to write a Devotional every day from this first Sunday in Advent until Christmas Day. I love this season…and will be using one passage from this year’s Lectionary reading day after day.

O God, thou who art "untamed and perilous,"
who dost "deal in every form of danger, and many
modes of death," strip us from our pretensions and
vanities; expose to the strong his weakness, and
to the wise his folly but set in our hearts an unconquerable
hope, and in thine own way fulfill it.
Through Jesus Christ, our Lord.  Amen.
--Paul Scherer

Sunday - November 28 – Matthew 25. 1-13. We have dusted off the Advent wreath…we have placed the candles in place. And we light the first Candle of the season. Today’s Gospel lesson is about the Wise and foolish maidens or virgins. Five did not have oil in their lamps and when the Bridegroom came they were left out. Seems like Advent is a time for lamp trimming. For checking the oil, not in our cars but in our lamps. Do your resources, like mine, run low? Does your well get empty too? Light the first candle. Sit quietly and pray the Jesus prayer: “Jesus remember me.”

Monday – November 29 – I Thessalonians 1.3. Paul writes to the church at Thessalonica. He had established this church and set them on a course of faithfulness. But the world pressed in on them, culture tried to remake their values. So Paul’s letter is first an epistle of encouragement. In this verse he talked about: their work of faith, their labor of love and the steadfastness of their hope. Elton Trueblood once a book called The Encourager. I wonder if we spend some time today encouraging somebody it might just come back to us. Store clerks, especially this time of the year, Pharmacists, that server in the restaurant. Who knows what that smile or kind word or silent prayer might just do to help somebody along?


Tuesday – November 30 – Psalms 5, 6. Carlyle Marney used to say when he got into trouble he always turned to the Psalms. He must not be alone—in the worship of the Synagogue and the Church the Psalms has always formed the centerpiece of our meditations. Psalm 5 is a prayer—“Give heed to my sighings,” the writer prays. Psalm 6 reminds us that “the Lord has heard the sound of my weeping.” If God hears our sighs and weepings we can make it. Lift up your sighs…the things that make you weep this day. You will be heard.


Wednesday – December 1 – Isaiah 2.1-11. Isaiah’s book was written before, during and after the Exile. It must have been a scary time waiting, just waiting to be attacked. Israel’s enemies were brutal. And what we have here is this wonderful prayer-longing:“They shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up word against nation, neither shall they learn war no more.” Someone said that through the years we reversed the order: plowshares into swords…pruning hooks into spears. O Prince of Peace make Isaiah’s dream come true in our hearts and in our time.


Thursday – December 2 – I Thessalonians 3. 1-13. In Thessalonica’s hard time Paul must have worried about their discouragement as they faced so many difficulties. He challenges them particularly in verses 11-13 to remain faithful. I have been struck by the utter courage of the English people during the Second World War. German bombs fell on London alone over 70 consecutive days. How did they stand it? Churchill, after the war said there was one secret: “Never, never give up.” Maybe Jesus’ prayer to “give us today our daily bread” really should be translated: “Give us what we need to get through this day.”


Friday – December 3 – Psalm 18. This is a long and wonderful prayer. I love the way it begins by giving us some qualities of the Lord God. Strength…Fortress…Deliverer…Rock…Refuge…Shield…Horn of my salvation…Stronghold. Verse sixteen continues this meditation on the wonders of our God. “He reached down…” “He drew me…” “He delivered me…” “He confronted me…”He brought me…” And then once again in case we forget: “He delivered me…”
“Strong deliverer, strong deliverer, Be Thou still my strength and shield, Be Thou still my strength and shield.”

Saturday – December 4 – I Thessalonians 13-18. Paul must have been quite concerned for this little church he had founded. Again he comes back to the theme of encouragement. Nothing stays won. Maybe we need a continual reminder not to lose heart. He challenges them to: “aspire to live quietly, to mind your own affairs, and to work with your hands.” A missionary served in a village of much despair. He taught the natives a chorus to sing over and over again: “Go on! Go on! Go on! Go on! Go on! Go on! Go on! Go on! Go on! Go on! Go on! Go on!” I loved the way James Thurber described his friend Ross who worked with him at The New Yorker. “He just kept going like a bullet-torn battle flag and nobody captured his colors and nobody silenced his drums.”