Tuesday, December 15, 2020
God’s Creation is Filled with Beauty
even the drippings of creosote from a chimney
from burning junk wood
1 Kings 8:24
The covenant that you kept for your servant my father David as you declared to him; you promised with your mouth and have this day fulfilled with your hand.
Luke 1:68-69
‘Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for he has looked favourably on his people and redeemed them. He has raised up a mighty saviour for us in the house of his servant David.
Words of Grace For Today
A mighty saviour for us in the house of his servant David
So often we wish for power and might, with God’s backing, that we can direct at our enemies in order to make our lives better. God promises a saviour.
David, King David, ruled Israel by most historical accounts successfully, conquering the neighbouring enemies, solidifying power in his hands, securing a place for his people among the many.
As generations passed, and Israel was weakened by corruption and their neighbours grew powerful, Israel’s independence was crushed again and again. Sometimes it’s civilization, culture, and religion were left in shambles. Sometimes they were all subsumed into a foreign rule, to various degrees benevolent or cruel as opportunity and whim arose for that power and it’s agents.
Israel, as we humans are wont, equated their world power or lack thereof with God’s blessings. God promised a saviour. So the people hope for a powerful ruler of Israel, God’s appointed and anointed, to conquer the foreign powers, to run them out, to rule over them in their lands, to expand Israel’s territory to ensure their domination of the future. This was the image they carried of King David, so a saviour from David’s house was this kind of a saviour.
God’s blessings are, fortunately for the majority of humans who are alive and who have ever lived, not equated with world power, wealth, or privilege. God sends Jesus to demonstrate this very clearly: God’s power is that of sacrificial love, of forgiveness and grace, and of justice and mercy. More clearly stated God’s justice is always based on truth and on God’s steadfast mercy. Thankfully, or we’d all be doomed to eternal damnation.
Jesus comes to teach, heal, forgive, save, renew, and equip us to be God’s grace for others.
God has promised with God’s own mouth and have this day fulfilled with God’s own hand. The Lord God of Israel has looked favourably on his people and redeemed them.
This Advent we prepare again to give witness, among all the things that detract us from God’s Word in Jesus, the Saviour, to God’s power, the power of sacrificial love.
The trappings of Christmas are not all available to us, so what will we use to give the world this clear witness during the coming 12 days of Christmas?