2020 Advent Devotions St. John’s Lutheran Church Christmas Lutheran Church Salisbury, North Carolina Bethlehem 2 First Sunday of Advent Sunday, November 29, 2020 Introduction If you’ve been around the church a while, a few words, images, and colors come to mind when we say the word Advent: hope, waiting, preparing, blue, darkness, candlelight, “O come, O come Emmanuel.” For many, none of that makes sense, especially as stores, houses, and downtowns are transformed into a winter wonderland of Christmas lights and glitter. It makes for a wonderful time of year. So how does Advent fit in? Traditionally, Advent has been a season of prayer and preparation for the second coming of Christ. In a nutshell, if Christmas is the first incarnation of God, Advent prepares believers for God’s second incarnation. But if we’re honest, Advent feels like the grandma who won’t let you eat dessert before supper … or the coach who won’t let you play in the game if you haven’t come to practice … or the Lutheran pastor who won’t let you sing Christmas carols until Christmas Eve! This sense of waiting can feel awfully legalistic if you’re not careful. … which is why this year’s Advent theme is “Longing.” Throughout these four weeks of Advent, we invite you into deeper reflection about what you’re longing for. As you think about your future or your hopes and dreams for your family, what are you longing for? As we continue to navigate these unusual Covid-19 waters, what are we longing for? Again this year, members of two sister congregations have prepared these Advent Devotions: Christmas Lutheran in Bethlehem and St. John’s in Salisbury. In September 2019, Christmas and St. John’s entered into a formal partnership in which we agreed to accompany one another in our journey of faith, walk in solidarity in our struggle for mercy and justice, and learn from the other’s experience and wisdom. This Advent Devotional gives us the opportunity to hear from members of both congregations, each writing from very different contexts, but yoked together as sisters and brothers in Christ. We stand in great thanksgiving for what God is doing through our two congregations. Even in this most unusual year, we stand as witnesses to the grace, love, and mercy of God — something this world is certainly longing for. Advent blessings to you. Pastor Rhodes Woolly Pastor Munther Isaac St. John’s Lutheran Church Evangelical Christmas Lutheran Church Salisbury, North Carolina, USA Bethlehem, Palestine 3 Bethlehem—God Has Monday, November 30, 2020 Visited Us From the book “The Other Side of the Wall” (IVP Press, 2020) Christmas is a very special season in Bethlehem. While our city is being celebrated by much of the world, we are bombarded with pilgrims, tourists, and journalists from all over the world. There are so many religious and political events that take place in the city, that there is usually “no place in the inn” in Bethlehem during Christmas. For a short season, we forget about the wall. But there have also been many times where we have celebrated Christmas in Bethlehem amid conflict and turmoil; when the streets of Bethlehem were “dark” in many aspects. During times where there are violent clashes, the city becomes quiet and desolate. Memories of the second intifada, when the city was besieged and the construction of the wall began, are still fresh in the minds of most Bethlehemites. This year, the spread of Covid-19 means that we will have another one of those “dark” Christmases. But Christmas has always been a season in which we are reminded that God has visited us. This historic (and present) visitation gives us hope. Jesus was born in a time of desperation… The land was a place of expectations. The people of the land were expecting that God would interfere with our world and make it a better place. There was hope that God would return to Jerusalem and establish a kingdom that would stand against all other kingdoms and empires. There was anticipation by many that the Messiah would be here at any time to deliver his people and bring judgment against the enemies of the people of God. He would bring justice and peace—at least according to those who expected his coming. The birth of Jesus brought this time of waiting to an end. God visited a suffering people in the humble body of Jesus: “Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for he has visited and redeemed his people and has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David.” (Lk 1:68-69) Amazingly (or maybe not so amazingly), circumstances here when Jesus was born were not so different from today. His context also included an empire, occupation, checkpoints, interrogations, corruption, disparity between the poor and rich, military violence, walls of hostility and hatred, intifadas, destroyed cities, refugees, obsession with end times, religious violence, and death. Our world today lives in expectations as well; as we are all praying for a vaccine for Covid-19. Amazingly, it was here in Bethlehem, and it could only be here, that God chose to become human, to join our struggles as humans and become part of this mess. Have you ever 4 Continued on next page... wondered why God chose to come to Bethlehem? Palestine? The Middle East? Well, if there is a place that so desperately and constantly needs to see the “mighty brought down from their thrones,” or “the hungry filled with good things,” as the Virgin Mary prayed, it is this place. If there is ever a place that so desperately and constantly needs to hear the words of the angels proclaiming, “peace on earth,” it is this place. If there is ever a place that so desperately needs a divine visit, a visit from the God who is love, mercy and compassion, it is this place! The incarnation had to take place here. And when God became one of us, it was in the form of a baby—the ultimate symbol of new life, beauty, simplicity, while also a symbol of weakness, vulnerability, and innocence. This is how God became human. He did so through a poor and humble family. “For he has looked on the humble estate of his servant,” Mary said. Christ came into a family that was homeless at the time, with no place to sleep. And that family later became refugees; they traveled away from their homes in search of safety and shelter. Christmas reminds us that God has visited us, and that God continues to dwell with us today. I think too often we miss God, not expecting to see the Creator of the world dwelling in humility and poverty. Most of the time, we are probably looking in the wrong places: in fancy palaces and temples, in the power of armies, among the rich and powerful, and perhaps in lavish and successful churches as well. “Surely God is with them!” we think. Christmas reminds us that we must look in unexpected places to find God. If you want to find God in the midst of our troubled and messy world, look for God in a cave with a homeless family. Look for God in the midst of refugees. Look for God in places where there is suffering, terror, and death. Look for God in warzones. Look for God behind the wall. If you want to find God in the midst of our troubled world, you will find God on a cross, suffering with and for us. You will find God beaten, humiliated, and dying as a victim of religious and state violence, so that we could have life in abundance. The Rev. Dr. Munther Isaac Pastor, Christmas Lutheran Church Pastor Isaac also serves as the Academic Dean of the Bethlehem Bible College and director of the global “Christ at the Checkpoint” conference 5 Tuesday, December 1, 2020 God takes on flesh Though he was in the very nature of God, he humbled himself by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. Philippians 2:6 When I first learned that the “stable” was likely a cave, I went into denial. I don’t know how old I was, but the story took a dramatic shift in an instant. Before you know it they’ll tell me that cows weren’t there either. Or the little drummer boy. And how would you get a Christmas tree inside a cave? So confusing. Every now and then the details of my faith journey — and the faith story I’ve known — get a bit confused. That happens in all aspects of life, I suppose. Like when I learned that George Washington didn’t chop down a cherry tree or Santa didn’t come down my North New Hope Road chimney at Christmas. (The jury’s still out on that one.) The details of the story make the story interesting, without a doubt. But sometimes the details confuse the message … or take our eyes off of the message. Like the stable. It doesn’t matter if Jesus was born in a stable or a cave. It doesn’t matter if there were three kings or seven. It doesn’t matter if they were “kings” at all. What matters is that God took on flesh and became one of us. The story of Christmas is a profoundly remarkable and significant story — not because of little drummer boys or mangers or stables, but because of a God whose love for us caused him to stoop down from heaven so that we might touch the very face of God.