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56 pages

English

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In the midst of the hustle and bustle of the weeks leading up to Christmas, we sometimes forget what it's all about. These 29 daily Advent devotions help readers attend to the gospel story of Jesus in deeper, more meaningful ways. After reading the selected Scripture verse for the day, Bullis's short devotional reading will help you unpack deeper meanings of the text. Then, through guided reflection, prayer, and journaling, you'll engage in this time of holy waiting. Even those whose Christian faith traditions don't include celebrating Advent will find these devotions a way to combat the frantic consumer mentality of the Christmas season.

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Philosophie et théologie

Christian worship

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Publié par	Baker Publishing Group
Date de parution	01 octobre 2007
Nombre de lectures	0
EAN13	9781441224682
Langue	English
Poids de l'ouvrage	2 Mo

Informations légales : prix de location à la page 0,0432€. Cette information est donnée uniquement à titre indicatif conformément à la législation en vigueur.

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2004 Marty A. Bullis
Published by Revell a division of Baker Publishing Group P.O. Box 6287, Grand Rapids, MI 49516-6287 www.revellbooks.com
Revell edition published 2014
ISBN 978-1-4412-2468-2
Previously published by Regal Books
Ebook edition originally created 2013
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means-for example, electronic, photocopy, recording-without the prior written permission of the publisher. The only exception is brief quotations in printed reviews.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is on file at the Library of Congress, Washington, DC.
All Scripture quotations are taken from the following:
THE MESSAGE— Scripture taken from THE MESSAGE. Copyright © by Eugene H. Peterson, 1993, 1994, 1995. Used by permission of NavPress Publishing Group.
NRSV— The Scripture quotations contained herein are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible , copyright 1989, by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the U.S.A. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
RSV —From the Revised Standard Version of the Bible, copyright 1946, 1952, and 1971 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the U.S.A. Used by permission.
D EDICATION
For Ann and George Pace,
who love the miracle of Jesus
C ONTENTS
Foreword by Eugene H. Peterson
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Part 1: The First Week of Advent
Seven Devotions from Matthew
Part 2: The Second Week of Advent
Seven Devotions from Mark
Part 3: The Third Week of Advent
Seven Devotions from Luke
Part 4: The Fourth Week of Advent
Seven Devotions from John
Christmas Day
Epilogue: Advent and the New Church Year
Advent Candle-Lighting Meditations for Church and Home
An Advent Litany for Small Groups
Endnotes
F OREWORD
God. Is there any word in our language that is more central, critical, demanding? It looms majestically on the horizon, so emphatically and indisputably there . The word sends out tentacles, probing, looking for a way into our imaginations. David, in his magnificent God-poem, Psalm 18, opens with a cascade of God metaphors, seven of them:
Strength
Rock
Fortress
Deliverer
Shield
Horn of Salvation
Stronghold
But not just there in the way a mountain is there, an objective piece of geography that can be analyzed, mapped, climbed and photographed. The first-person personal pronoun, “my,” is attached to each word. Everything we know of God is a matter of personal relationship. Nothing of God is simply a fact, a truth or an idea. And to make sure that we get it and never forget it, the verb that launches the sentence is “I love” —the most personal verb that we have in our lexicon.
And yet. And yet. And yet. Is there any word in our language that is more relentlessly marginalized, dismissed, depersonalized and blasphemed? What’s going on here? How can a word—a Person!— so present to us, so centering to our lives, so dominant in every known language that men and women speak, be so easily and frequently reduced to a tired cliché?
It turns out that as comprehensive and welcoming, as personal and available as God is, when it comes right down to it, we would rather be our own gods. The all-time favorite strategy for accomplishing this is to change all the God-words into me-words. It is much less intellectually strenuous and emotionally taxing than denying God outright. It’s a simple matter of grammatical sleight of hand: Rearrange a few words, and there it is. The devil was right: “Ye shall be as gods.”
Those of us who take up membership in the Christian community have our work cut out for us. The Church has never spent a lot of its time trying to convince people that God exists. But it has had its hands full in convincing us that we are not gods. One of the Church’s strategies has been the observance of Advent.
Advent opens the Church year. Advent gets our attention. It interrupts a lot of our god-talk, most of which has nothing to do with God but everything to do with us, and immerses us in stories of God-in-action—God comes, God comes to us: “Our God comes, he does not keep silence” (Ps. 50:3). “Advent” means “comes to”— God comes to us . God comes to us in the prophets; God comes to us in Jesus; God comes to us in acts of worship and giving and receiving in Jesus’ name. Get used to it!
Advent is not an argument that God exists. It is an immersion in song and story and celebration that God comes —to us! It counters our pervasive assumptions that we are our own gods and supplants them with the glorious Advent of God in our history, in our lives. Listen to these stories; sing these songs; celebrate these comings and goings of God in this land. Did anyone tell a story of the god you like this? Did anyone ever compose and sing a song of the god you like this?
Welcome Marty Bullis as a companion for this Advent. Let him embrace you in prayer and meditation and reflection through these four Advent weeks. He is so good at this, purging our imaginations of our god-pretensions and clearing out time and space for celebration of God as He comes to us in Jesus.
Eugene H. Peterson
Professor Emeritus of Spiritual Theology
Regent College, Vancouver, B.C.
A CKNOWLEDGMENTS
In late fall 2003 I pulled together a community of friends with whom I wanted to remember and celebrate Jesus’ Advent. Our goals were to read afresh the Gospel stories of Jesus’ birth, to pray, and to journal daily. My task was to write devotions to accompany our observance. Weekly (sometimes daily) I would e-mail or print reflections for the group, and on Sunday those who lived nearby gathered to talk and pray. It was a wonderful Advent season, the fruit of which comes to you inside this book. That first group included Don and Jill Blake, Tracie Bullis, Jeff and Mary Beth Eyet, George and Ann Pace, and Karen Wood—without their encouragement this book wouldn’t have been written
In 2004 the text found its way to churches across the United States. The following people were instrumental in making this happen: Danny and Lisha White, Bill and Madeline Bullis, Tom Hay, Tom Oster, Lee Morrison, Pat Bruce, Bill and Carol Moore, Anne Ross, Deborah Dail, Merry Meloy, Skip Hastings, Laurel Dolan, Donna and Bill White, Dan and Lori Speak, Esther Smith, Kathryn Johnson, Steve Cort, Lois Jackson, Eugene and Jan Peterson, Roger Rath, Terry and Elena Stewart, Marguerite Shuster, and Mabel Finch.
I wish to thank the following congregations who generously supported this book in 2004: First Presbyterian Church—Philipsburg, PA; Denbigh Presbyterian Church—Chesapeake, VA; Elkton Presbyterian Church—Elkton, VA; First Baptist Church—Fountain Valley, CA; Christ Lutheran Church—Whitefish, MT; Knox Presbyterian Church—Pasadena, CA; First Presbyterian Church and Trinity United Methodist—Philipsburg, PA; Kylertown Presbyterian Church—Kylertown, PA; First Presbyterian Church—Harrisonburg, VA; Christ Church—Oak Brook, IL; Chapel by the Lake—Juneau, AK; La Verne Heights Presbyterian Church—La Verne, CA; and, Christ Our King Presbyterian Church—Bel Air, MD.
Finally, my thanks to you, the reader, for celebrating Jesus’ Advent with saints all around the world.
I NTRODUCTION
Christmas is coming … a season of arrivals! Friends will come to our homes; grown children will return to their parents to celebrate and feast. Physical objects will get caught up with us in the movement—trees will be tied in place with fishing line, stockings will be hung and presents will start appearing. Anticipation keeps us on our toes as we get moving.
These events are good fuel for reflection, good opportunities to revisit the story of Christ’s Advent. Christ entered the world in motion: traveling to visit Elizabeth while in Mary’s womb, journeying to Bethlehem to be born, visiting Jerusalem with His parents weeks after His stable birth, and fleeing to Egypt to avoid King Herod’s wrath. His early days and months were as harried as any modern life could offer. Yet this child, this Word-made-flesh, brought stability into a tumultuous world. The Gospel accounts of His Advent give us a close-up look at Christ and can help us prepare again for His arrival in this Christmas season. As we immerse ourselves in these stories, we can ready our hearts to hear again the good news: “Peace to all men and women on earth who please him” (Luke 2:14, THE MESSAGE ).
One of my mentors, a 94-year-old Benedictine priest, shared a story with me one afternoon. He said he’d recently eaten an oyster that had been delivered to his plate from half a world away. As he cracked open the shell, he paused. He was struck by the thought that the oyster had traveled league upon league and not been affected by anything until his knife had completed its work. The priest was reminded of his own journeys around the globe in service to his monastic order. He’d traveled far and wide and not been cracked open by the world’s knife. He finished his story and looked at me with his wizened Belgian eyes. Then he lifted his index finger slightly and said, “Do not confuse stability with immobility. One can be stable while in motion.” As we gear up for motion this holiday season, as we prepare for all the arrivals, stability awaits us in the life of Christ—stability in motion.
_____
What follows are daily Scripture readings for the Advent season accompanied by short reflections, bidding prayers, and space for journaling.
Start by reading the Scripture passage for the day. (Due to space considerations, longer Gospel readings are not printed in their entirety. An asterisk [*] following “The Gospel Reading” indicates where the excerpt provides the day’s full Scripture reading. On other days, have your Bible handy so that you can read the entire passage found in the citation.)
Pause and meditate on the parts of the Scripture that strike you. Next, re