Multimedia Advent Devotional – Week 4-6, Friday

2022:

Week 4, Friday:

• Scripture: Matthew 1:18-25 (Paul Sculley)
• Reflection (Karen Sculley)
• Prayer (Michael Sculley)
• Artwork: “African Nativity” (Nuremberg, Germany)
• Music: “Ding Dong Merrily on High” (The Wilds) – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yuYiJJ4l3ko

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:

Matthew 1:18-25 (NLT) – “This is how Jesus the Messiah was born. His mother, Mary, was engaged to be married to Joseph. But before the marriage took place, while she was still a virgin, she became pregnant through the power of the Holy Spirit. Joseph, to whom she was engaged, was a righteous man and did not want to disgrace her publicly, so he decided to break the engagement quietly. As he considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream. ‘Joseph, son of David,’ the angel said, ‘do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife. For the child within her was conceived by the Holy Spirit. And she will have a son, and you are to name him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.’ All of this occurred to fulfill the Lord’s message through his prophet: ‘Look! The virgin will conceive a child! She will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel, which means “God is with us.”’ When Joseph woke up, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded and took Mary as his wife. But he did not have sexual relations with her until her son was born. And Joseph named him Jesus.”

Today’s Scripture quotes a 700-year-old quote from the prophet Isaiah that includes three parts. For those of us who are very familiar with the Christmas story, we might forget that the first part of the prophecy (a virgin getting pregnant) is, well, not normal at all. It’s not just unusual, it is not possible for a virgin to conceive a child through the power of the Holy Spirit with no other person or parts involved. When normally impossible things happen, we call these miracles. A miracle is an extraordinary event in the physical world that surpasses all known natural powers and can be explained by nothing or no one other than God.

The second part of the prophecy (she will give birth to a son) is very normal, so normal in fact, it is considered an ordinary human experience. In every time and place, babies are born every day to mothers.

The third part of the prophecy (they will call him Immanuel, God is with us) ties the first two parts together. God has come to us in an extraordinary, miraculous way and at the same time in an ordinary, everyday way. Where these two ways intersect we encounter Immanuel, God-is-with-us.

Jesus is not just God. Jesus is not just human. In Jesus, Immanuel, God is present to us, and says “Here I am.” We are invited to respond to the God who created all that there is who has come close to be with us, with a simple prayer of surrender, to be present, passionate, attentive, and available to God: “Here I am.”