Multimedia Advent Devotional – Week 2-3, Tuesday
2024:
Week 2, Tuesday:
• Scripture: Matthew 18:12-14 (Faith Vick)
• Reflection (Patricia Dotson)
• Prayer (Dawn Roberson)
• Artwork: “Nativity Scene” (Antanas Kmieliauskas)
• Music: “Shepherd” (CityAlight) – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xMxfBbr2FTM
2023:
Week 2, Tuesday:
- Scripture – Luke 1:26-38 (Pam Cammarata)
- Reflection (Karen Sculley)
- Prayer (Nancy Penton)
- Artwork: “Adoration of the Shepherds” (El Greco)
- Music: “Let It Be To Me” (Charles Ciepiel) – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RlTSNXdza_w
Reflection on Luke 1:26-38 – “In the sixth month of Elizabeth’s pregnancy, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. The angel went to her and said, ‘Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you.’ Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be. But the angel said to her, ‘Do not be afraid, Mary; you have found favor with God. You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to call him Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over Jacob’s descendants forever; his kingdom will never end.’ ‘How will this be,’ Mary asked the angel, ‘since I am a virgin?’ The angel answered, ‘The Holy Spirit will come on you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God. Even Elizabeth your relative is going to have a child in her old age, and she who was said to be unable to conceive is in her sixth month. For no word from God will ever fail.’ ‘I am the Lord’s servant,’ Mary answered. ‘May your word to me be fulfilled.’ Then the angel left her.”
Mary’s simple faith is nothing short of astounding! This short account of Mary’s encounter with the angel is bursting with glimpses of the supernatural breaking through into the natural world. As a female, a young person, and a resident of a small town, Mary had basically no social status. She was not the sort of person any religious scholar, or really anyone at all, would have guessed would have been chosen by God for the once-for-all-time honor of being the mother of the Messiah! The experts who studied biblical prophecies all day every day were expecting the Messiah to come as a king dressed in royal robes who arrived with power and authority. God’s kingdom is often called the upside-down kingdom. God seems to often prefer to work through the humble, the lowly, the outsiders, the marginalized. Scripture provides examples of God working through all kinds of people in all kinds of ways. God sent an angel to Mary to deliver news that must surely have been perplexing and terrifying. And yet Mary had cultivated a heart for God, as the Scripture tells us she had found favor with God and was, in fact, highly favored. We are told that she was greatly troubled at the angel’s words. The angel reassures her and tells her, “Do not be afraid.” It wouldn’t have surprised us if she were shocked speechless at this point. But her immediate response reveals the inner condition of her soul: “I am the Lord’s servant … May your word to me be fulfilled.” When we read or hear God’s word, may we have hearts like Mary, hearts for God; may we be submitted to the Lord such that we, too, immediately respond with a wholehearted “yes”; may we gratefully surrender our hearts, minds, bodies, hopes, dreams, fears, plans, and lives to the Lord; may we fully receive and participate in the fulfillment of God’s word. As the angel said, “No word from God will ever fail.” God is always and forever faithful; let us be faithful to Christ through it all!
2022:
Week 2, Tuesday:
- Scripture: John 1:1-5 (Michael Sculley)
- Reflection (Karen Sculley)
- Prayer (Paul Sculley)
- Artwork: “Christ comforting a poor man” (Paris, France)
- Music: “Be It Done Unto Me” (Tamera Neal)
Reflection on John 1:1-5 (NIV) – “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.”
The gospel of John, like the first book of the Bible (Genesis) opens with the words, “in the beginning.” In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. In the beginning was the Word – the Logos, who is Jesus Christ, the Son of God who was with God right from the beginning and who is God. Jesus has come not just as a messenger from God, but is God in human form – Emmanuel, God with us. We are not told exactly how God made all things, but we know that all things were made through Christ, and without Christ, nothing was made that has been made. In Christ was life, and that life was the light of all anthropos, which is all members of the human race, both female and male. The life of Christ is equated here to the light of all of the human race, shining in the darkness and not being overcome by the darkness. Light conquers darkness. As members of the human race, each and every one of us has been created bearing the image and likeness of God. As we live the life of Christ, the light of God is beautifully reflected and shines in the darkness.
The most significant lesson I’ve learned about light shining in the darkness came when we went on a two-hour cave tour in Australia with our oldest son when he was just 5 months old. Peter was generally a happy baby, but in that cool and clammy environment, he grew fussy enough to prompt us to ask our tour guide if we could skip a 20-minute loop portion of the caves so as to not further disturb our tour group. The guide assured us that the lights would stay on, and the group would circle back to us after the loop. You can guess what happened. Minutes after the group disappeared around the bend, all lights went out and we experienced darkness so thick that we immediately became disoriented and sank to the damp floor, trying to comfort our son. This was long before the era of mobile phones, but thankfully Paul had a digital watch. The faint, green LED backlight became a huge source of comfort to us, as periodic pressings of the button provided a tiny light that eliminated total darkness. Jesus said, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” We can rejoice that the light of Christ has come, a light that can never be overcome. We are invited to live the life of Christ, and in doing so, participate with God to bring the light of Christ to the world, light that cannot be hidden but is able to overcome all manner of darkness.
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
