Advent - Making room part 3
Readings for this week December 4 - 10
Click hereere for a pdf of this week’s readings
Day 1 – Making Room
Silence, Stillness and Centering before God (2 minutes)
Scripture Reading – Luke 2:1-7
We like to think of a stable: straw, animals, a trough, and three lonely figures huddling for warmth because of the generosity of the innkeeper, while regular guests sleep in human comfort in a different building entirely. The holy family in a shed, everyone else in a house. But history and archaeology tell us it is highly unlikely this was the case. Most family dwellings in that area, at that time, had space inside them for animals to be brought inside, especially during inclement weather. Many such buildings that have been excavated have a large ground-floor area with a mezzanine running around the top of the room as the main area where people live and sleep. So to say there was no place available for Mary and Joseph is to say that there was no space available on this mezzanine to accommodate them, and so they ended up downstairs with the animals.
But they weren’t turned away; they were invited in and space was made for them. After all, it is quite likely that, rather than imposing on complete strangers, they were actually surrounded by their wider family; after all, people had been ordered to return to their own town, so it is reasonable to assume they were not the only members of Joseph’s family returning, and that maybe some members of the family were still living in Nazareth. Either way, they found a welcome, and though conditions may be a far cry from what we might expect, they were offered hospitality. For whatever reasons, circumstances were tight but they were welcomed and room was made for them.
Question to Consider
How have you made room for others at Christmas? How have others made room for you?
Prayer
Gracious God, may I make room for others this Christmas and may such generosity become a hallmark of my life every day. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
Conclude with Silence (2 minutes)
Day 2 – The Hospitable King
Silence, Stillness and Centering before God (2 minutes)
Scripture Reading – Luke 2:8
There were many ways that God told people of the coming of His son: angelic visitations, dreams, prophesies, miraculous signs in the sky and in a young girl’s womb. Some of the people directly involved in the coming of the king were not the sort of people you might expect to be heralds of God’s coming – or people to whom He would necessarily choose to reveal himself. This is the God of the unexpected, the God of the neglected pathway and the forgotten road, the God who reaches out to those whom others would push away. This is the hospitable God who makes room for others and invites them in and includes them in his work.
We sing “We Three Kings,” but as we saw last week they were really wise men, scholars, astrologers from a distant land following celestial signs in the sky. No kings attended the birth of Jesus; the only royal blood present was that flowing in his own veins. The main visitors were foreign wise men and shepherds. In the world’s eyes, those welcoming him were unimportant, but God still welcomed into his story the lowly, the forgotten, and strangers from a foreign land. When the king of the universe came to us, He came as a baby. The true king was not himself waited upon by kings – in fact, he would be a threat to kings, he would challenge them and their right to rule over people, as well as their manner of rule. He came as a baby, amongst lowly, unimportant, overlooked people. And the people let in on this secret, this extraordinary event, were not the rich and powerful, but the poor and marginalised.
Question to Consider
What do we learn of God’s character in his choice to come to us as a baby, and to come to the people he chose to?
Prayer
Lord God, thank you for coming to us as one of us, a vulnerable God in the care of vulnerable people, to rescue a vulnerable world. Amen.
Conclude with Silence (2 minutes)
Day 3 – The Bringer of Joy
Silence, Stillness and Centering before God (2 minutes)
Scripture Reading – Luke 2:8-12
“Joyful, Joyful, we adore thee.” “Joyful all ye nations rise/Join the triumph of the skies.” And, of course, especially pertinent for this week’s readings, “Joy to the world/The Lord is come.” The birth of Jesus is good news – the best news – and with such news, says Luke, came great joy. The promised Messiah, long foretold and awaited, had finally arrived, in the form of a tiny baby. Now, a baby – any baby – on its own is a great cause for joy; even more cause for celebration when the baby is Jesus, the promised king, God incarnated. God with us. That is why the Advent and Christmas season is a season of joy, because of the joy that Jesus brings and the joy that comes with knowing that God is with us. There is amazing, abundant joy in being with God.
God took on human flesh, clothing himself in a full human life, in all its physicality, in all its emotional diversity and intensity, in all its pain and excitement and uncertainty – and in all its joy. One of the sources of joy for us is that when we look at Jesus we see someone who walked the same life as us, shared the same experiences as us, carried the same troubles and triumphs. We see a God who chose to become one of us, to be with us and join with us in navigating a human life. There is joy in knowing that God loves us so much he was one of us, with us in the deepest way possible, and still with us now.
Question to Consider
What brings you joy? How does Advent remind you of this joy? How does Advent expand your experience of joy?
Prayer
Heavenly Father, Thank you for the freedom that Jesus brings, for the new life he makes possible, and for the joy that comes with this new way of being with you. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
Conclude with Silence (2 minutes)
Day 4 – Sharing the News
Silence, Stillness and Centering before God (2 minutes)
Scripture Reading – Luke 2:8-21
When something fantastic occurs, who do you tell? When you have great news, who are the first people you rush to share it with? An engagement, a pregnancy, a promotion at work, an excellent exam result, a sports team call up – often it is family, and those nearest and dearest to us, we run to tell. The shepherds were the first people to be informed that the saviour of their people, the Messiah, had been born. Israel’s holy scriptures, available for everyone, had foretold the coming of the Anointed One; Mary and Joseph, and Elizabeth and Zechariah had been informed that God’s redemptive plan for the world would be starting with them; but once Jesus had been born, the shepherds were the first to be told of this momentous event.
You might think it would be the kings and queens of the world, the priests and scribes, the important movers and shakers of history and opinion, who would be first in line to be told, the first to be invited to take their places at the King’s table. But no. God first spreads the news to society’s marginalised shepherd community, beginning a process that will continue through into the ministry of Jesus: God specifically coming to the vulnerable and oppressed, deliberately choosing to open the door to those often shown the door and barred from entry. The good news is for all, but especially for those not used to being taken seriously, those not in the loop of the powerful and protected – those not normally invited. When God had good news – the best news – to share with the world, the first people he went to were those at the margins.
Question to Consider
What does sharing the good news of Jesus look like in your life?
Prayer
Loving Father, show me ways to share the good news with others. Each day bring me to those you want me to share your love with. Amen.
Conclude with Silence (2 minutes)
Day 5 – The Stranger as Jesus in Disguise
Silence, Stillness and Centering before God (2 minutes)
Scripture Reading – Matthew 25:31-40
The bible says firmly, repeatedly and unambiguously that God’s people are to treat strangers with dignity and to welcome them with hospitality. In the Pentateuch, the first five books of the Hebrew bible, the word used for stranger appears almost fifty times. The book of Deuteronomy itself contains many injunctions to not only treat the stranger kindly, but to offer them active support and provide for their needs: every three years farmers are to set aside a portion of their harvest for strangers, widows and orphans, and many passages remind the Israelites that they are not to oppress or neglect the sojourner in their land. Everyone has the potential to be a stranger at some point in their lives – the Israelites themselves were acutely aware of this – and so everyone is to be treated with dignity, respect and welcome.
Jesus makes an explicit link between those who are sick, hungry, imprisoned – those isolated on the margins – and himself. He does not tell his audience that when they feed the hungry, visit the sick and the imprisoned it is as if they are feeding and visiting him. He says that they are feeding and visiting him. Jesus’ identification with those on the margins is total – it is not figurative or metaphoric or exemplary, it is real. In the faces of strangers – the poor, the unknown, the lonely and the sick – in the faces of those deemed unimportant and unlovable, and therefore, we are told, not worth our time and love – we see the face of Jesus.
Question to Consider
Where do you encounter the face of Jesus each day? Who are the people embodying Jesus for you today?
Prayer
Heavenly Father, if we are truly seeking your face, we know where to find you. Help me have the courage to seek your face in the lives of strangers and those in need, wherever they are, however I can help. Amen.
Conclude with Silence (2 minutes)