Daily Advent Devotional

Week One

November 30, 2022

Love Wins

Isaiah 54:1–10

For the mountains may depart and the hills be removed, but my steadfast love shall not depart from you, and my covenant of peace shall not be removed, says the Lord, who has compassion on you. Isaiah 54:10

In this scripture, the Holy’s love becomes steadfast, overcoming the stories of “divine wrath” that make up parts of the Hebrew bible and Hollywood movies with an ancient biblical focus.

This shift promises that prior shame, disgrace, and geopolitical disaster aren’t the final word. It is noteworthy that this part of Isaiah also has the Holy taking responsibility for abandoning the people, contributing to their deep loss. “For a brief moment I abandoned you, but with great compassion I will gather you. In overflowing wrath for a moment I hid my face from you, but with everlasting love I will have compassion on you, says the Lord, your Redeemer” (v. 8).

For many who follow the way of Jesus, the hope of our Advent season is to prepare our welcome for the most compassionate one who comes to free and welcome all into the promise of steadfast love. Meditating on the words from Isaiah, I find myself drawn into a discipline of compassion this season, but compassion is hard.

Compassion requires an openness to the feelings of others and where they are. It requires an acknowledgment of my own actions and lifestyle that may contribute to suffering, fear, and anger in the world. Turning away is the easy thing to do. Turning toward and offering hope-building, steadfast-loving compassion is hard.

But with the assurance of the Holy’s steadfast love and covenant of peace, and the promised coming of the Holy into the world, true compassion is possible.

Kurt Gwartney

Senior Director of Communications and 

Adjunct Faculty, Center for Ministry and Lay Training

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Week One

November 29, 2022

The Hope of Repeated Promises

Genesis 9:1–17

“…When the bow is in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is on the Earth.” God said to Noah, “This is the sign of the covenant that I have established between me and all flesh that is on the earth.” Genesis 9:16-17

Earlier chapters of Genesis share destruction, flooding, death, and traumatic events, and I can imagine fear taking hold within those present wondering, “What’s next?” Instead, in Genesis 9 there is a new hope given. It shares God’s blessings of prospering and re-filling the Earth, followed by instructions for taking care of creation, and finally a promise by God to never again destroy the Earth by flood. It’s that promise God shares first in verses 8 through 11, repeats in verse 12, and again repeats in verses 16 and 17, that delivers the calming effect.

When we want to make a point to a student, church member, or others, we repeat that concept or phrase; repetition matters. This covenant was so important to God that it is repeated to Noah and his family over and over. Not only that, a part of the promise includes a symbol of a “bow” set up in the clouds so that even when it rains, every living thing doesn’t need to fear but can trust in God’s repeated promise for Earth. Each time a rainbow is set in the cloud it’s a proof of a repeated promise. 

Verse 16 establishes the covenant not just between God and Noah for that time but as an eternal covenant. We, the future generation of everything living, benefit without having to have done a single thing. This everlasting promise adds another layer of hope. God is asking nothing from Noah or us in return for this promise, we are just to receive it. 

God established this covenant. God has kept and will keep the agreement, and each time we see this sign we take hope in all God’s promises.

Leslie LeSieur

Senior Director of the Center for Ministry and Lay Training

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Week One

November 28, 2022

Restoration

Genesis 8:1–19 

God did not forget Noah and all the animals in the ark, and sent a mighty wind over the earth so that the waters began to subside. The springs of the Deep and the windows in the heavens were closed up. The rain from the heavens stopped. The water covering the earth gradually dropped, until at the end of 150 days it was gone. Genesis 8:1-3

The crisis is over. God has not forgotten us. In this third Advent season beyond the squealing of the brakes in March 2020, we can begin to imagine what is next. It is obscured, for sure. The flood waters still hide what will be discovered later — but at least the rain has stopped. 

I am fascinated by this story in Genesis, the story of Noah and the flood. It follows the tragedy in the garden, then the tragedy of Cain and Abel. In fact, as the story opens, we read, “YHWH was sorry that humankind had been created on the earth; it pained God’s heart.” When God created humans, the Holy One crowned them with the pronouncement, “...and it was very good.” What happened? 

This passage in Genesis reaches back for the beautiful Hebrew word present in the first chapter, “ruah.” It can be translated: breath, wind, or spirit. It is the source of creation, what God breathed into the first human to bring life. Right here, after the world has been destroyed, God once again breathes upon the earth and the direction shifts from devastation toward restoration. 

That’s what hope looks like to me. Appearing as a tiny shift, perhaps unnoticed by most, but appearing even so. Hope is like the wind when it shifts direction bringing a change in the weather. Hope is like holy breath. Hope is water receding. Hope is the life that survived against all the odds, waiting to be discovered. 

We are in the first week of Advent. The darkness of the womb strongly embraces us. We are too early to catch the first light of the birth canal. Still, hope comes to the fore. May God bring hope like a fresh wind in this season. 

Rev. Charla Gwartney 

Adjunct Faculty, Century for Ministry and Lay Training

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Week One

November 27, 2022

A Familiar Place

Psalm 122

I was glad when they said to me, “Let us go to the house of the Lord!” Psalm 122:1

Familiar, from the Latin, “belonging to a family, of a household, intimate. Also, famulus, family; familia, household servant.

I like to attend worship. It is familiar and it always feels like home.

During seminary I served as the associate minister at First Christian Church of Stroud, Oklahoma. I worked with the youth groups and participated in Sunday worship. The kind and generous members of First Christian Church were tolerant of my youthful efforts and treated me as one of their ministers. However, I never understood myself to be a minister, not really. 

I was ordained during Sunday morning worship at First Christian Church. Following worship, not one but several members said to me, “Congratulations, Reverend Ewing.” It was then, I knew I was a minister. I was home.

During Advent, we arrive at another familiar place. It is a place of arrival and coming. We recognize all those here, as we have been recognized. We are members of a common household, a gathering, in this place marked as a household of service and edged by the Lord’s Peace. In this familiar place, this Coming Place, I recognize home. I am recognized as being at home. It is a home welcoming each one, in this or any time, it is:

— the Great Family of Belonging,

—defined by acts of Service and Justice,

—and becomes the House of Hope.

I was glad when they said to me, “Let us go to the house of the Lord!”

Dr. Terry Ewing

Vice President of Advancement

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Week Four

December 25, 2021

Christmas Day: Life 

John 1:1-14

What has come into being through him was life… the light for all people. John 1:4

John’s Gospel opens its presentation of Jesus with a communication metaphor, the Word. And it employs the Hebrew Bible paradigm of Wisdom the communicator. 

The Hebrew Bible, notably Proverbs chapter 8, presents Wisdom as a female figure who exists “in the beginning” with God. She comes from God to communicate divine presence and purposes among humans. She seeks to draw people into relationship with God as God’s friends. Among people she experiences acceptance and rejection. 

John’s Gospel borrows this paradigm. It presents Jesus as the definitive word who reveals or communicates divine presence and purposes among people. 

What does Jesus communicate? “What has come into being through him was life…the light for all people” (John 1:4). Jesus manifests the life-giving, liberating, and loving purposes of God. The word becomes flesh and lives among us (John 1:14). Jesus lives in solidarity with victims of dominating and life-depleting power. He opposes the damage caused by indiscriminate and self-serving power. He pursues justice that honors the dignity of all people and their access to just societal structures and requisite resources for good life.

Communication, though, can be ambiguous. A long tradition has preferred to spiritualize and individualize this “life.” Some interpretations emphasize life that “saves souls” but ignores bodies, that focuses on the future but not the present, that concerns individuals but not societal structures and practices. Such claims ignore that the Word becomes flesh, lives among us, and offers life to all. 

Dr. Warren Carter

LaDonna Kramer Meinders Professor of New Testament

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Week Four

December 24, 2021

Good News for the Working Class

Luke 2:1-20

When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let us go now to Bethlehem and see this thing that has taken place, which the Lord has made known to us.” Luke 2:15

Sheep are very dependent animals and require all of their daily needs to be provided. Since they don’t have a strong survival mechanism, they are easy prey for predators. When sheep are in an open, hostile environment, they require a protector, a shepherd who guards and guides the sheep. Without a shepherd, death of the sheep is certain.

Although being a shepherd was a common profession, it was not a very well respected profession. The shepherd was not seen as noble. Instead, the shepherd was regarded as dirty, low class, and unprincipled. The shepherd, who worked outdoors all the time, had to combat the weather as well as combat carnivorous animals like wolves, bears, and lions. On occasion, a shepherd also battled thieves who sought to steal the sheep. Without a shepherd, the sheep might wander away and perish. The shepherd was required to be alert, watchful, fearless, and attentive.

On that holy night, the skies became the backdrop of a magnificent drama that invited the ordinary to participate in an extraordinary event. The night became as day as the good news was proclaimed to the socially impoverished. God calls everyone to experience saving grace. The shepherds did not question, “What is this?” or “What does this mean?” Rather, being inspired by their fidelity, they chose to collectively travel to witness what had been declared to them. Their faith made them a part of the sacred scene that we cherish during this season. Once they arrived at the manger, they kept watch over the Lamb of God who also became the Good Shepherd!

Dr. Lee H. Butler, Jr.

Vice-President of Academic Affairs and Academic Dean and

William Tabbernee Professor of the History of Religions and Africana Pastoral Theology

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Week Four

December 23, 2021

Mary’s Song in Troubled Times

Luke 1:46b–55

[G*d] has come to the aid of Israel, his child, a reminder of mercy. Luke 1:54 (Common English Bible)

Life can bring about uncertain times when it is difficult to recognize G*d’s love. The pressures of life can bombard our senses as we anticipate end-moments, those times when pain ends, and dominance is achieved. Interpretations of Mary’s song often assume this posture: eyes forward we see pre-emptive praise for Christ-mediated end-moments of salvation and victory. 

I pose an alternate posture. Mary, a betrothed yet unmarried Galilean woman, was an expectant mother. Imagine her not as mother of G*d but as a young woman in a hostile, patriarchal world holding on to a promise. Imagine this vulnerable woman aware of her condition while not yet showing. Imagine Mary, living daily in ever-present awareness of being discovered and castigated. Have you ever felt vulnerable? To society? To the economy? To a virus? Amidst her danger, Mary held Gabriel’s promise that the Holy Spirit would move on her behalf, and it did. Despite cultural norms and stereotypes Mary found safety with Elizabeth. It was in Mary’s service (to Elizabeth) that she was extolled. Elizabeth’s words fell upon Mary’s ears creating a profound moment of love and affirmation, a moment prompted by the spirit. Might Mary’s song be euphoric praise for the steadfast love of G*d, articulated in the unexpected outpouring and transformational relationship fostered by Elizabeth?

Covid-19 has wreaked havoc on the world. So many of us grapple with how to live safely and authentically in times of vulnerability. I do not know what Sars-CoV2 will be like by Christmas. I’m uncertain if the delta, lambda, or nu variants will shutter church doors, national boundaries, or claim millions more lives. Yet, advent calls us to be reminded of G*d’s love, a promise embodied in Christ’s birth. May we, in our most vulnerable moments, be reminded that G*d’s love is with us, now and tomorrow.

Dr. Arthur F. Carter, Jr.

Assistant Professor of New Testament

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Week Four

December 22, 2021

An Inclusive Faith

Ephesians 2:11-22

He came and preached peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near…. Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with God’s people and also members of his household. Ephesians 2:17, 19

As we near the culmination of the celebration of Advent, the juxtaposition of today’s Hebrew and Christian lectionary texts provide an interesting meditation on the journey and transformation this Advent makes possible. Indeed, the incarnation demonstrates for us what Willie James Jennings in The Christian Imagination calls an “intimate joining” we are called to manifest in our own lives. 

As those who have been grafted into another’s story, made fellow citizens and also members of God’s household, one would think by now that Christians would be better witnesses to learning from others’ varied experiences, reconciling and loving across differences. Instead, we too often use religion—whether Christianity broadly or denominations more specifically—to exclude. 

By contrast, today’s Hebrew text from Micah reflects a monotheism, to be sure, but not a closed monotheism. Even in “the last days,” it allows that “all the nations may walk in the name of their gods.” Likewise, Revelation 21 surprises us with the mention of “nations” and “kings of the earth” in the New Jerusalem. Both Micah (4:2) and Revelation (21:24) speak to the nations seeking God’s wisdom and coming to walk in God’s paths.

May this Advent season’s example of humility and emptying inspire us anew to empty ourselves and open our hearts, eschewing our own “wisdom” that we may seek God’s alone and walk in the ways set before us.

Kaaryn McCall

Alumna (2020)

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Week Four

December 21, 2021

Life in the Darkness

Romans 8:18-30

For in hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what is seen? Romans 8:24

Today is the Winter Solstice. In the northern hemisphere it’s the darkest day of the year. Sometimes I think darkness gets a bad rap. The fact that the church picked this time of the year as Jesus’ birth is not a coincidence. Christianity baptized many traditions and claimed them as ours. My favorite carol is “In the Bleak Midwinter”—which fills my soul. Today I want to celebrate darkness.

In 1986 I moved to the San Luis Valley in Colorado. My 11 years in that mystical place gave me many gifts. Our home was on an acreage away from the town. Sometimes I would go outside at night just to breath the alpine air. The stars always put on a show. I had been doing this for a while when I realized that what I thought was a collection of clouds, was actually the Milky Way galaxy. 

One summer we hosted an international exchange student from Japan. I will never forget walking outside with him on one of his first nights with us. He stopped and pointed to the sky, “Beautiful,” was his only word. He explained that in Tokyo you can never see the stars because “we have too much light” (light pollution).

The eighth chapter of Romans ranks up there with my favorite Christmas carol. It reminds me that at the core of our faith is the truth of hope. That hope is grounded in the reality that “the Spirit helps us in our weakness” (vs 26). In the supposed darkness of these times, whether in our communities or our beings, the forces of light and hope are present. 

Rev. Dr. Mark W. Pumphrey

President of the Phillips Alumni Association

Senior Pastor at First Christian Church in Greeley, Colorado

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Week Four

December 20, 2021

Praise the LORD

Psalm 113

Praise the LORD! Praise, O servents of the LORD; praise the name of the LORD. Blessed be the name of the LORD from this time on and forevermore. From the rising of the sun to its setting the name of the LORD is to be praised. The LORD is high above all nations, and his glory above the heavens. Who is like the LORD our God, who is seated on high, who looks far down on the heavens and the earth? He raises the poor from the dust, and lifts the needy from the ash heap, to make them sit with princes, with the princes of his people. He gives the barren woman a home, making her the joyous mother of children. Praise the LORD! Psalm 113:1-9 

As I reflect on 2021, I can only pull together thoughts of hope and promise. Hope stands as the foundational breath we need as humans to push from day to day. Promise is the key to a home that reminds all of us of the bountiful blessings bestowed by God to God’s people. It’s the promise that evokes a movement capable of illuminating the power and might to change lives, heal the sick, and save souls. Many lives have seen and felt much pain over the past years. 

Psalm 113 is an example of the hope and promise we receive through the public and private practice of praise and worship. This is a psalm for the community to unite and build a strong tower of support. As I envision the imagery of Psalm 113, I can envision people of all races, religions, and walks of life coming together to offer affirmation of praise and gratefulness. Psalm 113 provides us with a picture of a LORD who wants to love and protect us. The LORD is in the blessing business of elevating the poor and needy to a place of importance, royalty! 

During this Advent season, please remember the importance of praising the LORD! Praise the LORD who provides for you and your family. The LORD who takes away your troubled pain and gives you the power to strive to greater accomplishments. Praise the LORD who never loses a battle or faces defeat. Please remember to share with your community, family, and friends the sincere benevolence of love, peace, and joy. Praise the name of the LORD! This advent season is your season of glorifed praise. Praise the LORD!

Rev. Ulysses D. Allen

Interim Director of Recruitment and Retention 

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