John 14: 15-24

In this Gospel of John 14: 15-24, Jesus foreshadows his death and prepares the Disciples for life without him. He encourages them “If you will love me and keep my commandments”, they will not be left alone, but will be joined by the Holy Spirit through God’s power. And furthermore, not just the Disciples, but anyone who stays true to Jesus will be showered with God’s love and in this they will realize that Jesus is revealed through God’s love. For those who believe, God and the Holy Spirit will care for and keep Jesus ever present in our lives.

PRAYER: Jesus, we are so thankful for our journey and know that as we go forth, you are with us every step of the way. We are grateful for your sacrifice and your promise of God’s love through the Holy Spirit. Help us to spread your love, especially to those in need, by reaching out and assisting those who are struggling, by speaking up for Peace and speaking out against the injustices we see as we lead our busy lives. Amen.

Sherri and Rusty Godwin

Philemon 4 – 7

“I have indeed received much joy and encouragement from your love” (v. 7).

Paul is expressing how much the love of Philemon and other Christians means to him. We give time, money, food, shoes, and blankets to those in the community who are in need of our love. Within our church family, we show love for each other in so many ways-being a church school teacher, being an acolyte, smiling and saying hello in the hallways, cards, food, prayers, calls, hugs, and emails for those who are celebrating a joyous event in their lives or are hurting from the loss of health, of a loved one, of a job, of a way of life.

Love goes both ways-”a two-way street”. In other words, you can be loving by being a receiver as well as a giver. By letting the church family know what is hurting us or giving us joy-our “concerns and celebrations”, we show love by giving others the opportunity to give love back to us in some way.

PRAYER: Loving God, We thank you for the countless ways in which you love us. Show us new ways to give joy and encouragement to others, reflecting your love. Amen.

Nelda Hollender

Luke 6:32-36

Often we speak about love as if it were a feeling. But if we wait for a feeling of love before loving, we may never learn to love well. The feeling of love is beautiful and life-giving, but our loving cannot be based on that feeling. To love is to think, speak, and act according to the spiritual knowledge that we are infinitely loved by God and called to make that love visible in this world.

“Mostly we know what the loving thing to do is. When we “do” love, even if others are not able to respond with love, we will discover that our feelings catch up with our acts.”

Henri Nouwen

PRAYER: Oh God as we come to prayer, enable us to rest in your loving embrace before we ask or tell you anything. In our anxiety or in our joy, we are so eager to tell and ask. And we don’t know how to quiet our brains from the thoughts that will not hush. Even as we know that about ourselves, we also know that our very longing to connect with you is pleasing to you. May we never despair as we seek your love and grace. Amen.

Mary Alice Kemp

Romans 12: 9-21

My Nanny used to say, “It takes all kinds!”

Her frequent comment was the brightest beacon of tolerance that I can remember from my East Tennessee childhood.

She would also say, “If you act, as nice as you look, you will be O.K.“,
and repeatedly, “Thank God for Jesus!”

My Nanny, Sadie Schwartzman, was my “Paul”, long before I could read the Bible.
She was the ultimate cheerleader, life-coach, and prescriber of the skills that it takes to be a true Christian.

Some theologians have said that Paul was slight in stature, and although he was a great communicator through letters, he was an ineffective public speaker.
Thank God he wrote it all down!

In Romans, particularly, Paul is also the ultimate cheerleader, life-coach, and prescriber of the skills that it takes to be a true Christian.

As Christians, we all cannot be prophets or saints, or experience blindness and public conversion, even as much as we may be waiting and hoping for it. We all cannot be the eclectic, gifted Anne Lamott, and experience the tangible, crouching presence of Jesus in the corner of our bedroom. More often, we are simply the audience, the spectators, the seekers. At best, we are Christ’s disciples.

Romans 12:9-12 speaks to me as a member of that audience. The passage reminds me of all of the action verbs, of which I am capable, as a Christian.

I can: genuinely love, hate evil, honor others, be zealous, be ardent, be patient, persevere, rejoice, contribute, and extend my “self”. Be. We all can.

If each of us was created in God’s image, would not the collective “US” be the Image of God?

PRAYER: Thank you, God, for my unique abilities. Help me to be your disciple, and to graciously, and often, extend Paul’s action verbs to neighbor and stranger.

In Jesus’ sweet name, Amen.

Dee Raeside

Isaiah 54: 9-10

GOD’S PROMISES REIGN

I have always wondered if it is mere coincidence that Noah of the Old Testament and N.O.A.A. (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) are homonyms. Here in Atlanta, weather we’ve got! This time last year, we were caught up in an extreme drought. Remember how we drove around in dirty cars with pride and used our captured shower water to flush toilets and water plants?

So many forecasts this fall were for rain, maybe four inches in 24 hours, and, frankly, we were nervous. Communities in and around Atlanta experienced the worst flood in memory! We are still recovering from and grieving over the Great Atlanta Flood of 2009, when many of us clung to the promises God made to Noah, recalled in these verses from Isaiah.

Let us always remember God’s promises to us: Despite tsunamis and floods strong enough to move mountains, God promises safety in the everlasting arms; over the chaos and isolation we experience in our deepest being comes the peace of Christ; in sickness and even death, God heals and comforts us. We don’t understand how, but somehow, God is with us, no matter what.

PRAYER: Our God, whose giving knows no ending, thank you for our lives, our earth, and each other. Please give us the will to take care of these gifts from your rich and endless store — appreciating every day in and of itself, treasuring your water and land, and watching for your likeness in each other. Amen.

Sherrill Terry

Luke 3:7-18

And the crowds asked John: what then should we do? (v. 10)

So often we want to make our faith a matter of doing. The crowd asked John: what then should we do? It is as if when we are told what to do, then we have a plan. And if we have a plan, there is a path to success.

Doing is not all there is to faith. To be sure there are times when doing is important, even critical. But there is more to life and faith and love.

A proper sense of being will direct us in what we are to do. When we realize who we are and whose we are, the doing comes into focus. For example, in the scripture, the tax collectors ask John what they should do to repent. He replied they should not extort. If they had a sense of self in relation to God and others, then the extortion would fall away.

Preparing for the coming season of Christmas is a chance to work with our sense of being. May we grow in our awareness of what we need as we live in God’s love. As we do, we will gain a deeper answer to the question: what then should we do?

PRAYER: God of doing, show us the path to be on. May we grow in our knowledge of who you have made us, so that we may do the good and important things. And in so doing, may we share your love. Amen.

Joel Alvis

Mark 1:1-8

This passage describes the relationship between Jesus and John the Baptizer, the son of Zechariah and Elizabeth, and a relative about the same age of Jesus (Luke 1:36). As Jesus began his ministry, John was already attracting large crowds on his own, “The whole Judean countryside and all the people of Jerusalem went out to him.

Confessing their sins, they were baptized by him in the Jordan River,” being baptized by a man who wore “clothing made of camel’s hair, with a leather belt round his waist, and who “ate locusts and wild honey.”

From this passage (Mark 1:1-8), we know that John knew that he was not the Messiah but was preparing the way for he told the crowds, “After me will come one more powerful than I, the thongs of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie. I baptize you with water but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.” (Mark 1:7-8) (I can’t help but wonder if this John the Baptist was ever tempted to proclaim himself the Messiah. If he was, he didn’t) From Luke 7:24-28 we do learn that Jesus had great respect for John the Baptist. After John’s messengers come to ask “Are you the one who was to come, or should we expect someone else?” Jesus replied to the messengers, “Go Back and report to John what you have seen and heard: The blind receive sight, the lame walk, and those who have leprosy are cured, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, ad the good news is preached to the poor. Blessed is the man who does not fall away on account of me.” And to the crowd Jesus said, “What did you go out into the desert to see? A reed swayed by the wind? If not, what did you go out to see? A man dressed in fine clothes? No, those who wear expensive clothes indulge in luxury and are in palaces. But what did you go out to see? A prophet, Yes, I tell you, and more than a prophet. This (John) is the one about whom it is written: ‘I will send my messenger ahead of you, who will prepare your way before you.’ I tell you, among those born of women there is no one greater than John; yet the one who is least in the kingdom of God is greater than he.” So, John the Baptist knew who Jesus was and Jesus knew who John the Baptist was, and John prepared Jesus’s way toward the necessary crucifixion.

PRAYER: Creator God, Holy Spirit, God of those who are called to great missions, and those who are not, please help us to be aware of your purpose for all your creation that we might prepare the way for its realization in this troubled and lovely world. Amen, Amen, Amen.

Kent Leslie

Isaiah 61:1-9

This part of Isaiah speaks to helping those oppressed, broken-hearted people held captive. It goes on to suggest that strangers will help those in need, and that those in need will never be strangers. In not just this holiday season, but in every day, seek out those less fortunate and do something small, rather than simply not doing anything at all. Reach out to a person who knows grief, a person who feels physical pain, a person who needs food, or a person who is utterly alone. I think about C.S. Lewis and some of his words: “. . . The nourishing of life, and how it flourishes on death, and why, they utterly know; but not the hill-born, earthy spring, the dark cold bilberries. The ripe peach from the southern wall still hot full-bellied tankards foamy-topped, the delicate half-lyric lamb, a new loaf’s billowy curves, nor porridge, nor the tingling taste of oranges – An angel has no nerves.”

PRAYER: Dear Lord, I pray that I can be of assistance in some sublime way to someone, anyone who may feel foreign in a familiar place. Allow an angelic heart to be my nature. Amen.

Heather Johnson

Psalm 85: 1-2, 8-13

This psalm begins with a grateful memory of a time when God was good to Jacob and all of God’s people. There are a few verses (not specifically highlighted for today’s reading, but hard to ignore) that express longing for that holy goodness. Then, beginning with the eighth verse, there is a veritable A-list roll call of all of God’s promises coming to God’s people. In fact, the subsequent verses read like a commentator giving the play-by-play at a gala event. Just listen to this:

Love and faithfulness meet together;

righteousness and peace kiss each other.

Faithfulness springs forth from the earth,

and righteousness looks down from heaven.

It’s so exciting – I wish I were there with that esteemed crowd – but wait! – I am! This happy scene, full of peace, salvation, glory, love, faithfulness, righteousness, and more peace, faithfulness, and righteousness is right here, right in the land that is called God’s at the start of the psalm and ours at the end – one and the same. I am in the midst of this fabulous gathering, and so are you – thanks be to God!

PRAYER: God of Love: In this season of gifts, thank you for your gifts that surround us, support us, and make us whole. Indeed, you give us what is good, now and always. Amen.

Ellen Gadberry

Micah 5:2-5a

There is a pose in Yoga called Virabhadrasana II, or “Proud Warrior.” Our instructor tells us to “stand firmly in the present, reaching out for the best in the past with one hand, but keeping our eyes on the other hand, which is reaching toward the future.” I thought of this pose as a way of connecting to today’s passage from Micah.

Micah was writing to the people of Israel when they were standing in an unsettled present. They were under threat of an invasion by Assyria, the gap between rich and poor was increasing, and everywhere Micah looked he saw greed and corruption, even among the priests and prophets. In this passage Micah is reaching back to the golden age of David, the shepherd turned king, who came from the small town of Bethlehem, but at the same time his eyes are fixed on the future “one of peace”, who will “feed his flock in the strength of the Lord… and they shall live secure.”

We find ourselves in a position similar to that of Micah’s contemporaries. Our present is unsettled. Our country is involved in warfare and the gap between rich and poor is widening at a heartbreaking rate. Every day we read about some new scandal among our elected officials and others we thought we could trust. Perhaps we would do well to imagine ourselves with our feet firmly planted in the knowledge of God’s love, remembering the best from our past, but focusing our attention on God’s promises for the future: those beautiful promises of the peaceable kingdom inaugurated by the coming Christ child.

PRAYER: Gracious, loving God, thank you for loving us enough to get involved with this messy world. Thank you for your promises of peace, security, and your steadfast love. Grant that I may have the faith to reach out to the future in confidence, knowing that you are in my past, my present and my future. Amen.

Anne Topple