Advent Devotional 12-21-25

Don’t Be Afraid

Please Read Matthew 1:18-25

Advent is a season of waiting—a time to prepare our hearts for God’s arrival. Joseph’s story reminds that we find that preparation isn’t always calm or comfortable. Waiting can be confusing.

While they were engaged to be married, Joseph learned that Mary was pregnant, and the baby was not his. Because he was a “righteous man,” according to Matthew, he didn’t want to humiliate her. Joseph decided to call off their engagement quietly. But after he had considered this, an angel from the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph son of David, don’t be afraid to take Mary as your wife, because the child she carries was conceived by the Holy Spirit.” Matthew 1:19–20 (CEB)

I imagine that Joseph thought he understood the direction his life would take. He and Mary would get married, have children, and build a nice home together while Joseph worked as a carpenter. Then came the news that shattered his plans—Mary was pregnant, and the child wasn’t his. 

Joseph’s response was human. He would end their engagement. But his response was also measured and compassionate. Some other righteous man might have exposed Mary publicly to protect his own name and subject her to punishment under the law. Joseph’s sense of right and wrong was guided by grace and mercy.

Then, something totally unexpected happened. God intervened. “Do not be afraid,” the angel said. “What is happening here is the work of the Holy Spirit.”

In that moment, Joseph learned what many of us discover in Advent: God’s plans can upend our own, but they are always rooted in love.
Joseph’s faith was not loud or public—it was obedient. He trusted the voice that came in a dream. He welcomed Mary into his home. He named the child Jesus, just as the angel said. Through his quiet courage, the promise of Emmanuel—God with us—entered the world.

We, too, are invited to trust in what we cannot yet see. Advent invites us to believe that even in confusion, God is at work. Like Joseph, we are called to let go of fear and to make room for the unexpected presence of Christ.

Where is God calling you to trust beyond your own understanding? How will you prepare room for Christ’s presence this Advent?
Prayer: Dear God, in the middle of my expectations, help me hear your voice of reassurance: “Do not be afraid.” Give me the courage to trust you when life takes an unexpected turn, to act in faith rather than fear, and to welcome Christ into my heart and home. Amen.

Rev. Jeff Taylor

Advent Devotional 12-12-25

Upside-Down

Please read Luke 1:46b-55

“With all my heart I glorify the Lord! In the depths of who I am I rejoice in God my savior. He has looked with favor on the low status of his servant. Look! From now on, everyone will consider me highly favored because the mighty one has done great things for me. Holy is his name.” Luke 1:46b–49 (CEB)

When Mary sings, she does so from a place the world would call insignificant. She is poor young woman from a remote village. She is pregnant and unmarried. Yet it is precisely in her seeming insignificance that God’s greatness is revealed.

We often romanticize Mary’s song. The Magnificat is more than a song of joy; it’s a declaration of a new world order. She proclaims that God has turned things upside down.

Would some complain today that Mary is too political?  “He has pulled the powerful down from their thrones and lifted up the lowly. He has filled the hungry with good things and sent the rich away empty.” Would the powerful today call Mary a radical?

In God’s kingdom, those who are overlooked are honored, and those who hunger are fed. This is not the way power usually works. Through Mary’s voice, Advent reminds us that God’s coming doesn’t just comfort the humble, but also challenges the proud. God’s mercy lifts up those who have been pushed down and calls us to see the world through God’s values, not earth’s hierarchies.

Mary’s song is both deeply personal and profoundly public. It begins with her own experience of God’s favor. —“He has looked with favor on me”—and expands into a vision of justice that touches the whole world. Mary recognizes that what God is doing in her life is part of a larger story of salvation, stretching back to Abraham and forward to every generation.

Advent invites us to let our lives echo Mary’s confidence that God’s promises are trustworthy. Even when the world seems unchanged, her song declares that God is already at work turning things around.

Prayer: Dear God, teach me to see the world through your eyes of justice and compassion. Let my heart, like Mary’s, rejoice in you. Amen.

Rev. Jeff Taylor

Advent Devotional 12-8-24

The Straight Way

Please read Luke 3:1-6

Jesus entered history two thousand years ago to fulfill the long-promised coming of God’s kingdom on earth. With his birth in Bethlehem, the promise became a reality. We remember and celebrate his birth at Christmas, but Advent is a time when we prepare ourselves for Christ’s second coming to complete creation in God’s image.

Our gospel reading reminds us of the prophetic words of John the Baptist, who invites us to prepare the way of the Lord. How am I to prepare? “Repent.” This second week of Advent is an opportunity to contemplate the direction we are heading as people of God and to change direction when necessary. 

The shortest route between two points is a straight line. This is why it bugs me to fly south, say, to Atlanta, to go north, say, to New York City. Alas, I have no control over the airlines, so I simply deal with the cognitive dissonance of not taking the shortest route. These days, the uneasiness from going in the wrong direction may be the least uncomfortable of all the uncomfortable parts of flying.

On the other hand, when I am driving, I am in control! “Make his paths straight!” to prepare for the Lord’s coming, says John the Baptist. Those who have ridden anywhere with me know that I take that charge seriously. I am always looking for the straightest way. That translates to not backtracking. Not ever backtracking.
And finding the hypotenuse opposite a right angle. 

No matter what navigation aid I use, from paper maps and road atlases to AAA TripTiks to Google Maps and Waze, I always find a straighter way. I know better than all the greatest cartographers. Maybe not the quickest way; sometimes I lose time, yes, but I win on mileage.

Once, my colleague and I had to get from Parkersburg to Weston. The obvious route is to take Route 50 East to Clarksburg and pick up I-79 South to Weston. That is a right angle, and Weston is within the triangle created by the right angle. There had to be a straighter way. So, as we entered Ritchie County, I started thinking about a possible hypotenuse. As we were refueling in Ellenboro, I looked at the map on my phone and found it: I’d get off 50 and take Main Street to Salem, Patterson Fork to Raccoon Run, well, some of the roads didn’t have names, but I have a good internal compass.

As I was paying for the fuel, Kim overheard me asking the clerk if my plan made sense and the clerk’s clear answer: “Your best bet is just to go to I-79.” As we pulled out of the station, Kim said, “You’re not going to I-79, are you?” Repent! Make a U-turn.

Somewhere between Hog Lick and Possum Holler I almost started to have second thoughts about my intuition. Repent! Just then, we caught up to a logging truck. Quite a few logging trucks, actually. I was never an Eagle Scout, but I participated in scouting long enough to know that when the logging trucks in front of you are loaded with logs, they are going toward civilization, not away from it. So, I just followed the logging trucks for several miles, inch by painstakingly slow inch, to WESTON! Bingo. I was right all along.

Here is my confession. That is not even the worst example of my going to great lengths to avoid backtracking. The worst example, so far, involved a call to 911 to find out where I was stuck and a four-wheel drive to get me. Then a tow truck to take me back the next day to get my car. All to avoid…backtracking.

Sometimes, despite the clear directions from road signs, maps, and signals, we get so far off course that the only way to get right is to repent. To turn around and get back on track. To backtrack, hard as it may be.

As we live in between the already and the not yet, between the coming of Christ in Bethlehem and His second coming, we might examine where we are in relation to where we should be. Where do we need to make a course correction? Repent! Make a U-turn.

Prayer:
Dear God as we prepare for the coming of Christ, change our hearts and lives to conform to your ways. Amen.

Rev. Jeff Taylor

Devotion - December 18, 2023

The Magnificat: Mary’s Radical Song
Please read Luke 1:46-55

Theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer has described Mary’s song as “…the most passionate, the wildest, one might even say the most revolutionary Advent hymn ever sung.” While the Magnificat is a song of promise for the world’s poor, brokenhearted, and oppressed, it is not exactly good news for the strong and powerful. 

Mary’s song describes a reversal in the status quo: the proud are scattered and the humble honored. The hungry are fed and the rich sent away. The powerful are brought down, and the lowly are lifted up. Mary describes a reordered and renewed world characterized by love and justice. How can such a thing be accomplished? Only through the Christ she carries in her womb. 

Mary’s song about lifting up the lowly sets the tone for Luke’s account of the life, teaching, and ministry of Jesus. In Luke’s birth narrative, the Christ child’s life begins with the animals in a food trough because his parents are unable to find better shelter. In his first public sermon, Jesus announces that he brings good news to the poor. Throughout his life, Jesus lifts up the lowly. And Jesus calls those who want to be his disciples into this ministry of reversing roles, of lifting up the lowly and bringing down the powerful.

Speaking truth to power is difficult, even dangerous. Mary’s song goes against the Christian Nationalism that is espoused by many in power today. There are likely some powerful people who would not want us to read it. Did you know that Mary’s song has been banned as subversive by some governments in modern history? It is seen as subversive in its cultural, socioeconomic and political implications. Who would rebel against Mary’s song today?

Mary’s song tells us the promise of the lasting reign of Christ changes everything. There is no unjust system, oppressive hierarchy, or arrogant leadership structure that God will not upend. No promise God will fail to keep. There is no broken, exploited life God will not save. 

This Advent and Christmas, think about your part in Mary’s song. How is God magnified through your unique perspective and vision? What words have you found to express the hope of Christ you carry? Share it with the world one person at a time. Share it in actions and words.

Rev. Jeff Taylor

Devotional 12-22-22

Luke 2:6-7:  While they were there, the time came for Mary to have her baby. She gave birth to her firstborn child, a son, wrapped him snugly, and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the guestroom.

Who is the most overlooked figure of the Nativity?

I remember a sermon over 20 years ago when the pastor asked that question at the beginning of his sermon. It wasn’t a rhetorical question. The pastor paused until people in the congregation starting calling out answers. “The shepherd!” I heard one woman call out. “The animals!” said another. Still others, including myself, called out “Joseph.” 

It seemed like there was nearly a consensus on Joseph when an elderly man said confidently “The Inkeeper!”

The pastor was looking for Joseph to illustrate his sermon on the example of faith set by Jesus’s earthly father in accepting the unbelievable story of his pregnant fiancée, fleeing home with his new family to avoid Herod’s death threats, and raising the boy Jesus to follow in his own chosen craft of carpentry.

It was a good sermon, but I couldn’t quit thinking of the old man’s answer. Who is the most overlooked figure in the Nativity? “The Innkeeper!”

Until then, I had never thought much about the innkeeper. He is generally negatively depicted in Christmas stories and pageants for shutting his doors and refusing to extend hospitality to the couple. What is the truth about the innkeeper?

The biblical accounts of the birth of Jesus do not even mention the innkeeper. In fact, the only reference to a manger or an inn is in the verse above from Luke. On the basis of that single sentence, we convict the innkeeper of shutting Jesus out. Perhaps we have been too hard on him.

Perhaps the innkeeper is an improbable hero. He had no reason to know that the strangers at his door were about to bring the Messiah into the world. Had he known, perhaps he would have made room by displacing a less prominent guest. Yet, rather than making excuses, the innkeeper was resourceful, and gave what he could give—not a room or even a corner in his already crowded inn, but the stable that demonstrates that the King of the world is at home with the humblest of the humble. 

The arrival of the long-expected Messiah stood out in contrast to peoples’ expectations. He did not come in a manner befitting of a king. No pomp and circumstance, no great earthquake, no thunder and lightning, no burning bush, but humbly and anonymously in a barn to a young unmarried woman. The Jesus born in those surroundings would grow up to teach us to believe the unbelievable, to be prepared for the unexpected, and that the poor and meek will occupy a prominent place in the Kingdom of Heaven.

Less prominent than even the lowly shepherds and animals, the innkeeper is neither mentioned by the writers of the gospel nor placed in the crèches that adorn our mantels and tables during Christmastime. Rather, he was and is behind the scenes, humbly and anonymously playing a major part in God’s great plan. He serves as a reminder to us that God can use what we offer. Perhaps we should be more like the innkeeper.

Prayer:  Dear God, Give me the compassion of the innkeeper. Even when circumstances indicate that I have used up everything I have to give, give me the courage to stand out in contrast to the status quo, and the awareness and the resourcefulness to make room for Christ. Amen

Rev. Jeff Taylor

Devotional 12-19-22

Ah, the wars they will be fought again
The holy dove, she will be caught again
Bought and sold, and bought again
The dove is never free
Ring the bells that still can ring
Forget your perfect offering
There is a crack, a crack in everything
That’s how the light gets in
We asked for signs
The signs were sent
The birth betrayed
The marriage spent
Yeah, and the widowhood
Of every government
Signs for all to see
I can’t run no more
With that lawless crowd
While the killers in high places
Say their prayers out loud
But they’ve summoned, they’ve summoned up
A thundercloud
They’re going to hear from me
Ring the bells that still can ring
Forget your perfect offering
There is a crack, a crack in everything
That’s how the light gets in.

From Anthem, by Leonard Cohen (1934-2016)

Submitted by Rev. Jeff Taylor

Devotional 12-21-21

Please read Luke 2:1-20

In 2019, Mary and I participated in a tour of Israel to walk where Jesus walked. We started within the walled-off city of Bethlehem. 

I looked forward to seeing the place of Jesus’s birth. My expectations of what the place would look like were developed by annual nativity displays and Christmas pageants. I know I had seen several presentations and looked many pictures of others’ trips to the Holy Land in my lifetime, but somehow I hadn’t realized that Jesus was born in a church basement. 

Well, not exactly. But the site we visited as the place of the birth of Jesus is in the grotto beneath the Church of the Nativity. Since the second century, according to Greek theologian Origen, this grotto has been traditionally believed to be the very cave where Jesus was born because there was no room in the inn. 

I should have known, but learned on my trip to the Holy Land, that most of the holy sites have had various shrines and chapels built on them since the third century, CE, when Helena, the mother of Constantine, visited Jerusalem and Bethlehem.

Christian pilgrims from all over the world visit the Church of the Nativity. You enter bent-over through the Gate of Humility. Then you snake around the roped lines slowly leading to the steps down below to the grotto. You’re shushed several times for being too loud because worship services are taking place in other parts of the church. You jostle for position to see the very spot, marked by an ornate star. You’re invited to kneel and touch or kiss the star—this trip was pre-COVID—but then a monk urges you to move along because others are waiting. You can briefly pause to look at the manger, or perhaps a manger like the manger, where Jesus was laid. It is not a wooden feed trough like I had seen in my Uncle Bryce’s barn or in the live nativity at home. It is a rock shelf covered with marble.

I wanted to feel something when I saw the spot, knelt and touched and kissed it. I just wasn’t what I anticipated, and I was a little disappointed. 

That same evening, we had the opportunity to break into smaller groups to visit the homes and have a meal with Christian families living in Bethlehem. Six of us from our West Virginia group visited a home in neighboring Beit Sahour, basically a suburb of Bethlehem. Beit Sahour is translated as House of Vigilance or, more literally, House of the Night Watch. This is near the area of the Shepherds’ Fields. The nearby Church of the Annunciation, which is built over the spot where the shepherds kept watch over their flocks, and where the angel appeared to them to announce Jesus’s birth. Our gracious hosts trace their ancestral roots to the shepherds who first received the good news. What a joy it was to meet them and to receive their hospitality.

While I had looked expectantly for Jesus in the grotto beneath the Church of the Nativity, it was in the breaking of the bread in the multi-generational home of our host family that I recognized the presence of Jesus. Sadly, their news is not so good today. Since the Six-Day War in 1967, Beit Sahour has been under Israeli occupation. The original Christian occupants are being driven out of town as Israeli settlements occupy land and Israeli courts rule Christian homes as illegal and subject to demolition.

The economy of Beit Sahour is largely based on tourism and related industries, such as the manufacture of olive-wood carvings. I know many of our group have olive-wood carvings to serve as reminders of our special time with the shepherds.

Today, I say a prayer of thanksgiving for the faith and witness of those vigilant shepherds watching their flocks on the first Christmas eve. And I pray for their descendants, keeping watch at night as they are driven from their homes. Come Holy Spirit, come!

Jeff Taylor

Devotional 11-29-21

 Please read Malachi 3:1-4 and Luke 3:1-6

My father, Floyd Taylor, died in 2009 at the age of 80. During the last ten years or so of his life, we had  many deep theological and political conversations. He was a mature, lifelong Christian and I was questioning and growing. He wrote anonymous devotionals for his church’s newsletter, often inviting me to critique and edit. He helped me write today’s devotional.

Throughout history, humans have searched for meaning, purpose, and identity in relation to a higher power. This searching has taken many forms, including idolatry, mythology, and religion. In God’s own time, God revealed God’s self to a receptive and spiritually mature Abram. Thus began a covenant relationship between God and God’s people. Humans being human, the relationship has not always been smooth sailing. Over the centuries, prophets would predict a liberator who would protect God’s people and make the way smooth.

Again, in God’s own time, God chose a further, more intimate revelation, offering a new covenant through his Son Jesus Christ. At the time of today’s Gospel reading, John the Baptist was roaming around the area of the Jordan River preaching repentance, that God’s revelation was imminent. 

Try to imagine living in that time and place. How would you react to John the Baptist and his message? It is easier for us who have the rest of the Gospel story to guide our thinking. We know of the life and ministry of Jesus. We know some believed and changed their ways, but ultimately Jesus was rejected. Which side would you have been on?

How are we doing some two thousand years later? Is the way any more straight than it was when John was preaching? Has all humanity seen God’s salvation?  What if a John the Baptist presented today? How would we receive his witness? Would it depend on our party affiliation or political leanings?

How do we know? By God’s grace, we just come to know and believe. It may be a sudden awakening or a slow thought-out process.  After becoming a true believer and Christian we should move on in love, trust, and service.  However, the more things change the more they stay the same—we are often just as “stiff-necked” as those of old.  When we are assailed by the difficulties in life we may fall away or develop an “I can do this myself mentality.”

Jesus interceded for us through his death and resurrection and sent the Holy Spirit to support us.  During this Advent Season, I invite you to look for God’s presence. What do you see, what do you hear, that reassures you of God’s presence in your life?

Jeff Taylor

Devotional 12-25-20

 Please read John 1:1-14

In the beginning was the Word
    and the Word was with God
    and the Word was God.
The Word was with God in the beginning.
Everything came into being through the Word,
    and without the Word
    nothing came into being.
What came into being
    through the Word was life, 
    and the life was the light for all people.
The light shines in the darkness,
    and the darkness doesn’t extinguish the light.
A man named John was sent from God. He came as a witness to testify concerning the light, so that through him everyone would believe in the light. He himself wasn’t the light, but his mission was to testify concerning the light.
The true light that shines on all people
    was coming into the world.
The light was in the world,
    and the world came into being through the light,
        but the world didn’t recognize the light.
The light came to his own people,
    and his own people didn’t welcome him.
But those who did welcome him,
        those who believed in his name,
    he authorized to become God’s children,
        born not from blood,
        nor from human desire or passion,
        but born from God.
The Word became flesh
    and made his home among us.
We have seen his glory,
    glory like that of a father’s only son,
        full of grace and truth.

John begins his version of the Gospel with a hope-giving message of a light that cannot be overcome. He wrote during the time of a despot ruler. His message surely resonated with his original audience who would have recognized his references to the story of Creation when God spoke light and life into being. And John goes on to make the bold claim that the Word became flesh and made his home among us. I like the image from Eugene Peterson’s The Message that God “moved into the neighborhood.” 

But make no mistake—the Baby Jesus whose birth we celebrate today, who moved into the neighborhood, holds the same power as the God of Creation. This Christmas morning, we might prefer to focus on the meek and mild baby in a manger. But John presents us with the bold claim that this baby was with God before creation. His claim is only audacious if it is not true. Early Christians argued about whether Jesus was the same as God or merely similar to God. Believing, trinitarian Christians bet our eternal lives on the truth of John’s claim. 

John’s message resonates with us in 2020. We long to hear a hope-filled message. This time will be remembered in history for political disunity, discord, racial tension, and a pandemic that has killed over 1.4 million persons worldwide. 2020—the year we couldn’t even gather together in church. Wouldn’t a shining light be welcomed in these days? Honestly, I’d like to see God-in-flesh come in this Christmas and shine a light that would unite our nation and church, bring about justice for all, and wipe out COVID 19 and all disease. Quickly.

I would be in good company. The original disciples who followed Jesus were frustrated that he did not act to overthrow the Roman empire to bring about their image of the Kingdom of God. John says the people did not welcome the light.

Perhaps Jesus has shown us the way as a light shining in the wilderness through the troubles of this life but we choose not to be enlightened, preferring our own tried and failed methods. A good question for us to ponder this Christmas is how we will welcome the light of Christ this year and in the future.

Rev. Jeff Taylor

Devotional 12-4-20

 Please read Mark 1:1-8:

The beginning of the good news about Jesus Christ, God’s Son, happened just as it was written about in the prophecy of Isaiah: 

“Look, I am sending my messenger before you. He will prepare your way, a voice shouting in the wilderness: “Prepare the way for the Lord; make his paths straight.”

John the Baptist was in the wilderness calling for people to be baptized to show that they were changing their hearts and lives and wanted God to forgive their sins. Everyone in Judea and all the people of Jerusalem went out to the Jordan River and were being baptized by John as they confessed their sins. John wore clothes made of camel’s hair, with a leather belt around his waist. He ate locusts and wild honey. He announced, “One stronger than I am is coming after me. I’m not even worthy to bend over and loosen the strap of his sandals. I baptize you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.”

It’s hard to imagine hearing about Jesus for the first time from Mark. From as early as I remember, probably not unlike many other cradle Christians, I learned one blended version of the stories of Jesus. It wasn’t until I was much older that I began to realize that each gospel writer had his unique perspective, context, and audience. I can understand why Matthew and Luke, who both used Mark as a source for the gospels they authored, included more about the background and birth of Jesus so we could have a chance to get used to the idea of who this Jesus is.

The Gospel of Mark jumps right an urgent message of preparedness. There are no angel messengers, no Baby Jesus or wise men. We learn nothing at all about the birth of Jesus from Mark. Instead, Mark begins by referring to the prophetic writings of the Hebrew Scriptures that point to the coming of the Lord when valleys are lifted up and mountains torn down. This is a message that would have comforted those who lived on the margins of society and would have disturbed those in positions of comfort. 

Mark then turns to the wilderness and the preaching of John the Baptist, who called the people to repent and to be baptized as an outward sign of the change in their hearts and lives. We can think of the Advent Season as an invitation to repentance and forgiveness. And don’t I know some people who can use that invitation!

Whether we care to admit it or not, this is surely an invitation we all need to hear. Even though I don’t care to admit it, this is the message I need to hear this Advent Season. Repentance means turning from our old ways and going in a different direction. It means being open to receive the gift of forgiveness and new life. 

But there is more to it than repentance and forgiveness. John knows, according to Mark, that something huge is about to happen. The world is about to change. So welcome to the Advent wilderness, where John the Baptist invites you to get ready: Jesus is coming!

Rev. Jeff Taylor

Devotional 12-25-19

Please read John 1:1-14

“In the beginning was the Word,” writes the author of the Gospel of John, clearly echoing the first verse of Genesis, the first Book of the Hebrew Bible. The original audience of the Gospel would have recognized the power of the Word in the Hebrew Bible. God spoke creation in Genesis. Before time and space and in the midst of chaos, God’s spoken Word brings order, light and dark, earth and sky, sea and earth, animals and humans. There is power in the word.

On Christmas, we might prefer a Gospel that begins with a birth narrative. We would rather focus on the Baby Jesus, tender and mild. But today we have the Gospel of John, who skips the birth and focuses boldly on who Jesus is. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God.”

Over 2000 years later, we understand the Word as Jesus, but this was a audacious claim at the time it was written. Here the Gospel writer claims that the Word is united with but distinct from God. Christians understand the Word to be Jesus, so here the author asserts that Jesus preexisted creation.

Early Christians argued about whether Jesus was the same as God or merely similar to God. The Gospel of John was used to bolster the argument that Jesus and God are one with the Holy Spirit, which became the hallmark of Christianity, albeit no less mysterious today.
If Jesus has existed since before creation, why would we celebrate a birthday? Our celebration of Christmas is the culmination of the Advent Season, called The Incarnation. The root word of “incarnation” means “flesh.” Unfortunately, English does not have many examples of positive use of that root word. Think of carnal knowledge or carnage. Carnation seems to work until you realize the flower is so named because it is flesh-colored. Ew.

Incarnation literally means the “in-flesh-ment” of God. “And the Word became flesh and lived among us.” Today we celebrate God’s flesh and blood in human history. God loved creation so much that he entered into humanity. God allowed himself to be born in the same manner all of us were born. Through Jesus, God experienced life as a human. Because of Jesus, God knows and understands our joys and sorrows, our pain and suffering. God cares that much. By taking on human flesh and all its particular traits, God endowed all human beings as sacred and worthy.

Yea, Lord, we greet thee, born this happy morning;
Jesus, to thee be glory given!
Word of the Father, now in flesh appearing!
O come, let us adore Him,
O come, let us adore Him,
O come, let us adore Him,
Christ the Lord.

Rev. Jeff Taylor

Devotional 12-6-16

Finding the Words

Luke 1:46b-55 is referred to at The Magnificat, Mary’s song of praise upon learning her role in God’s advent into the world. Imagine a young peasant girl, pregnant and unmarried, giving birth to God. At first, she asks incredulously, “How can this happen? I am not married!” (Luke 1:34). After her historic function is confirmed by another humble and expectant mother, Elizabeth, Mary breaks forth into her eloquent song.

As I read the beautiful and poetic verse, I find I can often be too practical. Did Mary really come up with these words spontaneously? Or does Luke put them in her mouth?

Upon further review, the idea of Mary impulsively singing her hymn of praise is not beyond comprehension. She searched the depth of her heart and soul for the words that could be the proper response to God’s calling her into service. She found the words in an ancient hymn from the Scripture, words that were likely etched in her heart.

The Hebrew Bible tells the story of Samuel and his mother, Hannah. Hannah’s childlessness was the cause of her torment by other women. When God answered Hannah’s fervent prayers for a child, Hannah responded with a song that is recorded in 1 Samuel 2. Mary’s song parallels Hannah’s, but I’m not suggesting plagiarism. Rather, Mary’s heartfelt response came from the Scripture that was inscribed on her soul.

One of the things I love about Methodism is that we sing our theology. As a “cradle Methodist,” the Wesleyan hymns as well as other favorites from the official hymnal and other songbooks, including the old Cokesbury brown hymn book, are embedded deep within me. When I don’t have the words for praise, or the expression of lament, a hymn text will come to me. I love the texts. I read and study them. Sometimes during a sermon, I thumb through the hymnal. The songs and hymns of Sunday school, bible school, worship, Wednesday night hymn sings, picnics and other gatherings became the language of my soul. Hymns for the Use of Methodists, which John Wesley published in 1780, distilled his spirituality and theology to such an extent that it was called “the grandest instrument of popular religious culture that Christendom has ever produced.” The Wesley brothers incorporated hymns into their worship services to “implant Methodist teaching in the minds and memories of the people.”

It worked for me! When I lack the words, a hymn text rises up in my memory as a gift. And so it is not unreasonable to think that when Mary was bursting with joy, looking for the right words to offer praise to God, she found them within herself in the Song of Hannah.

Rev. Jeff Taylor

Devotional 12-19-13

Just Joe

And her husband Joseph, being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to divorce her quietly.  Matthew 1:19

I was the church lay leader in 2004 when Rev. Joseph Shreve was appointed senior pastor of Johnson Memorial.  He and Vicky moved into the parsonage a day earlier than we expected.  I went over to welcome them and to see if they needed anything that evening; the moving van would not arrive until the next day.  During our brief conversation, I asked Rev. Shreve what he wanted the congregation to call him: Rev. Shreve?  Dr. Shreve?  Pastor Joe?

“Just Joe,” was the reply.  So of course, when I introduced Rev. Shreve during the time of announcements the following Sunday, I called him “Just Joe.”  The name stuck for a while among some of the church comedians. Namely, me.

Our scripture lesson today is about another “Just Joe.”  We know very little from the gospels about Joseph, but in Matthew’s introduction, we learn that he is “just.”  What does “just” mean?  As an adverb, it can mean “simply” as in “Just call me Joe;” it can mean “barely” as in “I turned my devotion in just in time;” or it can mean “precisely,” as in “the trombone sounded just right.”  As an adjective, however, “just” is more closely related to the Latin original justus, which meant “lawful” or “right.”  This, of course, is what Matthew means when he refers to Joseph as “just.”  In fact, other translations call Joseph a “righteous man.”

It is this quality of being just or righteous that moves Joseph to act compassionately toward Mary.  We know the birth stories so well that we sometimes forget the shock and hurt Joseph must have experienced upon learning that she was pregnant.  The law permitted, perhaps even required that Mary should be put to death.  Joseph, because he was just, resolved to handle it quietly and preserve her life.

I regret that we do not know more about Joseph.  I like to imagine that as a boy, Jesus was formed, informed, and influenced by Joseph.  I think of my relationship with my own father and wonder if Jesus had a similar relationship with Joseph that might have provided the image for God as father.  Maybe Jesus spent time in Joseph’s shop and learned the trade of carpentry, among other things.  Jesus might have found in Joseph an example of compassion and in looking out for others.  Perhaps Joseph taught Jesus how to treat others with caring and compassion.  

Of course, when an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream to explain the circumstances of the pregnancy, and the fulfillment of the prophet Isaiah that “the young woman is with child and shall bear a son, and shall name him Immanuel,” we discover more evidence of Joseph’s justness.  “When Joseph awoke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him…”  Matthew 1:24.  This lesson in obedience to God’s will might have proven to be the most important, and challenging example that Jesus would recall near the end of his own life.

Jeff Taylor

Devotional 12-10-12

Go read Luke 3:17-22, you snake!

This week’s gospel reading confronts us with an uncomfortable scene. Would-be worshipers who go to the Jordan River expecting to be saved from the wrath of God are instead met by a hellfire and brimstone preacher.

When I was growing up in the coalfields of southern West Virginia, it wasn’t uncommon to encounter a street preacher whose message was similar to John’s but without all the charm. There was always a wide swath around them on the otherwise crowded streets and sidewalks when the crowds came to town on the first Saturday of the month.

What surprises me about the crowds who came to be baptized is how acquiescent they are to John’s good news. It’s hard to imagine congregations today putting up with John for very long. Can you imagine your pastor, instead of greeting the Sunday congregation with a welcome and sharing of pastoral concerns, shouting, “Snakes!” and then berating you and your fellow worshipers for your hypocrisy?

Just comfort me with a chorale, remind me that I’m blessed, and make sure that I’m out in an hour, thank you. Judgment? Wrath? Chaff? Moi? That’s about someone else.

Perhaps John recognized that the crowds came expecting the water from the Jordan to magically save them. They came because it was the thing to do. He needed to get their attention and explain that the change God expects is from the inside out. And get their attention, he did.

Surprisingly, they stuck around, even asking “What are we supposed to do, then?” They needed to hear the truth, and so do we.

John’s answer, in stark contrast to the attention-getting, shocking preface, is a surprisingly simple message of what it means to live in unity, focusing on “the other.” He points to Jesus as the one who will show the way. And Jesus did show the way by repeating John’s message using images of sheep and goats, wheat and weeds, good fish and bad fish. True repentance will bear fruit of good works; like ritual washing, works do not “work” either salvation or repentance, but rather follow necessarily from true repentance.

Dear God, thank you for the Incarnation, where you revealed yourself in the person of Jesus Christ and showed us the way to salvation. By the power of the Holy Spirit, give us the grace to repent from our selfish ways and to live fruitful lives worthy of repentance. Amen.

Jeff Taylor

Devotional 12-21-11

 Read Titus 2:11-14

Christmas is the time of celebration of one of the mysteries of the Christian faith, the Incarnation. The root word “carn” means flesh; God took on flesh and dwelt among humans. Other words in the English language with the same root word invoke negative images. Statistics of war and catastrophe are measured in carnage, or the number of bodies slain. Preachers warn not to be interested in carnal pursuits. And, while I’m a fan of his music with partner Paul Simon, the seventies movie Carnal Knowledge certainly conjures up some negative images for me of Art Garfunkel.

Interestingly, this negative association is not seen in Spanish. The root of encarnación has the same root word and meaning, but without the negative associations. Moreover, it has connections to everyday words in the language that help lead to an understanding of the Incarnation as God’s flesh and blood in human history. One can readily see the link, for instance, between the flesh of the Incarnation and the meat, or carne, being sold at the butcher shop, or carniceria. Author Luis G. Pedraja suggests that these subtle language differences help lead to an understanding on the part of Hispanic people that in the Incarnation, God enters into ordinary, everyday human life.¹
If that is true, does our language suggest that we do not want to think of God having entered the human realm as a helpless baby in the same messy way we all did? After all, why would God do that?

The writer of the Letter to Titus attempts to answer the question. It was God’s gracious act to come down here and show us how to live. We needed an example, someone to show us what it really means to fulfill God’s law. In Jesus Christ, God gave us that example, not so that we can wait for some heaven that is light years away, but so that we can live lives that are self-controlled, upright, and godly.

Dear God, thank you for the Incarnation, and for showing us in human form how we ought to live. Give us strength to live up to that example. Amen.

¹Luis G. Pedraja,Teología: An Introduction to Hispanic Theology(Nashville: Abingdon Press, 2003), 130-135.

Jeff Taylor

Devotional 12-27-10

Read John 1:10-18

Word of Heaven, Word of Earth,
Word of Life, and Light, and Birth.
Word made flesh, a baby child,
Word in a manger, meek and mild.

Spoken Word, they would not hear;
Word of love, they chose to fear.
Word made known, they would not see;
Word of Peace, bound for a tree.

Word with Father, Word the Son;
Holy Spirit, Three in One.
Word today and ancient story;
We beseech, reveal your glory.

Word of Grace, Word of Truth;
Word of elders, Word of youth.
Grant us grace to hallow you;
Give us strength to follow you.

Word of creation, Word of perfection;
Word of death, of resurrection.
Grant today that we might be,
The means by which the world will see.

Jeff Taylor

Devotional 11-28-10

Swords into Plowshares
Please read Isaiah 2:1-5

Hard as it is to believe, today is the First Sunday of Advent. During the next several weeks, you and I will be asked many times, and we’ll probably ask the question of others a few times: Are you ready for Christmas? The conversation that ensues will be about decorations, shopping, cooking, traveling, and visions of sugar plums. We will talk nostalgically of past Christmases, simpler times, less secular “holidays,” you know, the same stuff we gripe about every year.

But what about Advent? Are you ready for Advent?

Advent is the period of four weeks before Christmas. It is a time of waiting, of anticipating, the coming into being of God in the form of the Christ-child. Advent is pretty much reserved for church—the world hasn’t claimed it yet.

This year, I invite you to celebrate Advent. Ponder in your hearts, as Mary pondered in her heart, what it means that God would choose to be revealed in the Christ-child. What did it mean then, and what does it mean for us now that God has lived among us?

Are you ready for Advent?

As the words from this week’s lectionary text were percolating through my mind and heart this week, I had the privilege of participating in a telephone conference with several United Methodist leaders from other parts of the country who are planning an international, interfaith summit on peace. The planning committee has done this three or four times now, each conference with a specific focus on bringing about peace. They had gathered to begin planning the next conference, which includes as part of the working title or theme, Economic Justice for All God’s Children. My invitation to join came because I was recently elected as an officer in a national organization for United Methodist foundations. I am expected to suggest ways that charitable foundations might use our substantial collective resources to affect economic justice.

I was energized by the conversation. It is exciting for me to be a part of what feels like a grassroots movement among religious leaders—Christians, Jews, and Muslims—to begin to collaborate on ways we can be agents for change in the world. Some will roll their eyes at the notion—it’s too big an issue to be resolved by religious leaders. I wasn’t prepared for the question that came up during the call, however. One of the other participants questioned whether the idea of “justice for all God’s children” and specifically “economic justice” is too controversial. Would the notion offend some of our congregants?

At that point, I was glad I was only on the telephone so that no one could see my jaw drop and my hands raised in exclamation. Why would anyone be offended by justice, even economic justice, for all? Shouldn’t we be offended by the reality of injustice? Whether economic justice is offensive to some or not, I do not think we can ever have peace without economic justice. Victims of economic injustice will always fight for justice. When will we stop fighting against it?

I guess I’m pretty comfortable right here where I am. Not rich by any stretch of the imagination among my peers and neighbors. But by world standards I am among the very richest in the world. (Don’t be envious; so are you). Does economic justice for all God’s children upset our notion of fairness? Entitlement? Have we really earned it?

Justice, including but not limited to economic justice, goes hand in hand with peace. In today’s reading, the prophet Isaiah foretold of a day of peace when God’s people beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. He didn’t say swords into stained glass and spears into pipe organs. Isaiah foretold of a day of world peace, when the implements and resources used for war and destruction would be used for building community.

Are you ready for that day Isaiah proclaims? Are you ready for Advent?

Jeff Taylor

Devotional 12-28-09

Enlightenment

Read John 1:1-18

Jesus came as a light shining in the darkness. When light shines in the dark places, the truth is exposed and made known. Sometimes, we do not want the light to shine on our dark places; we would just as soon keep them hidden.

Many enlightened people have faced significant obstacles when they have tried to shed light on the darkness of the status quo. One such person is Clarence Jordan. Clarence Jordan is known as the author of the Cotton Patch Gospels. He took the gospel out of the stained glass sanctuaries into the fields where the people were working. Clarence Jordan also lived as a bright light in the midst of the racial prejudice that is a dark part of our nation’s history.

Clarence Jordan grew up in a prosperous family. He received a traditional Baptist theological education, got his PhD in Greek New Testament and was on his way to becoming a seminary professor. Instead, he left seminary to establish Koinonia Farm, an interracial community in rural segregated Georgia in the mid-forties. The members of the Koinonia Farm followed Jesus and lived, worked, and worshiped together—a radical concept. Many people did not look on Koinonia Farm with favor.

Because he challenged established tradition, Clarence Jordan expected opposition, but he did not anticipate that he would be excommunicated by his denomination. Certainly, he could not have known that he and the Farm would be the victim of vandalism, cross burning, beatings, bombings, and shootings. Yet he continued to be a light: to live, speak, and write the truth.

Sometimes, people would rather that the darkness not be exposed by the light of truth.

When companies began to refuse to deliver LP gas to the farm for heat, in spite of laws that required them to do so, Jordan turned to his brother Robert for help.

Robert Jordan was an attorney and an aspiring politician who would later become a state senator and state supreme court justice. Robert refused. He told Clarence that because of his political aspirations, he had “too much to lose” to help with the Farm’s problems.

Clarence challenged Robert to recall a time when they both were boys. They had attended a church service together, and they had both gone to the alter. The conversation went something like this:

Clarence: “Do you remember when the preacher asked you if you want to follow Jesus?”
Robert: “Yes Clarence, of course I remember! I told him I did want to follow Jesus…and Clarence, I do follow Jesus—to a point”
Clarence: “Robert, I suggest you go back to that little church, and you stand up before the people, and you tell them that what you meant to say is that you admire Jesus, not that you want to follow him.”

If we want to be followers of Jesus Christ, we need to be a light to the world even when the world wants to remain in darkness. Being the light requires us at times to step out of our comfort zones. Do you want to follow Jesus? Or do you just admire him?

Jeff Taylor

Devotional 12-6-09

Prepare the Way of the Lord

[T]he word of God came to John son of Zechariah in the wilderness. He went into all the region around the Jordan, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins, as it is written in the book of the words of the prophet Isaiah, “The voice of one crying out in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight. Every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be made low, and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough ways made smooth; and all flesh shall see the salvation of God.’” Luke 3: 2b-6

Are you ready for Christmas?

We’ll hear that question many times during the next few weeks. It will be referring to our preparedness, not for the coming of Christ, but for the holiday. And it won’t be heard from a voice crying out in the wilderness, but from a cacophony of voices in the wilderness of the hustle and bustle, long lines, and traffic jams that the Holiday Season has become.

Are you ready for Christmas—do you have your tree and decorations up?
Are you ready for Christmas—is your shopping done?
Are you ready for Christmas—how is your baking coming along?
Are you ready for Christmas—are your travel arrangements made?

Of course, this is not the kind of preparedness that the prophet Isaiah or John the Baptist talked about. They were speaking of the one who would radically change the world so that everyone could experience God’s salvation.

How can we be spiritually prepared for salvation? By repenting—making a commitment to turn away from our selfish lives and commit ourselves to God. Repentance does not earn our salvation, but it prepares our hearts to receive God’s gift of grace and helps us to lead a new life focused on loving God and neighbor.

As we prepare for Christmas—the Holiday Season—perhaps we should take time to prepare our hearts for the coming of Jesus by recommitting our lives in service and discipleship.

Are you ready for Christmas?

Jeff Taylor

Devotional 12-31-08

Baggage
If you fly very often, you appreciate the need to travel lightly. When you’re trying to hoist that bag into the overhead bin while 75 or so other angry travelers are waiting in the aisle, you begin to realize that maybe next time you can do without that extra pair of shoes and the bowling ball.

I’ve learned to travel lightly. Taking only the essentials makes the trip so much easier and more enjoyable. When packing, I have to let go of some stuff I might otherwise like to take along. Sometimes it’s hard to decide what to leave behind.

I look around airports and see that some people have yet to learn to travel lightly. They push the envelope with the number and size of their carry-on baggage. Their rolling luggage has so many strapped-on and tied-down attachments, they wear themselves out pushing and pulling from concourse to concourse.

Tonight, we’re on the cusp of a new year. Will you travel lightly into 2009, or will you hoist those unresolved burdens of the prior years into tomorrow? Consider these words of the Apostle Paul, from his letter to the church at Colossae.

Put these all away: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and foul talk from your mouth. Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old nature with its practices and have put on the new nature, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator. …Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassion, kindness, lowliness, meekness, and patience, forbearing one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. And above all else, put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. (Colossians 3: 8-11; 12-14)

What are you holding onto that will impede your experience of a joyous new year? Travel lightly into tomorrow, and leave it behind. Put on your new clothes of compassion, kindness, lowliness, meekness, patience, and especially love.

It seems so simple and perhaps naïve. Yet, it’s what we profess that we believe. In 2009, let’s live like we believe it.

Dear God, as we prepare to soar into the new year, give us the courage to leave behind those things that will unnecessarily weigh us down, so that we might be renewed in Your image and live like Christ, in whose name we pray. Amen.

Jeff Taylor