Multimedia Advent Devotional – Week 2-6, Friday
2024:
Week 2, Friday:
• Scripture: Matthew 11:16-19 (Declan Vick)
• Reflection (Karen Sculley)
• Prayer (Bart Parker)
• Artwork: “Dreamtime Birth” (Greg Weatherby)
• Music: “This Generation” (Benjamin Walker) – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A-dFts8gl8g
Reflection on Matthew 11:16-19 – Beloved theologian Jürgen Moltmann, who passed from this life to the next just a couple of months ago, describes “the magic of the messianic hope” which began with the astonishing fact that “God became not just a human being, but a child!” Childhood is the image of hope because children have their futures ahead of them. The Messianic child, Christ Jesus, is the God of hope who is “always a God of children too.” But what is it about children that Jesus is drawing our attention to in today’s verses? In all times and places, children have long been brought to marketplaces while their parents exchange goods, gossip, currency, or current events. And in all times and places, children play games together. By mentioning children, Jesus is drawing our attention to two opposite responses towards the kingdom of God that he’s been proclaiming and demonstrating. When children call to one another to join in a game or a dance, a childlike response is to join in with simplicity and trust. That kind of playfulness is delightfully contagious! In sharp contrast, Jesus compares those who reject his good news (including John’s preparing of the way) to children who selfishly insist on having their own way.
Jesus is the Son of Man who came to bring good news to all! Let us heed Jesus’ warning by reflecting on our own lives: In my life, where am I stuck in my own expectations of what God will do and insisting on my own way? Towards which person or group do I demonstrate a lack of love? In which parts of my life am I not yet fully surrendered to God?
This Advent, this Christmas, let us remember Jesus, who is also known as “the wisdom of God” (1 Corinthians 1:24). Although wisdom is a grace, a gift from God, we can develop wisdom through repeated actions motivated by self-giving love. We all think we know a lot in our modern era. God invites us to move beyond mere knowledge. Wisdom means applying knowledge to life in such a way that what we do reveals a life well lived in the presence and power of God.
2023:
Week 2, Friday:
- Scripture – Psalm 1:1-4, 6 (Paul Sculley)
- Reflection (Judi Campbell)
- Prayer (Bart Parker)
- Artwork: “The Adoration of the Shepherds” (Matthias Stom)
- Music: “Psalm 1” (Poor Bishop Hopper) – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FVy6M1gWNmo
2022:
Week 2, Friday:
- Scripture: 2 Peter 3:11-18 (Nancy Penton)
- Reflection (Karen Sculley)
- Prayer (John Trotter)
- Artwork: “Fire” (Washington D.C., USA)
- Music: “Shine Jesus Shine” (Vineyard Music) – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J3iB30gCqAc
Reflection on 2 Peter 3:11-18 (NRSVCE) – “Since all these things are to be dissolved in this way, what sort of people ought you to be in leading lives of holiness and godliness, waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be set ablaze and dissolved, and the elements will melt with fire? But, in accordance with his promise, we wait for new heavens and a new earth, where righteousness is at home. Therefore, beloved, while you are waiting for these things, strive to be found by him at peace, without spot or blemish; and regard the patience of our Lord as salvation. So also our beloved brother Paul wrote to you according to the wisdom given to him, speaking of this as he does in all his letters. There are some things in them hard to understand, which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction, as they do the other scriptures. You therefore, beloved, since you are forewarned, beware that you are not carried away with the error of the lawless and lose your own stability. But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. To him be the glory both now and to the day of eternity. Amen.”
There are so many false teachings out there today, just as there were at the time this Scripture was written, and we do well to take these kinds of warnings seriously. One way to check if something comes from God, in other words, has its source rooted in goodness, truth, and beauty, is to see what fruit it produces in the lives of those who either teach or listen to what is false. Another way to tell is to notice what is focus of the teaching – if it’s obsessed with dates or details concerning the end of the world, you can be sure it’s pointing in the wrong direction. God wants us to focus on Christ and whatever is true, honorable, just, pure, pleasing, commendable, excellent, or praiseworthy.
So, what sort of people ought we to be? Anxious? Frustrated? Insecure? Stagnating? Of course not, and these things are common enough today, but here we are encouraged in very specific ways. While we are waiting for God’s Kingdom to completely arrive (it is already but not yet fully here), we are to strive to move, by the strength that God provides, and in the grace and knowledge of Christ Jesus, from anxiety towards peace, from frustration to patience, from insecurity to stability, and from stagnation to growth.
Joy to the world, the Lord is come! Let earth receive her King! Let every heart prepare Him room, and heaven and nature sing!
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
