Devotional 12-4-17

Are You Ready for Christmas?

2 Peter 3:8-15a
Are you ready for Christmas? That’s the question you’ll probably be asked a hundred times already during this season. It’s a good question. We can take it in its purest sense: “Are you ready for the coming of Christ?” After all, Christ’s coming is at the center of our celebration. And Christ’s coming is the determining factor in how we live our lives—not only his first coming, but his second coming. That’s Peter’s message to his church: “Are you ready for the coming of Christ?”
Peter makes at least three observations about Christ’s coming that will ready us for this Advent season.

I. God’s Watch Keeps a Different Time
God made time and stands outside it. That’s why a thousand years is as one day and one day is as a thousand years.

Samantha started asking how long it was until Christmas back during the summer — and has been formulating her wish list since then also.  As a child, I remember it seemed like years between Thanksgiving and Christmas!  But God works according to God’s watch, not ours. When Jesus arrived in a stable, the timing caught even most of those looking for a Messiah off guard. Jesus’ advent occurred at the precise time God decided.

Christ’s second coming will be according to that same timing. Not when we expect or when we deem appropriate, but in God’s perfect timing.

II. God’s Tendency Is Patience - ours is impatience.
Just stand with me in a checkout line, especially during the Christmas rush, if you want to see what impatience looks like.  But God is patient - patient with us, and patient with the world. While many of us might like to see Christ’s second coming today, God waits, providing an opportunity for more people to respond to his love. Even in Jesus’ life, God displayed patience. He allowed Jesus to be born as a baby, waiting thirty years for him to become the man we came to know as the Christ. God’s tendency is patience.

III. God’s Surprise Entrance Calls for Readiness
Peter warns that the second coming will be a surprise. Like a thief in the night, Christ will come as an unexpected and, in many cases, uninvited Savior. Just like his birth, Jesus’ next coming will catch many by surprise. Peter says, as we anxiously await his arrival, our lives ought to be holy, godly, spotless specimens of purity. The ethics of Christianity are based on this eschatological surprise. Peter says we ought to live today as if it were our last because it might be! Every day is a constant recommitment to holy living because today just might be the Day. During this season when someone asks you, “Are you ready for Christmas?” take the question in its fullest sense: “Are you ready for the coming of Christ?”

Rev. Alan Williams

Devotional 12-11-16

James 5:7-10
7 Be patient, therefore, beloved, until the coming of the Lord. The farmer waits for the precious crop from the earth, being patient with it until it receives the early and the late rains.
8 You also must be patient.  Strengthen your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is near.  9 Beloved, do not grumble against one another, so that you may not be judged. See, the Judge is standing at the doors!  10 As an example of suffering and patience, beloved, take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord.


Having a four-year-old in the house this time of year is an exercise in patience.   Not only must Samantha be patient as every trip to the store, every commercial on TV, every conversation with friends - and grandparents - revolve around what she wants for Christmas, but as parents, we too must be patient, both with a four year old, and with the world around us.

Samantha is constantly asking how many days are left until the presents arrive.  As soon as a box shows up under the tree, she wants to know when she can open it.  Although she understands that she will soon be able to open her gifts, patience for a four year old is in very short supply!

Christmas is truly a season that brings out both the best and worst in us.  We have great moments of care and compassion for each other, we bake cookies, we go sing Christmas carols, we give to and serve those around us who need our help, the list goes on.  But we also have great moments of failing to reflect the reason for the season.  We feel the pressure of shopping for the perfect gift, of going to the many required parties and gatherings, of putting up with our crazy relatives… all those things that test our patience and conspire to make us forget that the meaning of Christmas is our celebration of Christ coming to this place to bring us hope and peace.

The lectionary reading for this week from James is never more beneficial for our study and contemplation than now - just two weeks from Christmas day.  “Be patient…. strengthen your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is near.”

I know there will be times in the next couple of weeks when we will all loose sight of this.  We will start grumbling against one another.  We will need the example of suffering and patience promised, but be patient.  The gift of Christ is the perfect gift, now and forever.

Dear Lord, we thank you for the reminder that yours is a kingdom that is ever unfolding.  Yours is a kingdom that has come through the gift of Christ our Savior, and continues to come through each of us who are your disciples.  We are called to be faithful and patient, with the promise and the hope that your kingdom comes, and your will is being done, all in your own time. Let us savor each day we have, even as the world around us rushes about.  Let us seek out times of rest and sabbath, as we ask for your patience this day.   Amen

Rev. Alan Williams

Devotional 12-24-14

Isaiah 9:2 The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who lived in a land of deep darkness on them light has shined.

Have you ever heard the expression “the darkest hour is just before the dawn”?  For those who are struggling and fighting with darkness, seemingly wandering aimlessly, the dawn of a new day brings with it a sense of complete utter relief.  Darkness is used in film and in literature to represent the unknown, the dangerous, the terrible.

In our own lives, we tend to avoid darkness.  When the electricity goes out, we look for flashlights and candles.  Darkness deprives us of one of our most prominent senses, the ability to see what is around us.

Isaiah shared this image of the people who walked in darkness seeing a great light, I picture an even greater relief!  Those who lived in a land of deep darkness on them light has shined.  As uncomfortable as we are with darkness, we have faith that SOMONE has light.  But here, we see that the nation, the people, the land, was in deep darkness.

But light came to them.  Like the dawn, first a glimmer of light - the stories told by angels, then the stories that spread across the land, and then the light himself, Jesus Christ, Emmanuel, God With Us, who was the light, spread his presence into that land of deep darkness, chasing our the shadows.

Even more importantly, you and I were given the responsibility of carrying that light with us, always and everywhere.  At the close of the 9:00 a.m. worship service, we sing “go light your world.”  Each of us has been given a lamp, a candle, a flashlight, in the gifts we posses.  Just as Christ came to bring the light, he has told us to go and take that light with us.  May this Christmas be a reminder that the best gift we have received, and the best gift we can give, is the light of love, hope, peace and joy.

Rev. Alan Williams