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Christmas Eve – December 24

Author: Chad Hyatt

Luke 2:1-20

Reflection: v. 19, ‘Mary treasured all these words and pondered them in her heart’

John Lennon famously said, ‘Whatever gets you through the night is alright.’ While I might put some limits on precisely ‘whatever’ might be, I can say this without hesitation: praying the rosary gets me through the night—and pretty much every time in between. It’s simple, really. Just the act of holding a rosary—fingering its worn beads, tracing its looping pattern as I pray—connects me to that deeper place in my heart where I know God makes a home with me. Rosary in hand, Hail Mary upon my lips, my distracted and worried mind slows down its harried gait just a little. It’s like the knotted cords of my rosary bind my heart to a deeper truth, the most profound truth of all—the grace of God’s love for me and for all the world.

The rosary is a truly contemplative prayer. Sure, it’s repetitious. But its repetitions aren’t vain. The words themselves are a beautiful gift of our Christian tradition. These well-worn prayers have been offered by the faithful across countless centuries and cultures. But the words become a mere after-thought as the prayerful heart moves closer to God’s heart. Praying the rosary stills my fears. It illumines my hope. It leads me to sit quietly in the presence of the living God.

Throughout the disruption of this pandemic, I’ve spent a lot of time with Our Lady of My Backyard. Sitting in a rocking chair I once recovered from the dumpster at our church, I situate myself near a little image of the Virgin Mary I purchased at the monastery. Praying the rosary is praying in the company of Mary. We contemplate her Son together. I let the long day start to roll off my shoulders, as gently I rock back and forth. I gaze up at the starry sky and sense the gentle rustle of the trees. I hear the cicada song, like a symphonic hymn of praise. Prayer should be as incarnational as the faith we confess. We are embodied, after all. We can only love God embodied. And that’s the way we love our neighbors, too. Let us rejoice this Christmas that God comes to us in Jesus, the Son of Mary—embodied, just like you and me.

Prayer Jesus, thank you for traditions of prayer that draw us closer to you.

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2nd Sunday of Advent

Author: Brittany Fiscus-van Rossum

Isaiah 40: 1-11

Reflection: v. 2, ‘she has served her term… her penalty is paid’

‘You are prisoners no more. Your time for freedom is now,’ is written in the margins of my bible next to this passage. I am fairly certain my co-worker and fellow pastor borrowed my bible one day and scribbled these lines as the makings of a song-response for some worship service. While I no longer remember the occasion for the song, this interpretation strikes me anew in its simple truthfulness. In this particular passage the voice of God through the prophet Isaiah declares freedom for a seemingly forgotten people in exile. God speaks to God’s children banished and home-less in a land not their own. God looks upon those poor exiled ones and speaks words of consolation and liberation. At the core and the crux of our biblical text is this bold and comforting notion that God desires freedom for God’s people—for all of us, but also particularly for the oppressed and marginalized. As followers of this audaciously loving and liberating God, we should also be compelled to want freedom for one another. God does not want God’s people locked in the cycles of broken, unjust prison systems. God does not want God’s people trapped by the ugly snares of racism and bigotry. God does not want God’s people caught in the endless jumping-through hoops of systemic poverty. God does not want God’s people ripped from their mothers’ arms to be caged, lost, and forgotten. God wants God’s people to be free. May our actions and voices cry ‘freedom’ alongside the God we follow.

Prayer Liberating God, come to release your captives and guide us, your people, to work for the freedom of others.

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Saturday, January 4th

By: Bethany Apelquist
Psalm 148
Reflection—v.5b ‘God commanded and they were created’

God Commanded and they were created, I love that, I love that we serve a God who can create beauty out of nothing with a single command. In a world that is so often filled with war, and violence, and heartbreak I think that there is something that is deep within us that longs for God the creator to be close to us, we long for God to create something new. We long for God to show up and take most broken parts of our hearts, and our world and say the word to create something new, something better, something more holy. And while we celebrate that big awesome power of a God who created the mountains with a single word, I think where the real hope lies is that believe in a Creator who emerges in the bleakest hour to create something new, is that not what the incarnation of Christ is all about? That Christ showed up when the world needed him to the most to offer us something new- offer us a new creation, a new way of life. A way of life that resists the temptation of violence and says yes to peace, a way of life that hold heartbreak with tenderness, a way of life that is marked by more love, more justice, more mercy? This Christmas season may we celebrate the presence of the Creator among us, and work hard every day to co-create that new way of being.

Prayer: Creator God, inspire us to be co-creators with you.

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Monday, December 30th

By: Matthew Hyatt
Hebrews 2:10-18
Reflection—v. 14 ‘he himself likewise shared the same things’

When I read this passage, the words empathy and understanding popped into my head. Often, when we are upset or hurt, others will do their best to comfort us. It doesn’t always work, but a frequent method of comforting is letting the person who is hurt know that they are not alone. We tell them that ‘I’m here,’ and ‘You are not alone.’ We also tell them that ‘we understand.’ Sometimes that isn’t entirely true, because we can’t fully understand what the person is going through unless we are that person. We can’t, but God can. Paul explains that God sent Jesus to walk with us, to suffer as we suffer, to go the extra mile and even die for us. God walks with us every moment of every day of our lives. God knows our struggles, our sorrows, our pain, our confusion. God knows because, not only is God there with us, but God stays with us. God was Jesus dying on the cross to show us that he will go the distance with us. God desires to go the distance because God empathizes with us. God understands what we are enduring more than any other person can. The writer also offers us some encouragement in that Jesus did not come to ‘help angels’ but rather the ‘descendants of Abraham,’ us. God knows we are not perfect so God sent God’s Son to spread the word about the forgiveness he freely and abundantly offers for our sins. This passage is a testament to God’s unending love and compassion for us, God’s children.

Prayer: Lord, thank you for walking with me; help me to empathize and walk with others.

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Thursday, December 19th

By: Isaiah Lewis
Luke 1:46b-55
Reflection—v. 47 ‘In the depths of who I am I rejoice in God my savior’

In the Magnificat, Mary—a poor, unmarried girl in a colonized territory—becomes a poet and a prophet. She begins by saying her heart magnifies God, then goes on to say how being in relationship with God changes how she expects the rest of the world to see her. Instead of being cast aside because she’s too young, poor, or female to matter, Mary calls others to recognize her dignity and the gifts God has been working through her. She also takes joy in the radical mercy God is showing everyone, not just her, and gives concrete examples of what it looks like: people being unable to organize their arrogant thoughts and dominate others with them, oppressive and oppressed people being put on equal footing, and everyone having enough, but not too much, to eat. Mary is outlining a prophetic vision of the kingdom of God in this passage, and because she knows who God is, she’s willing to risk her body and her reputation to bring it into the world. And she’s happy about it! She shows us that even in the midst of confronting harsh injustices in our lives, we can find joy in the identity God’s love gives us.

Prayer: My soul does magnify the Lord! My spirit rejoices in God my savior!