December 31: John 5:8 Jesus said to him, “Stand up, take your mat, and walk.”

The man had been lying by the Pool of Bethesda for years, hoping for a magic cure from the water. This was no magic—it was the power of the living God. The place of that kind of power and healing led to the naming of Bethesda, Maryland—and a great institution of modern medicine, of healing and power.

December 30: John 4:49-50 The official said to him, “Sir, come down before my little boy dies.” Jesus said to him, “Go—your son will live.” The ...

... man believed the word that Jesus spoke to him and started on his way.

Do we imagine that he ran all the way home? Maybe he was jumping and skipping for joy or maybe he just wanted to hold his little son very tightly. We know that good news was waiting for him when he got there. The Good News himself had acted on that day.

December 29: Isaiah 49:15 Can a woman forget her nursing child, or show no compassion for the child of her womb? Even these may forget, yet I ..

... will not forget you.

God speaks through the prophet, and tries to tell us that he will never forget us. The best comparison he can make is to a nursing mother, but even THAT isn’t a strong enough bond. Beyond all relationships that we can know or imagine, there is God.

December 28: Psalm 98:4 Let the floods clap their hands, and the hills sing together for joy.

We know that floods don’t really clap and hills don’t really sing, but sometimes these awesome images of poetry and metaphor are the only way we can respond to our awesome God. We clap and sing, and all of the vast created responds to its maker in one way or another!

December 27: Luke 2:28-29 Simeon took Jesus in his arms and praised God, saying, “Master, now you are dismissing your servant in peace, ...

... according to your Word.”

The Holy Spirit had revealed to Simeon that he would not die until he had seen the Savior. Then the big moment came—Mary and Joseph presented their little boy in the Temple, where Simeon was praying. He knew that God had been faithful—to him and to his nation and to all the human family.

December 26: Acts 6:5 They chose Stephen, a man full of faith and the Holy Spirit, together with Phillip, Prochorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas, ...

... and Nicolaus, a proselyte of Antioch.

A list of names sometimes tells you a lot. These are nearly all Greek names, and we recall that these were the first Deacons—chosen to help with the food distribution to widows. The Greek widows were feeling left out, and the Apostles knew that the choice of these six would be a powerful statement about the worth of all.

December 25: John 3:36 Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life.

The Son of God started out his earthly life as the son of Mary and Joseph. They were poor, and he came into the world in a humble and primitive place. He would eventually be raised to a place of Glory and Eternity, and he would open that way to all who believe in him. No less than paradise is his home, and no less than paradise is the home he prepares for those who love him.

December 24: Matthew 1:20 An angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take ...

... Mary as your wife."

Many generations past, Joseph the son of Jacob rose to prominence in the court of Pharaoh because he interpreted dreams. No coincidence that this Joseph—the earthly father of our Lord—was also gifted in the dream world. He obeyed the dream, and the rest is history! He was willing to provide for his precious and holy family because he believed what the angel had spoken to him. Thank God.

December 23: Titus 2:11 For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all.

The grace of God took the form of a human man, coming among us as God and Lord and Savior and Brother. His offer of salvation, of eternal life, is open to all who will receive him. Pray for those who will hear the story of his birth for the first time in these next few days, and who will come to believe.

December 22: Psalm 66:10 For you, O God, have tested us; you have tried us as silver is tried.

We hate to imagine that our hardships have come to us from God, or that he deliberately sets out to test and purify us. The ancient people didn’t mind thinking that way at all! It all came from God: good and bad, hard and easy, loss and gain, long and short. Through it all, we are refined and strengthened into the followers he would have us become.

December 21: Luke 1:3 I too decided, after investigating everything carefully from the very first, to write an orderly account for you.

With these words, the great physician and evangelist Luke tells us what he was thinking about when he set out to write the Gospel—the Good News of Jesus Christ. Thank God for the ordered mind of this scientist and historian, and for his very unique witness to the life and teachings of Jesus. Thank God for that careful investigation, and for the many voices that Luke alone uncovered and quoted.

December 20: Genesis 3:13 And the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this that you have done?”

The first woman, who had the amazing privilege of living in the Garden and having fellowship with God the Father, succumbs to sin. She caves in to the temptation of having it her way, of going after the one thing God had forbidden. Sin has long-reaching consequences for all the whole human family from that day forward. Thanks be to God for our wonderful Savior, Jesus Christ, who carries away the burden of all that sin.

December 19: Zechariah 8:12 For there shall be a sowing of peace; the vine shall yield its fruit, the ground shall give its produce and the ...

... skies shall give their dew.

Can we imagine a sowing of peace? The prophet was talking about the time to come when the Messiah would bring that crop of peace and justice and righteousness. As followers of the Messiah, I wonder what seeds we might need to be sowing in His name? Surely seeds of peace are the plantings that are the very dearest to him.

December 18: Psalm 40:3 He put a new song in my mouth, a song of praise to our God. Many will see and fear, and put their trust in the Lord.

Each one of us has a song to sing, a Word of praise to the Living God that only we can articulate. Who knows how many will “see and fear” because of our witness. Who knows how many will put their trust in the Lord!

December 17: Psalm 50:14 Offer to God a sacrifice of thanksgiving, and pay your vows to the Most High.

We make offerings to God, and we sacrifice out of our gratitude for all he has given us. We make vows to him all the time—various promises and bargains! But the vows of our Baptism are the promises/vows we strive to “pay” for the rest of our lives. And the reward is very great, no less than life everlasting.

December 16: Revelation 4:8 And the four living creatures, each one of them with six wings, are full of eyes all around and inside. Day and ...

... night without ceasing they sing, “Holy, holy, holy, the Lord God the Almighty, who was and is and is to come.”

All over the world in every language and tradition the followers of Jesus celebrate Communion, as we have for 20 centuries. “Holy, Holy, Holy,” we say or sing, all together in the Great Thanksgiving. For that moment we join our voices with the living creatures in heaven. Holy is the Lord.

December 15: Matthew 24:40-41 Then two men will be in the field; one will be taken and one will be left. Two women will be grinding ...

... meal together; one will be taken and one will be left.

Men and women alike—one will be taken and one will be left. Laborers, homemakers, professionals, adults, children, rich, poor, all races and tribes will be the same on that day. From among them some will be taken and some will be left. Show us the way of you salvation, Lord God of all.

December 14: Zechariah 1:17 Proclaim further: “Thus says the LORD of Hosts: ‘My cities shall again overflow with prosperity; the LORD will ...

... again comfort Zion and again choose Jerusalem.’ “

As foreign powers rule and crush God’s people, he will have the last word. Scripture tells us that he didn’t choose them in the first place because of any outstanding qualities of their own, but simply because he loved them and longed for a holy people, for a nation of priests to serve him. That divine longing will be fulfilled once again.

December 13: John 5:35 He was a burning and shining lamp, and you were willing to rejoice for a while in his light.

This is Jesus’s description of John the Baptist. The crowds had been attracted to his shining warmth, his beacon of light in a dark place. They rejoiced to hear him preach and teach and baptize, for a while. Jesus calls us for longer than a while—he calls us for the long haul.

December 12: Psalm 42:1 As a deer longs for flowing streams, so my soul longs for you, O God.

What goes on in the mind of a really thirsty deer during a really long draught? We can’t really know, can we? I think we are meant to understand that longing for a stream as all-consuming and powerful and blinding. So my soul longs for you, O God.

December 11: Revelation 2:29 Let anyone who has an ear listen to what the Spirit is saying to the churches.

The Book of Revelation centers around seven scrolls, each one addressed to one of the seven churches in ancient Asia. Each one ends with this same sentence—Listen to what the Spirit is saying… May we also have an ear to listen. May we hear the Spirit speaking to our churches.

December 10: Psalm 37:8 Refrain from anger, and forsake wrath. Do not fret—it only leads to evil.

The psalmist seems to think that ‘fretting” is something we freely choose to do or not to do. ‘Fret” is not what some external circumstance does to us, it’s what we do to ourselves. Don’t do it—it only leads to evil.

December 9: Matthew 23:12 All who exalt themselves will be humbled, and all who humble themselves will be exalted.

The disciples of Jesus wanted to be important, out front, and flashy in their discipleship. He told them that their plan wouldn’t work—they needed to be in the background, quietly serving, taking the least prestigious place. He showed them ‘humble” in his death on the cross. And God showed them “exalted” in heaven.

December 8: Amos 7:14 Then Amos answered Amaziah, “I am no prophet, nor a prophet’s son; but I am a herdsman, and a dresser of sycamore tree.”

Amos tried to explain to the King and to everybody else that God had called him and not the other way around. He wasn’t from any kind of “priestly” or “prophety” family. God called Amos out of a pasture full of animals and trees, and gave him his life’s work.

December 7: Revelation 1:3 Blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of the prophesy, and blessed are those who hear and keep what is ...

... written in it; for the time is near.

Every time a lector reads out of Revelation in a church service I quote this passage—I can’t help it. Whether we’re at a wedding, a funeral, or a regular Sunday morning service, I love to imagine the particular Blessedness of the one who just read, and the Blessedness of all who listen.

December 6: Luke 1:63 He asked for a writing tablet and wrote, “His name is John.” And all of them were amazed.

The father and mother of John the Baptist had been on one heck of a journey for the nine months leading up to his birth, and his “naming.” Their fun was just beginning, and their life in the Lord Jesus, and their sorrow, and their profound joy.

December 5: Jude 21 Keep yourselves in the love of God; look forward to the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ that leads to eternal life.

Nobody really knows what the end will look like—the Big End. However it comes to us, whatever it looks like, we know it will feel like mercy. The End will be the mercy of Christ Jesus, underneath us all the time like a giant safety net.

December 4: Psalm 16:2 I say to the LORD, “You are my Lord; I have no good apart from you.”

We have many, many joys in our life, many causes to celebrate, many great adventures, many “goods.” The psalmist reminds us that apart from God, the goods are empty.

December 3: Amos 4:13 For lo, the one who forms the mountains, creates the wind, reveals his thoughts to mortals, makes the morning darkness, ...

... and treads on the heights of the earth—the LORD, the God of hosts is his name.

The ancient peoples had no trouble visualizing a living God who could form mountains and light up the sky, AND communicate his thoughts to us. Have we lost that easy ability to imagine him?

December 2: Matthew 21:33 There was a landowner who planted a vineyard, put a fence around it, dug a winepress in it, and built a watchtower.

From the earliest days of the Jewish faith, the vineyard was a metaphor for God’s people—God was the owner who patiently cared for the vines and tended them, pruned and protected them, and looked for a harvest of good grapes. In this parable, Jesus carries the metaphor a step further—the owner of the vineyard sent his son to gather the harvest, but the tenants killed him. God has always longed for a harvest of righteousness, as he does whatever it takes to raise up his vineyard.

December 1: 2 Peter 1:19 You will do well to be attentive to this, as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning ...

... star rises in your hearts.

Peter describes for his readers what it was like to be there on the mountain top, as Jesus was shining white. Moses and Elijah were there. As his own life was coming to a close, Peter wanted them all, and us all, to hang on to his words as if the very words were shining white. He knew the reality of life-giving, star-shining, earth-changing words. We should be attentive the his words.