Like 100% pure oxygen. Like the brilliance 100 times that of our sun. Like the dismantling power of the most searing gaze. Like the healing impact of all the collective medical knowledge known to man. Eclipsing the attraction power of the mind-bogglingly powerful, neodymium magnet (reportedly, the world’s strongest). All this compacted and stored up by divine genius within the human newborn, Jesus. He is Love’s purest profile, ‘veiled in flesh,’ yet revealed to us, shared with us.

Luke 2:1-20

After four centuries of heaven’s silence and Israel’s longing and waiting for the Messiah, there is an answer, a stirring in the courts of God the Father. But this answer was nothing like the prayers that had been prayed during that time. The timing, the place, the people involved, all failed to match expectations, to be acceptable. To the religious rulers, all aspects of God’s answer were a scandalous affront. But to those called to serve in this new, divine drama, the answer was life transforming, birthing fresh hope, a deep peace, and beyond all, a joy they’d not known existed.

Luke 1:39-45, 1:46-55, 1:57-79

Humanity has always sought peace it can never achieve. Failing the finding of peace, the quest has invariably diverted to a seeking for power, control, domination. Frustrated attempts in this have led to the world’s worst evils. Every age has seen this play out. Every age has seen these sometimes-wild efforts unravel with sickening results, the near-devastation of innocent societies. Jesus’ birth came at the time when Rome was the aggressor, brutally enforcing Pax Romana (ironically, Roman Peace) in Israel through military power, ironclad control and intimidating domination. But it is Jesus who is our sought-after peace. We can know full, realized peace (shalom) only in his presence.

1st Sunday of Advent, December 1, 2024

Unquestionably, the singular, most beautiful aspect of God’s Plan ‘A’ is the Incarnation. God becoming flesh, becoming man, becoming one of us, becoming sin for us. He chose to unveil His deepest mystery in a newborn baby, and not just any baby, but His own son, born of a virgin, of the lineage of David. The infant’s arrival answered so many questions as to stagger the imagination! So many prophecies fulfilled in that tiny bundle on a cold Bethlehem night. Kairos confounding Chronos.

John 1:1-5,14, Isaiah 9:2.3, Colossians 1:19-20,26-27, 2:3, 1 Peter 1:3-9

The Apostle Paul, on his famous trek to raid the church in Damascus, was knocked off his feet, not unlike a rambunctious puppy attempting to out-strain his leash. He reached the limit of his Pharisaical ‘freedoms’ and found Jesus waiting for him there. Paul was about to undergo an extreme makeover which would include a radical renouncing of his legalistic beliefs and a humbling acceptance of the grace-filled message of the Father’s love and offer of forgiveness in the much-prophesied Messiah, this Jesus of Nazareth.

Romans 8:26-39, Philippians 3:12-16, Acts 20:24, 2 Timothy 4:7,8

During Jesus’ public ministry his disciples were content simply to be with him. However, they were frequently baffled by his teachings, his reactions to situations, and most of all, his choice of them as his close followers. As it became clearer that Jesus was the Messiah, but not the Warrior Messiah they had been taught to expect, they struggled to define him. Being with him was an amazing experience, but his talk of dying and going away cast a shadow over their enthusiasm. After Jesus’ return to his Father, it was on them to start learning to live ‘in’ him.

Romans 8:14-17,  Galatians 5:1,5,6,  Ephesians 2:1,4-5,10,  Philippians 1:3-6,9-11,  Colossians 2:9-10

Scripture could simply be called God’s Story. It is a story of love creating. It is a story of love sharing. It is a story of love’s jealousy. It is a story of love’s anger. It is a story of love reconciling. It is a story of love redeeming. It is a story of love re-creating its perfection. And we are chosen to be participants in this story God is writing.

Matthew 3:17, John 15:9-10, Ephesians 1:6, Ephesians 1:11-14, Philippians 2:6-11

Jesus returned to the Father just as he told the disciples he would. He sent the Holy Spirit in an unmistakable way, just as he told the disciples he would. The disciples, then, guided by the now-indwelling Holy Spirit, were charged with guiding this new entity, the church, into existence, and then to lead and shape its furious-paced growth. Scripture provides insight into that leadership some thirty years after the debut of this 1st century start-up. It highlights how there was continuing teaching and encouragement and exhortation being brought to the many who had been added to the number of followers of Jesus in those few years.

In the no-stones-left-unturned style of a gifted lawyer, Paul unpacks God’s most precious gift to us; His perfect, forever salvation through His beloved Son, Jesus. With unwavering confidence, Paul presents the secure aspects of our ‘in Jesus’ life. At the same time, he debunks, as frauds, all fear and insecurity. He repeatedly rejects the possibility of having this gift taken from us, all the while emphasizing this as God’s Plan ‘A’ for His children.

Romans 8:28,31-39