ADVENT • 4

What is the Significance behind the Birth of Christ?

SONGS FOR PRAYER

SET PRAYER

God of promise,
you have given us a sign of your love
through the gift of Jesus Christ, our Savior,
who was promised from ages past.
We believe as Joseph did
the message of your presence
whispered by an angel,
and offer our prayers for your world,
confident of your care and mercy for all creation. Amen.

reading for: Tuesday Night, 13 DECEMBER

Matthew 1:18-25

god has fulfilled the promise of his presence in unexpected ways

  • READ

    God works in ways we often do not understand, and it often upsets our cosy social expectations and practices. The First Christmas was one example. Most people would not expect the incarnation to come through the life of the young virgin girl, Mary and create such a great scandal.

    Joseph, whom the scriptures call a righteous man, discovers that his soon-to-be-wife is pregnant. Matthew, the gospel writer knows that it is a child of the Holy Spirit, but such things are unimaginable to Joseph at this point in the story. To Joseph, the pregnancy must be the result of Mary’s immoral actions. He decides to divorce her and out of kindness, he will do this quietly in order not to shame her, but soon realizes that things are not going to go as planned.

    In light of this story, perhaps it is helpful to consider that the faithful thing to do and the faithful way to go about it, sometimes go against social norms. This is a difficult truth to learn. Joseph wasn’t out to be a punk or a rebel. He did not violate convention to be rebellious. He violated social norms in order to remain faithful to Mary because God, as God often does, intervened in an unexpected way. God sent an angel to appear to Joseph in a dream. The angel basically said, “I know this is not what you expected, Joseph, but it is going to be OK. God is about to do something wonderful, despite the fact that according to Jewish custom you are in a socially unacceptable situation.”

    Unexpected things, things that may happen outside of convention can often be wonderful signs that God is at work. Amid our daily lives that are often not as perfect as we want them to be, God does something new, that brings about His glory and loving purposes in the most unexpected ways.

  • REFLECT

    Reflect on this year. Think of circumstances, people and moments. How have you experienced the presence of God in unexpected ways and moments? Were there moments He invited you to participate with Him (in prayer/action)? How were you blessed/challenged/ changed?

reading for: Wednesday Night, 14 DECEMBER

Isaiah 7:10-16

God has Fulfilled the Promise of His Presence in the Midst of Our Adversity

  • READ

It is a chaotic time and the prophet Isaiah speaks to King Ahaz to assure him that Jerusalem will not be captured by the joint-armies of nations rising up against him. God is going to frustrate the enemies plans to attack Jerusalem. So God invites Ahaz to ask for a sign from Him that God will do this for him. Ahaz refuses, with the excuse that he does not wish to tempt God. This rejection of God’s offer betrays his fear and his lack of trust in God. Despite this, Isaiah declares that God himself will give him a sign anyway—a woman pregnant with a child of promise. Destruction and devastation will come to the land of those who threaten Ahaz (v16). And as it turns out that this miracle child is also a sign of the Assyrian invasion that will devastate Jerusalem. What a strange and confusing sign to the prophet’s hearers (v17)!

Could it be that our picture of a cute cuddly Immanuel in a manger needs to be renewed with this historical background of the sign God is giving us? Here then we encounter a hidden depth in the meaning of the sign of incarnation.

This particular sign God gives in Isaiah is in fact ultimately, a sign of hope. At the same time, it shows up the gap between what the world is and what it ought to be. While we can see the evil that envelops us in the world, we are given the hope for salvation from all that is violent and destructive.

The vulnerability and the unexpected future of a child carried in a womb and birthed into this world are very important features of this sign given in Isaiah’s prophecy. On the one hand, vulnerability - a child as such is subject to growing up in a broken world—coming to know evil and good. On the other hand, this child, now weak in infancy, will later be our joy and confidence that God is at work redeeming His Creation.

  • REFLECT

    We often need and seek more certainty than what God seems to offer. This was true of the situation that Isaiah addressed; but it is true always of the historical situation into which every Advent brings us. The church is called to face the vulnerabilities of time and place. The very sign by which God promises to world and to church, “I will be with you,” evokes the unexpected hope. This year, Advent falls in the midst of severe human adversity — the ongoing war in Ukraine, looming economic recession, inflation and higher costs of living, continued job and health challenges. We are called to hope in God against all the evidence. Living between the First Coming and the Second Coming of Christ, we are challenged to hold onto a sign that has been fulfilled by Christ 2000 years ago, yet continue to live into a future that that will be fully renewed when He returns. How will you live between the times? How can we live in a ‘state of repentance’ – constantly turning away from evil and back to God, confessing the gospel in words and lifestyle, and the constant renewing of our minds?

reading for: Thursday Night, 15 december

romans 1:1-7

We Respond to God’s Promise-fulfillment with Purpose and Devotion

  • READ

    Paul’s greeting lays the groundwork for the content to follow. In it we see a clear sense of his personal identity and purpose. His life is completely shaped by his commitment and devotion to Jesus Christ.

    First, Paul begins by stating his commitment and devotion to Christ as His servant. He sees himself, first and foremost, in terms of his service to Christ. He doesn’t define himself in our usual terms, by our social identities—as a child, a parent, a spouse, or a worker of one kind or another. He begins with his relation to Christ. Paul’s reference point is not a doctrinal teaching or tradition, a set of laws, or even a series of practices. He identifies himself first and foremost with a person—not an idea or an abstraction. It is a way of life that he lives in response to the grace he has personally received, from the Lord Jesus Christ.

    Next, he describes his commitment and devotion to the “gospel of God” as an apostle. He didn’t just wake up one day and decide to give himself a fancy title. This apostleship is his calling in Christ it is to this work that he has been set apart. In this context, Paul elaborates the “gospel” in which his calling is rooted in and from which he derives his legitimacy and authority. This gospel is also not conceptual or impersonal and neither is it purely subjective or experiential. It is grounded in the “holy scriptures,” - the historical appearing of Jesus in the flesh, the revelation of Christ as Lord through the event of his resurrection, and his particular experience of grace of God he has known in his own life. And so he places himself firmly in the story of God’s unfolding purpose in the world. It is, from start to finish, a story of redemption and inclusion.

    Third, Paul names his commitment and devotion to all those who are called to belong to Christ, especially the Gentiles— the particular focus and expression of his apostleship. It is the fact that he belongs to Christ that frees him to belong to and fellowship with others both within and outside his Jewish community. He had never visited the church in Rome, but already he shared a bond with them because of their common relationship to Christ.

    In these short verses, Paul packs and weaves together in a seamless way, the story of Christ and his own story. While Christ remains primary in every way, Christ’s calling for Paul works its way out in the specific purpose and calling that shapes his everyday living. Paul makes clear that this is not the case for him alone. This is the way it is for all who “are called to belong to Jesus Christ” (v. 6).

    Having begun his salutation by grounding his identity in a relationship, Paul ends it by grounding the Roman Christians’ identity in one as well. Some in our midst are lonely and lost during this mandatorily joyful season (v. 7).

  • REFLECT

    Paul’s salutation frames for us a life lived in light of the coming of Christ. Do you yearn and long for this kind of clarity of identity and purpose in life? Then continue to prepare your heart for Christmas by letting your devotion to Christ as your first love help you renew your commitment and devotion to Him. This will bring focus and clarity for his purposes for your life today.

reading for: Friday Night, 16 december

PSALM 80:1-7, 17-19

The Promise of His Presence & Glory is Fulfilled in Christ His Son

  • READ

    The psalm begins with God being addressed as “Shepherd of Israel,” reminding the nation that the Lord cares for them, providing food, drink, and protection. Then it becomes intensely personal, baring the soul of the community before God, pleading for its restoration and wholeness while displaying anger, despair, and even the desire for vengeance.

    The refrain of the psalm (vv. 3, 7, 19) pleads for the return of God showing the glory of His face to his people: “Restore us, O God; let your face shine, that we may be saved,” recalling the priestly benediction in Numbers 6:24–26, which associates God’s shining countenance with well-being as well as the prophetic warning in Deuteronomy 31:17–18, which links the hiding of God’s face to the Israelites’ turning to other gods. The community has not only fallen on hard times, it is experiencing God’s absence and it is longing and waiting, for God’s presence again because if God’s face does not shine, then everything is lost in sin. Salvation will be only a distant dream and an empty hope.

  • REFLECT

    Like all of the psalms, this Psalm expresses the raw, honest emotion of a person of faith and a hopeful cry, uttered by someone who has tried hard but hasn’t succeeded. Standing in the footsteps of the psalmist is not a popular place to be. To arrive at this point has required an honest admission of guilt and even failure. Standing with the psalmist means coming to terms with our own inadequacies. Yet, to stand in the place of the psalmist is also to stand in a place of hopeful anticipation. Having admitted a need for salvation, the psalmist stands waiting for God’s answer. It is a place of hope, a place of anticipation, a place of new beginnings. In what areas are you longing for God’s renewal?

Season of AdventCNL