Tag: Advent Meditation

Advent Meditation–Shiloh

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Especially in the hubbub of holiday activities, I yearn for moments in which to breathe deeply, sit quietly and absorb the impact of what the Lord’s advent (“arrival”) really means.  Typically I find that respite when I’m lingering in the barn after feeding our animals and listening to them chew–a sense of contentment and fulfillment is a contagious thing.  It is my time of calm reflection: I long for an emerging peace to overtake me and flow with me afloat, like a river.

“Until Shiloh comes” is a prophecy of not yet unlocked mystery, as the name itself has potentially different meanings.  What is clear:  the Hebrew children of God were to expect great things from a future ruler to whom everything belongs.  Already in Genesis, there is written a promise of tranquility, an assurance of peace to come.

Peace arrived unexpectedly in a barn, softly, gently, swaddled and sleeping in a manger–and we all can linger there, overtaken and overwhelmed by tranquility,  a little longer.

Genesis 49:10

Advent Meditation–Paschal Lamb

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bronze sculpture by C. Malcolm Powers from www-personal.umich.edu/~mmpowrs/front.html

When I was growing up, when hearing the Old Testament Passover story from the Book of Exodus, I’d always flinch at the choosing of the year old male lamb “without blemish” to be selected as the sacrifice for the meal, and whose blood was used to mark the doorposts of the homes of God’s people, enslaved in Egypt.  His blood spared those residing inside from the angel of death slaying the firstborns, securing the “Passover” of that home,  so the lamb became the sacrificial replacement as directed by the Lord Himself.   Although I understood the reason for the sacrifice of the perfect lamb, as a child I secretly thought it would be preferable to have a blemish or two, thus avoiding being chosen.  What became clear later was that lambs, particularly the ones with blemishes, were doomed to be slaughtered for meat anyway–their death was a certainty.

Only the Passover lamb actually saved lives, lives that were to be liberated from the bondage of slavery.  Lives that are liberated from the bondage of sin.

Jesus is the Worthy Lamb, sacrificed so that death will pass over us, that we will be changed forever, freed from who we have been.  Death is no longer our certainty.

1 Corinthians 5:7-8

Advent Meditation–Omega

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As Jesus is the beginning and the end, the first and the last,  he becomes everything in between. We are to remember him in anything we do, or say, or think.

From Charles Spurgeon: “… if you have left out Christ, there is no manna from heaven, no water from the rock, no refuge from the storm, no healing for the sick, no life for the dead.  If you leave out Christ, you have left the sun out of the day, and the moon out of the night, you have left the waters out of the sea, and the foods out of the river, you have left the harvest out of the year, the soul out of the body, you have left joy out of heaven, yea, you have robbed all of its all.  There is no gospel worth thinking of, much less worth proclaiming in Jehovah’s name, if Jesus be forgotten.”

Revelation 22:16

Advent Meditation–Nazarene

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from http://www.nazarethvillage.com

“Nazareth!  Can anything good come from there?”  Even a future disciple, Nathanael, was derisive when he heard about Jesus from his friend Philip.   Philip persisted that this man was the one about which the prophets had written.

“Come and see.”

Hailing from an inconsequential small town is always a dubious distinction, and it is a decidedly negative title in the case of Jesus being called a “Nazarene”  as part of prophecy fulfillment.  Since the precise word Nazarene is not found in the Old Testament, it is not clear what prophecy is being referred to here, but the connotation is clear: this man deserves no honor or respect simply because of where he comes from.

Jesus even returns to Nazareth as an adult to teach in the temple and there his own townspeople reject him, insulting him by saying “isn’t this the carpenter?”  The child they watched grow up couldn’t possibly be equipped to preach profound teachings, or perform miracles.  He could not possibly be especially blessed because they themselves were nothings.  He could not come from Nazareth and be the Son of God.  Nazareth was simply not important enough.  They were underestimating what potential they themselves possessed.

They were wrong.   They were wrong about Jesus, and they were wrong about how the Lord uses the obscure, the despised, and the nothings for His purposes.

Those who come from a small town should never be underestimated.

Matthew 2:23

Advent Meditation–Man of Sorrows

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In my work, I see sorrow daily.  It can look very different depending on the individual and circumstances, manifesting as a headache, or stomach ache, or back ache, or it can look like the tear streaked face of the deepest soul ache.  Too often it is from the distress borne out of the sadness of broken relationships, from abandonment, betrayal, and dishonesty.  Sorrow is a response to overwhelming sin.

What I don’t see often is the crushing weight of someone taking full responsibility for another’s sin.  Imagine offering oneself up , accepting punishment for something one has not done, making the ultimate sacrifice to pay off another’s debt, to walk the earth every day knowing the suffering that will be necessary for all this to happen as planned.

We are told Jesus wept.   He knew soul ache first hand, but the ache was for our souls, his sorrow for us.

He entrusts his broken body to us,  his blood spilling at our feet.   All we are asked to do is hold him and love him.  And the ache will go away.

Isaiah 53:3

Advent Meditation–Lily of the Valley

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photo by Susan MacKenzie http://www.mackenziephoto.com

Our woodlands in the northwest have many wildflowers that are a delight to the eye and the nose.  Some of the most prolific are the ground covers that carpet shadowy paths, not at all showy but growing everywhere at once.  Lily of the Valley with its sword like upright leaves and humble hanging blossoms,  thrives almost anywhere, with a root and bulb system that survives the most extreme conditions.  Even if not visible while hidden underground, it is ready to spring up again.   And it will always return again, no matter what.

And so will our Lord.

Song of Solomon 2:1-3