Author: Kymberly

Monday, December 30
Written by Kymberly Lindsey
First Congregational Church of Fresno
Psalm 148

Psalm 148 Re-Imagined (God Did! 2015)
Who made the mountains sprout from the earth? Who made the oceans go back and forth? Who covered the ground with flowers and dirt? Our Lord and Master, God did!
Sing hallelujah, Praise His name; Sing hallelujah, for what God did!
Who dotted the sky with planets and moons? Who created the sun not to rise too soon? Who blasted the dark with millions of stars? Our Lord and Master, God did!
Sing hallelujah, Praise His name; Sing hallelujah, for what God did!
Who gave us His son, to die on the cross, to forgive our sins, without Jesus we’re lost.
Who loves us and gave us everlasting life? Our Lord and Master, God did!
Sing hallelujah, Praise His name; Sing hallelujah, for what God did!
Who gave me the voice, to sing to you? Who gave me the words and blessed me too?
Who lifted me up and helped me to see? Our Lord and Master, God did!
Sing hallelujah, Praise His name; Sing hallelujah, for what God did!
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When I quiet my thoughts to a whisper, I can hear God sing!
Praise ye the Lord!

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You can download a PDF of the devotional here.

Sunday, December 29
Journal
Matthew 2:13-23

Journal Prompt:
Write a reflection on the above image.

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You can download a PDF of the devotional here.

Saturday, December 28
Journal
Psalm 98

O sing to the Lord a new song,
for he has done marvellous things.
His right hand and his holy arm
have gained him victory.
The Lord has made known his victory;
he has revealed his vindication in the sight of the nations.
He has remembered his steadfast love and faithfulness
to the house of Israel.
All the ends of the earth have seen
the victory of our God.
Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth;
break forth into joyous song and sing praises.
Sing praises to the Lord with the lyre,
with the lyre and the sound of melody.
With trumpets and the sound of the horn
make a joyful noise before the King, the Lord.
Let the sea roar, and all that fills it;
the world and those who live in it.
Let the floods clap their hands;
let the hills sing together for joy
at the presence of the Lord, for he is coming
to judge the earth.
He will judge the world with righteousness,
and the peoples with equity.

Journal Prompt:
Psalm 98 is the inspiration for a favorite Christmas carol—can you spot it? What
joyous imagery is evoked for you as you read it? If you were to write a Christmas song,
what would you use as inspiration from this psalm?

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You can download a PDF of the devotional here.

Friday, December 27
Journal
Titus 2:11-15

For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all, training us to renounce impiety and worldly passions, and in the present age to live lives that are self controlled, upright, and godly, while we wait for the blessed hope and the manifestation of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ. He it is who gave himself for us that he might redeem us from all iniquity and purify for himself a people of his own who are zealous for good deeds. Declare these things; exhort and reprove with all authority. Let no one look down on you.

Journal Prompt:

Our gift exchanges, only a few days in our past creates a tension with the “training” we are receiving in the above text from Titus. Wrestle with the concept of renouncing impiety and worldly possessions in today’s journal.

 

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You can download a PDF of the devotional here.

Thursday, December 26
Journal
Isaiah 60:1-3

The Ingathering of the Dispersed
Arise, shine; for your light has come,
and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you.
For darkness shall cover the earth,
and thick darkness the peoples;
but the Lord will arise upon you,
and his glory will appear over you.
Nations shall come to your light,
and kings to the brightness of your dawn.

Journal Prompt:

Write a prayer inspired by the above text from Isaiah.

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You can download a PDF of the devotional here.

Wednesday, December 25
Written by Rev. Raygan Baker
First Congregational Church of Fresno
John 1:1-14

I have refused to live
locked in the orderly house of
reasons and proofs.
The world I live in and believe in
is wider than that. And anyway,
what’s wrong with Maybe?
You wouldn’t believe what once or
twice I have seen. I’ll just
tell you this:
only if there are angels in your head will you
ever, possibly, see one.

Mary Oliver

The creative word of God took on our flesh, and revealed to us what it might look like for we mere humans to more fully participate in the Divine, even with our own flesh. The re-creation of humanity in the body of Jesus Christ is a new invitation into our truest, most free and authentic selves within the creativity of God. A new way of life is still being birthed today. Today, sit with the wonder and mystery. There is no need for certainty today. In fact, we may discover so much more if we do not resist that
uncertainty.

Enjoy this blessing today,
Pastor Raygan

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You can download a PDF of the devotional here.

Tuesday, December 24
Written by Kim Williams
First Congregational Church of Fresno
Luke 2:1-20

A common theme we will see in Jesus’ life is that he doesn’t choose the powerful and influential folks to be part of his work, instead he seeks out the people who are lower on the social ladder. This preference towards the lowest and the least can be seen as early as the story of the shepherds on the day of his birth. There they are, just tending their flock. Its night and they’re probably not anticipating too much excitement, save for a wild animal they might have to shoo away. Can you imagine how startling it
would have been to suddenly have an angel show up? The text from Luke uses the word “terrified” and I’m not even sure that’s strong enough! What’s spectacular though, is that the birth announcement went out first to the shepherds. Jesus’ initial PR campaign didn’t include a press release or involving the first-century version of Instagram influencers. Instead, the working class shepherds were chosen to be in the
know and became among the first to see this heavenly newborn.

Jesus came into the world and immediately began challenging social norms and giving hope to those on the margins. As we celebrate his birth, we acknowledge with gratitude a savior who sees all of us, including and especially those who are often unseen.

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You can download a PDF of the devotional here.

Monday, December 23
Journal
Luke 3:1-6

The Proclamation of John the Baptist
In the fifteenth year of the reign of Emperor Tiberius, when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea, and Herod was ruler of Galilee, and his brother Philip ruler of the region of Ituraea and Trachonitis, and Lysanias ruler of Abilene, during the high-priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John son of Zechariah in the wilderness. He went into all the region around the Jordan, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins, as it is written in the book of the words of the prophet Isaiah, ‘The voice of one crying out in the wilderness: “Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight. Every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be made low, and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough ways made smooth; and all flesh shall see the salvation of
God.” ’

Journal Prompt:

John the Baptist comes up again in the above reading from Luke. After reading it once,
flip back to December 11th and reread the Isiah text. Think about your insights from that
day, and read this text. With the theme of “Waiting for Love” in mind, how do the two
texts shape up? To quote Tina Turner, “What’s love got to do with it?”

 

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You can download a PDF of the devotional here.

Sunday, December 22
Written by Christopher Williams
First Congregational Church of Fresno
Matthew 1:18-25

One cannot help but sympathize with Joseph. There he is on the threshold of marrying the woman of his dreams and then quite suddenly she becomes laden with child. A child that he knows is not his. The world is not kind to an unwedded mother and it was especially dangerous to be so back then. Still Joseph was a standup guy, and had decided to leave Mary quietly rather than publicly disgrace her. She was not his wife yet, the child was not his, and no one would have blamed him. Then an Angel of the Lord appears to him and says to marry Mary anyhow, because the child in question is conceived of the Holy Spirit.

One can bet that this is not what Joseph had envisioned when he had planned out his life. He had wanted to get married and settle down with a nice gal and start a family all by himself but God went and threw a “wrench in the cogs.” Joseph now finds himself a stepfather to the Son of Man. Rather than planning an expeditious escape, the message from the angel soothes Joseph’s anxiety and he does take on the responsibility, never faltering to provide for both Mary and Jesus. Joseph gets to experience the rewards and challenges that many stepparents embrace. This passage isn’t just about being a stepfather, but also about embracing the path that God sets before us. Our lives never go the way that we picture them in our youth, but if we embrace these changes rather than bemoan them then things will go according to a plan. It may not be our plan, but that doesn’t make it the wrong one.

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You can download a PDF of the devotional here.

Saturday, December 21
Written by Peter Wall
First Congregational Church of Fresno
Jeremiah 33:14-16

And the “righteous branch … shall execute justice and righteousness in the land.”

Reading these words of Jeremiah through a Christian lens (which is not the only way to read them), I think of the long “farewell discourse” of Jesus in the gospel according to John, especially this part:

I am the true vine and my Father is the husbandman. Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away; and every branch that bears fruit he trims clean so that it might bear more fruit. … Remain in me—and I in you. Just as the branch cannot bear fruit from itself unless it remain in the vine, so neither can you unless you remain in me. I am the vine, you are the branches. *

Radical hope is not about waiting. It is about seeing subversively and recognizing the more challenging truth. And I submit to you that the challenge here stems from this: that Jesus did not “execute justice and righteousness in the land”; rather, the Christ entered the world as the root of the vine, and we are the branches, charged with bearing the fruits of justice and righteousness.

The hope of Advent is not a passive waiting for a divine skyhook. The hope of Advent is an active practice of growing into, and trimming clean, the righteous branches that shall execute justice and righteousness in the land.

How will you execute justice and righteousness in the land today?

* Look up John 15 to read more. The excerpt above is from the recent translation of the New Testament by David Bentley Hart.

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You can download a PDF of the devotional here.