Third Thursday of Advent
Scripture Reading for Today:
Psalm 89:1-4, 19-26
A maskil of Ethan the Ezrahite.I will sing of the Lord’s great love forever; with my mouth I will make your faithfulness known through all generations. 2 I will declare that your love stands firm forever, that you have established your faithfulness in heaven itself. 3 You said, “I have made a covenant with my chosen one, I have sworn to David my servant, 4 ‘I will establish your line forever and make your throne firm through all generations.’”
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19 Once you spoke in a vision, to your faithful people you said: “I have bestowed strength on a warrior; I have raised up a young man from among the people. 20 I have found David my servant; with my sacred oil I have anointed him. 21 My hand will sustain him; surely my arm will strengthen him. 22 The enemy will not get the better of him; the wicked will not oppress him. 23 I will crush his foes before him and strike down his adversaries. 24 My faithful love will be with him, and through my name his horn will be exalted. 25 I will set his hand over the sea, his right hand over the rivers. 26 He will call out to me, ‘You are my Father, my God, the Rock my Savior.’
2 Samuel 6:1-11
The Ark Brought to JerusalemDavid again brought together all the able young men of Israel—thirty thousand. 2 He and all his men went to Baalah in Judah to bring up from there the ark of God, which is called by the Name, the name of the Lord Almighty, who is enthroned between the cherubim on the ark. 3 They set the ark of God on a new cart and brought it from the house of Abinadab, which was on the hill. Uzzah and Ahio, sons of Abinadab, were guiding the new cart 4 with the ark of God on it, and Ahio was walking in front of it. 5 David and all Israel were celebrating with all their might before the Lord, with castanets, harps, lyres, timbrels, sistrums and cymbals. 6 When they came to the threshing floor of Nakon, Uzzah reached out and took hold of the ark of God, because the oxen stumbled. 7 The Lord’s anger burned against Uzzah because of his irreverent act; therefore God struck him down, and he died there beside the ark of God. 8 Then David was angry because the Lord’s wrath had broken out against Uzzah, and to this day that place is called Perez Uzzah. 9 David was afraid of the Lord that day and said, “How can the ark of the Lord ever come to me?” 10 He was not willing to take the ark of the Lord to be with him in the City of David. Instead, he took it to the house of Obed-Edom the Gittite. 11 The ark of the Lord remained in the house of Obed-Edom the Gittite for three months, and the Lord blessed him and his entire household.
Hebrews 1:1-4
God’s Final Word: His SonIn the past God spoke to our ancestors through the prophets at many times and in various ways, 2 but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom also he made the universe. 3 The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word. After he had provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven. 4 So he became as much superior to the angels as the name he has inherited is superior to theirs.
Not Just a Message but a Presence
by Stephen Bedard
Stephen J. Bedard is one of the pastors at Brookfield Baptist Church in Nova Scotia. He is also a chaplain with the Canadian Armed Forces. He is a graduate of Acadia Divinity College and his Doctor of Ministry thesis was on disability ministry in small churches. Much of his writing and speaking is on disabilities in general and autism in particular. You can find out more at www.stephenjbedard.com.
Essential to any meaningful relationship is ongoing communication. We know this on an instinctive level. This is especially true of a parent-child relationship. Parents listen intently for that first word and look forward to the time when their child can communicate their needs with words rather than tantrums.
Like most parents, we anticipated the time when we could have real conversations with our children. Even after our first two children were diagnosed with autism and they were demonstrating developmental delays, our desire to hear them speak never diminished. However, there were significant challenges to our plan. While our daughter never had more than the most basic vocabulary as a child, our son seemed to be at the appropriate level for verbal communication. It was devastating as we watched him regress until all of his words were gone.
That is not to say that we had given up hope. We were told by the experts that it was likely that they would become verbal and that it would only be delayed by a few years. Between our prayers and the intensive therapy, we were sure that one day they would speak to us. I looked forward to sitting with my children and talking to them about their hopes and dreams for life. Today, as they are both in their twenties, they are still only minimally verbal and most of their spoken language is taken from movies and television shows. Although we do not grieve that they have autism, we have grieved the loss of this particular hope.
That is not to say that there is no meaningful communication. We have learned to communicate with each other through physical presence. Just recently, I saw my son at his group home for the first time in a number of months. I planned it as a surprise and the moment that I walked in the door, my son jumped out of his chair, ran across the room, and gave me a hug. Communication was clear with no words needed.
This makes me think of one of my favourite Christmas Bible passages that is not traditionally connected with Christmas. Hebrews 1:1-4 tells us that God had been in the habit of communicating with God’s people, usually through the prophets. These were verbal messages given to humans by God. They were of great value but it was generally thought that the time of the prophets was over and that God was silent. Would God ever speak again and if so, what form would that take? Would it be a new prophet or a new set of laws?
The author of Hebrews tells us that God had planned to communicate once more, but this time not through the words of the prophets. Instead of a verbal message, God was going to communicate through physical presence, through the coming of Jesus. John 1:14 describes the same event as “the word made flesh.” We call this the incarnation. Jesus is Emmanuel—God with us.
Jesus was not just another prophet or a religious teacher with some interesting ideas. Jesus was both fully God and fully human. This was not like the fleeting theophanies of the Old Testament. In Jesus, God went through the entire human experience from birth to death. While Jesus did teach with words, all that he did was done in the context of presence. Jesus built a community in which he could experience life together with his disciples.
We can understand how this worked for those few years of Jesus’ earthly ministry, but what does this mean for us who live after Jesus’ ascension to heaven? In Matthew 28:20, some of Jesus’ last words to his disciples were “And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” Jesus is still present with us, even while he is at the right hand of the Father.
Jesus is with us when we worship and
when we pray and
when we come to his table.
Jesus is with us when we fight for justice and
when we advocate for the marginalized and
when we treat each other with love.
None of this is meant to diminish the value of the Bible as Christian Scripture. The Bible should be read and meditated on. The Bible helps to shape us into the image of Christ. We value the written words of God, but we embrace them because they point us to the living Word of God who desires to be present with us.
The most beautiful part of the Advent season is the recognition that God communicates with us not just with a message but with a presence. Verbal communication is good and we are thankful for the words of the prophets. But the incarnation is like God jumping off the chair, running across the room, and giving us a hug. Communication is clear.
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