Sculley Family

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Multimedia Advent Devotional – Week 1-2, Monday

December 3, 2023

2023:

  • Scripture – Psalm 122 (Beth Parker)
  • Reflection (Jim Roberson)
  • Prayer (Karen Sculley)
  • Artwork: “The Nativity” (Piero della Francesca)
  • Music: “Let Us Go into the House of the Lord” (Gospelation & Gospelproject) – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gf4KpWhrrH8

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.

2022:

Week 1, Monday:

  • Scripture: Romans 6:1-11 (Nancy Penton)
  • Reflection (Karen Sculley)
  • Prayer (Patricia Dotson)
  • Artwork: “Interior of the Church of the Light” (Ibaraki, Japan)
  • Music: “Emmanuel” (Steve Angrisano) – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HnAKAB4OYik

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.

This collaboration is brought to you by Liberty Vineyard Church

Reflection:

Romans 6:1-11 (NRSVCE) – “What then are we to say? Should we continue in sin in order that grace may abound? By no means! How can we who died to sin go on living in it? Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? Therefore we have been buried with him by baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. We know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be destroyed, and we might no longer be enslaved to sin. For whoever has died is freed from sin. But if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. The death he died, he died to sin, once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God. So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.”

I didn’t realize until we moved to the US in our mid-twenties that one of the most popular Christmas movies here is “It’s a Wonderful Life.” It only took one viewing to see why. What a powerful message and uplifting story! Each of our lives is filled with meaning, purpose, and uncountable blessings, even if we sometimes forget. God has given us quite a few promises that are great reminders to us about life and reality, like Zuzu’s petals. Today’s Scripture passage mentions life and death more than twenty times. The Old Testament, or Hebrew, understanding of death was that it was like a perpetual silence, a separation from God. Ever since Genesis chapter 3, each person who has lived has eventually died. Except one. No person before or after Christ has had the power or ability to be able to overcome death. But God loves us so much that He has provided a way for us to be set free from even our greatest enemy, death. Jesus’ resurrection marks the first time in human history that someone rose from the dead, never to die again. Today’s Scripture tells us that we are being invited to enter into the death of Christ, which includes sacraments and surrender, giving over the controls of our life to God. And as we consider ourselves dead to sin (in which we agree with God that we’re dead without Him), we become alive to God in Christ Jesus. We are invited into the life of Christ through faith and obedience, a new life with Him, fully alive to God, fully alive forever and ever. Tuck these treasures, like Zuzu’s petals, into your pocket and pull them out whenever you begin to doubt your life’s meaning, purpose, or blessings. God wants you to be fully alive with Him, right now and forever and ever. Christ Jesus is Emmanuel – God with us – the greatest gift ever, already given to you.

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