Sculley Family

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Multimedia Advent Devotional – Week 3-7, Saturday

December 20, 2024

2024:

Week 3, Saturday:
• Scripture: Song of Songs 2:8-14 (Beth Parker)
• Reflection (Karen Sculley)
• Prayer (Paul Sculley)
• Artwork: “The Adoration of the Christ Child” (Jan Joest)
• Music: “Arise, My Darling” (Kristiina Tanhua-Laiho) – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AFPW5pQuuZg

Reflection on Song of Songs 2:8-14 – We don’t hear many sermons or teachings from the biblical book called the Song of Songs. The words sound a bit racy to our religious ears. As the title Song of Songs tells us, this composition is both incomparable and intriguing. The entire book is a collection of lyric poems that explore that amorous side of an unnamed couple’s relationship. One of the strongest themes in the book is clearly apparent in today’s scripture – longing. Every person, no matter how young or old they are, understands longing. Most of us also know all too well the devastating pain that inevitably accompanies unfulfilled longings.

Seventeenth century mathematician and philosopher Blaise Pascal said, “There is a God–shaped vacuum in the heart of each man, which cannot be satisfied by any created thing but only by God the Creator, made known through Jesus Christ.” Whether we are consciously aware of it or not, our longing for God is the deepest and strongest longing of our human hearts, far beyond our longing for basic needs to do with physiology, safety, belonging, love, or esteem.
We long for God. And yet, how much more God longs for us! May our hearts leap when we hear the voice of our beloved Savior. May we have eyes to see where God is moving in the people and places around us. May we be ready at a moment’s notice to arise and act when our Lord calls us. May we recognize the seasons and understand the times, that we would know what to do. May we have the courage to be embraced by and embrace God, our trinitarian creator and lover of our souls. We long for you, God! Help us to long for you without fear and without shame. Thank you, Jesus, that you made it possible for us to do just that! We long to be seen by you and to see, we long to be heard by you and to hear, we long to be loved by you and to love. For your voice is sweet, and your face is lovely.

2023:

Week 3, Saturday:

  • Scripture – Psalm 25:4-5, 8-10, 14 (Pam Cammarata)
  • Reflection (Nancy Penton)
  • Prayer (Karis Sculley)
  • Artwork: “Nativity” (Gustave Doré)
  • Music: “I Run to You” (Project of Love) – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fr5kY2AdIKA

2022:

Week 3, Saturday:

  • Scripture: Matthew 8:14-17 (Michael Sculley)
  • Reflection (Karen Sculley)
  • Prayer (Dawn Roberson)
  • Artwork: “Mary Praying” (Tennessee, USA)
  • Music: “Light Dawns on a Weary World” (Marty Haugen and Marc Anderson) – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K0GEA_FtnW8

Reflection on Matthew 8:14-17 (NIV) – “When Jesus came into Peter’s house, he saw Peter’s mother-in-law lying in bed with a fever. He touched her hand and the fever left her, and she got up and began to wait on him. When evening came, many who were demon-possessed were brought to him, and he drove out the spirits with a word and healed all the sick. This was to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet Isaiah: ‘He took up our infirmities and bore our diseases.’”

This short account begins with Jesus coming into a specific person’s home in a specific location on a specific day. Jesus saw a specific person with a specific ailment. In this encounter with Jesus, the woman was immediately transformed. She went from malady to cordiality, from infirmity to generosity. Like Peter’s mother-in-law and the many others not named in this story, we, too, are invited to encounter Christ Jesus in the middle our struggles, whether physical, spiritual, emotional, intellectual, financial, relational. When Jesus is in the house, we are transformed. We don’t know how we will be transformed, and it’s a mistake to assume that transformation will always look the same way, for example, instantaneous healing. If we make that assumption, then we’re in essence claiming to know more than God! God’s ways are so much higher than our ways! But, we can be confident that whenever we encounter Christ Jesus, God’s Kingdom breaks through. Believing in the already and not yet of the kingdom means we can ask God and believe God for miracles, while also trusting God in the middle of pain. We live in the tension between the sorrow and suffering in this world and the joy and justice of the Kingdom of God which is already-but-not-yet-fully here. It takes Christlike humility, childlike faith, and quiet trust to follow Jesus, loving people as He loves, and doing as much good as we can, to the best of our ability, for the greater glory of God.

Each short Multimedia Advent Devotional is an invitation to set aside time each day during a typically busy season preparing for Christmas to rejoice in the coming of our Savior, Christ Jesus, and to respond to God’s invitation to us to join with Him in what He’s doing today.

Advent is a season of the liturgical year observed in most Christian denominations as a time of expectant waiting and preparation for both the celebration of the Nativity of Christ at Christmas and the return of Christ at the Second Coming. Advent is the beginning of the liturgical year in Western Christianity and is part of the wider Christmas and holiday season. Advent is a period in which we are invited to set aside time each day during a typically busy season preparing for Christmas to rejoice in the coming of our Savior, Christ Jesus, and to respond to God’s invitation to us to join with Him in what He’s doing today.

This collaboration is brought to you by Liberty Vineyard Church

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