Home

Weekly Devotional

December 14, 2009

This week at SOG:

• Wednesday:  Advent Service at 7:00, meal preceding the service at 6:15

God’s Peace be with you all.

Sirach 17:24-32   ²⁴ Yet to those who repent he grants a return, and he encourages those who are losing hope.  ²⁵ Turn back to the Lord and forsake your sins; pray in his presence and lessen your offense.  ²⁶ Return to the Most High and turn away from iniquity, and hate intensely what he abhors.  ²⁷ Who will sing praises to the Most High in Hades in place of the living who give thanks?  ²⁸ From the dead, as from one who does not exist, thanksgiving has ceased; those who are alive and well sing the Lord's praises.  ²⁹ How great is the mercy of the Lord, and his forgiveness for those who return to him!  ³⁰ For not everything is within human capability, since human beings are not immortal.  ³¹ What is brighter than the sun? Yet it can be eclipsed. So flesh and blood devise evil.  ³² He marshals the host of the height of heaven; but all human beings are dust and ashes.

            It might seem a little odd to you that I chose the above verses for an Advent devotional.  They seem to fit more with Lent than they do with Advent.  However, as we have heard from our Gospel lessons for the past two weeks, repentance is a big part of the Advent message.  John was proclaiming a baptism for the repentance of sins, and as we await the coming of the Messiah, we too have heard messages about repentance and preparation.  Repenting is a large part of that message of preparation.

            In the midst of the Advent season of the church (and the commercial Christmas season), we are constantly reminded to prepare ourselves for the return of the Messiah.  Verse 30 above hints at this preparation: ³⁰ “For not everything is within human capability, since human beings are not immortal.”  We are not immortal, but the one that we wait for is!  On Christmas day, we celebrate the birth of the immortal One, Jesus the Christ.  We give thanks that God sent his only Son to the world to save all the world from the bondage of sin and the grave.  We repent of our sins, pray in the presence of God, and celebrate the greatest gift that was ever given. 

            As Advent winds to a close and we prepare ourselves for the Christmas season, let us continue to keep the disciplines of repenting and preparing.  The return of the Messiah will happen one day.  When that day comes, I hope that you are ready.

In our prayers this week:

Doris, Mary Netta, Ann, Lisa, Kim, Robert, Evelyn, Sharon, Gail, Catherine, and Carol.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Judson