YES! LET IT BE!  Readings and Prayers For The Week Before Advent Sunday 4  (Dec.18-22):

by | Dec 15, 2017 | 0 comments

 

  1. Monday, Dec. 18: Luke 1: 26-38, The Annunciation of the Angel Gabriel to Mary. The words in verse 35, about how “the power of the Most High will overshadow” Mary and “the Holy Spirit will come upon” her reflect and repeat Israel’s experience of the glory of God coming and dwelling above the Ark of the Covenant in the Tabernacle and the Temple. That makes Jesus the new revelation of God’s glory in a tabernacle of human flesh.
    1. What does this tory tell us about Mary’s character and qualities?
    2. What does it tell us about God and his saving work in the world?
      “Let my soul like Mary be thine earthly sanctuary.” By Gerhard Tersteegen, the hymn, “God Is Here Among Us.”
  2. Tuesday, Dec. 19: 2 Samuel 7: 1-11: God had dwelt with Israel in a portable tabernacle up to that time. Here God promises David that he will build a house (a dynasty) for him in perpetuity. Compare this passage with John 1: 14: “The Word became flesh and dwelt (lit. “tabernacled”) among us.”
    1. What things does God promise David and the people?
    2. How does Jesus fulfill these promises to David?

“O come to us, abide with us, our Lord Emmanuel.” From “O Little Town of Bethlehem,” verse 4

  1. Wednesday, Dec. 20: Psalm 89: 1-4; 19-29. This Psalm also celebrates the covenant of God with David and his lineage. But the promises are left unfulfilled by Israel’s history of exile and dispersal, unless a different kind of king, and a different kind of kingdom should fulfill them. That’s what people were to hear when Jesus preached that “the kingdom of God is at hand.”
    1. How does Jesus fulfill the covenant celebrated in this Psalm?
    2. How does Jesus differ from the kind of king one might initially expect from this Psalm?
      “Almighty and everlasting God, whose will it is to restore all things in your well-beloved Son, the King of kings and Lord of lords: Mercifully grant that the peoples of the earth, divided and enslaved by sin, may be freed and brought together under his most gracious rule…” from the Book of Common Prayer, for Christ the King Sunday
  2. Thursday, Dec. 21: Romans 16: 25-27: This benediction sums up the purpose and content of Paul’s Letter to the Churches of Rome: that Jewish and Gentile believers in the new churches might know how they both fit into God’s redemptive mission for the world, and so better love, live and participate in that mission together.
    1. For what would you praise God today?
    2. With what relationships, or with what people, do you need help and work to better love and reflect the reconciling work of Christ?
    3. How will you pray and work toward such a relationship?

“Bless my enemies, O Lord…so that my heart might become the grave of my two evil twins: arrogance and anger.” A prayer by St. Nikolai of Ochrid, Bulgaria

  1. Friday, Dec. 22: Revelation 12: 1-17; This passage is a picture of the war waged by Satan against Christ and his church. In it, the birth story of Christ casts light on the church’s history, as well as on our own stories.
    1. With whom and what can you identify in this story of conflict, flight and rescue?
    2. What do you find frightening about this passage? Or comforting?

      “      So long Thy power hath blest me, sure it still will lead me on
      O’er moor and fen, o’er crag and torrent, till the night is gone;

And with the morn those angel faces smile which I have loved long since, and lost awhile.”

 From “Lead, Kindly Light,” By John Henry Cardinal Newman

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