The Daily Guide. grow. pray. study. from The United Methodist Church of the Resurrection in Leawood, Kansas, United States for Sunday, 11 December 2016 – Prayer Tip "Raising a Child Not Your Own"Daily Scripture:
Matthew 1:18 Here is how the birth of Yeshua the Messiah took place. When his mother Miryam was engaged to Yosef, before they were married, she was found to be pregnant from the Ruach HaKodesh. 19 Her husband-to-be, Yosef, was a man who did what was right; so he made plans to break the engagement quietly, rather than put her to public shame. 20 But while he was thinking about this, an angel of Adonai appeared to him in a dream and said, “Yosef, son of David, do not be afraid to take Miryam home with you as your wife; for what has been conceived in her is from the Ruach HaKodesh. 21 She will give birth to a son, and you are to name him Yeshua, [which means ‘Adonai saves,’] because he will save his people from their sins.”
-------
Prayer Tip:
We are in the middle of a season of Advent, but what are we anticipating? I love remembering the vision of the Messiah that Isaiah 11:1-10 presents:
A shoot shall come out from the stump of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of his roots. The spirit of the LORD shall rest on him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the LORD. His delight shall be in the fear of the LORD.
He shall not judge by what his eyes see, or decide by what his ears hear; but with righteousness he shall judge the poor, and decide with equity for the meek of the earth; he shall strike the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips he shall kill the wicked. Righteousness shall be the belt around his waist, and faithfulness the belt around his loins.
The wolf shall live with the lamb, the leopard shall lie down with the kid, the calf and the lion and the fatling together, and a little child shall lead them. The cow and the bear shall graze, their young shall lie down together; and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. The nursing child shall play over the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put its hand on the adder's den. They will not hurt or destroy on all my holy mountain; for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the LORD as the waters cover the sea.
On that day the root of Jesse shall stand as a signal to the peoples; the nations shall inquire of him, and his dwelling shall be glorious.
I have to be honest in saying that waiting for fulfillment of these promises has left me exhausted, impatient and anxious.
Has trying to trust in the promises of God ever you left you feeling this way?
When I experience pain and suffering in my own life and the lives of those around me - grief, illness, depression, broken relationships, addiction, loneliness, anxiety, I feel anxious.
When I think about all of those in the world who are oppressed and beat down in the world - the poor, hungry, the widows and orphans, those discriminated against, the homeless - I feel impatient.
When I think about how much work I have left to do, how much work we the church have left to do in order to work with God to bring about more hope, joy, peace and love in a world that sometimes seems like such a mess, I feel exhausted.
I am under no false pretenses that Theo is the long-awaited Messiah. Instead, Andy and I are oh-so-aware that we have a blessed pastors’ kid on the way - even though Andy has a theory that the double-pastor’s kid thing reverses adverse effects. That being said, I have never felt so much anticipation around any hope in my entire life. I hear people try to talk about what it is like to have a child - the love you feel, the way it can change you for the better, the hope children offer the world… most people can barely describe what it is like to become a parent (biological/foster/adoptive or spiritual) or even a relative. This Advent season, growing pains have helped me get in touch with the height of anticipation that surrounds coming to have a baby…. Sometimes the anticipation feels unbearable...
If God’s gift of new life is this amazing in an ordinary baby… how much more extraordinary is it in God’s love incarnate - this one that the passage hints is on the way. I have no doubt that God understands our spiritual anxiety, exhaustion and impatience. To me, this has become one of my favorite parts of Advent - this season of anticipation - it provides us space to identify with the difficult parts of anticipation. We live in a world where God is present but God’s plans are not completely fulfilled. In Romans 8:18-22, I ran across an affirmation of this reality: “ I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us…. We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time.”
I love that: “the whole creation has been groaning in the pains of childbirth” for God’s promises to be fulfilled. What do you think are the labor pains of the universe? What are they in your own life? What about in the life of your family? Your neighbors? Your enemies? I believe that God can bear our angst in this strange in-between time we live in. It isn’t unfaithful to acknowledge this, instead, it makes the gift we are anticipating all the more important.
To me, the enemy of Advent anticipation isn’t strong emotion, but apathy. Christmas is so exciting to children. How does it feel like drudgery to many of us as adults? Perhaps we have grown apathetic. When we no longer feel discontent with the state of the world as it is… when we no longer have the energy to hope in the promises of God, when they no longer seem real to us, then we are in trouble.
Maybe you are in the 9th month of waiting spiritually speaking… the light, the wonder, the hope, the joy has left you and you are looking somewhat, well, like a pregnant woman (me) after a long day at work.
This Advent, my challenge to you is to re-engage with the promises of Christmas. Figuring out how to do this in authentic way can be really hard, but I think it’s possible.My pregnancy has given me some ideas as to how. They say pregnancy is a labor of love. It’s no surprise that re-engaging depends on re-engaging with the love of God.
In pregnancy, when I felt overwhelmed, I have need to share my feelings honestly with Andy and close friends and family: Are you honest with God through prayer about the areas of your faith life in which you feel anxious, exhausted or impatient? Do you set aside time to receive God’s love for you through prayer?
Whenever pregnancy has stopped feeling real to me, I have had to make a choice to remember just how real it is. We bought a onesie in the first trimester that we could look at to remember to make way for Theo. Are you finding ways to serve God in the parts of the world you are discontent with? Do you believe that God uses you to bring about more love in the world?
At the end of the day, I couldn’t make it through pregnancy without community. My co-workers have guarded my office door so I could lay down. My mom made me a carrot cake when I told her I had a craving. Other parents have taken time to tell me they relate to what I am thinking and feeling - that I am not alone. Are we honest with each other about the areas in our lives we are desperately needing Jesus to show up? Do we encourage one another to hang on spiritually?
Peace to you,[Rev. Katherine Ebling Frazier, Pastor of Prayer]
-------
Join us for worship today - click here for information on worship times and locations. If you are not in the Kansas City area, you can take part in our worship via live Web stream at rezonline.org.
Download a printable version of this week's GPS.
-------
Sunday, December 11, 2016 – "Christmas Through the Eyes of Joseph"
“Raising a Child Not Your Own”
Scripture – Matthew 1:18 Here is how the birth of Yeshua the Messiah took place. When his mother Miryam was engaged to Yosef, before they were married, she was found to be pregnant from the Ruach HaKodesh. 19 Her husband-to-be, Yosef, was a man who did what was right; so he made plans to break the engagement quietly, rather than put her to public shame. 20 But while he was thinking about this, an angel of Adonai appeared to him in a dream and said, “Yosef, son of David, do not be afraid to take Miryam home with you as your wife; for what has been conceived in her is from the Ruach HaKodesh. 21 She will give birth to a son, and you are to name him Yeshua, [which means ‘Adonai saves,’] because he will save his people from their sins.”
-------
Monday, 12 December 2016 – "Joseph: a course correction through a dream"
Daily Scripture: Matthew 1:18 Here is how the birth of Yeshua the Messiah took place. When his mother Miryam was engaged to Yosef, before they were married, she was found to be pregnant from the Ruach HaKodesh. 19 Her husband-to-be, Yosef, was a man who did what was right; so he made plans to break the engagement quietly, rather than put her to public shame. 20 But while he was thinking about this, an angel of Adonai appeared to him in a dream and said, “Yosef, son of David, do not be afraid to take Miryam home with you as your wife; for what has been conceived in her is from the Ruach HaKodesh. 21 She will give birth to a son, and you are to name him Yeshua, [which means ‘Adonai saves,’] because he will save his people from their sins.”
-------
Reflection Questions:
We learned last week that Joseph (no doubt deeply hurt by Mary’s hard-to-explain pregnancy) planned to cancel their marriage. But God had a different idea. Joseph’s Old Testament namesake had been famous for having and understanding dreams, an ability he always credited to God (cf. Genesis 41:15-16). Now, in a dream, an angel told this latter Joseph that Mary’s child really was from God. The carpenter trusted the dream, and believed its message.
- Luke 2:48-52 told of 12-year-old Jesus in the Temple. His worried parents asked why he was there, not traveling home with them. Jesus replied, “Didn’t you know that it was necessary for me to be in my Father’s house?” “My father’s house” clearly didn’t refer to Joseph, and the text implied that Joseph accepted that without protest. Skip Ewing’s song “It Wasn’t his Child” said that “like a father [Joseph] was strong and kind and good…. But it wasn’t his child; it was God’s child.”* Joseph’s model reminds us that God calls us to care about all children, not only our own (cf. James 1:27). How can you respond to that call?
- God used dreams at several points to guide Joseph. We often tend to dismiss dreams as simply the result of too much late-night snacking—and sometimes they are. Yet many Christians believe it makes sense that God can communicate directly with our brains, without needing sounds or external cues. When have you sensed an “inner nudge” from God? Are you open to receive God’s direction, however God delivers it to you?
Prayer:
Lord Jesus, give me the same openness to receive and live out your purpose that Joseph showed. Thank you for the carpenter’s quiet, modest courage and determination to do what was right. Amen.
* “It Wasn’t His Child” – songwriter: Skip Ewing, Lyrics © SUSSMAN & ASSOCIATES. You can watch Mr. Ewing sing the song here.
-------
Insights from Melanie Hill
Melanie Hill is the Guest Connections Program Director at Resurrection.I feel as if I need to start this with an apology. If you were expecting to hear some amazing, mystical story of a time that God spoke to me through a dream I don’t have one. I’ve never had a Joseph moment. I wish I had one of those stories; I know people who do. It would be really cool. I would tell you all about it and you would be inspired by it and go out and change the world. That would be awesome!
I don’t have that. At first I felt a little let down that I don’t have one of these stories. Surely they should have picked someone else to write the Insights blog today–someone who has one of those stories. But then I started to think about how God does speak to me in my life.
He doesn’t send an angel or a message in a dream. What He does send are people I call mom, sister, friend, pastor. He uses people with the spiritual gifts of discernment, wisdom and prophecy to share His wisdom with me. Sometimes I think an angel would be easier–no mistaking the messenger and the message! Hearing God’s wisdom from the people I love, and who love me, is harder sometimes, especially if what they have to share is an area of correction in my life. It takes hard work and some pretty serious inward searching to make sure I’m keeping myself open to what others might have to share with me from God. Somehow it’s easier to justify dismissing their guidance when I don’t like it than it seems like it would if an angel were standing before me. Then again, when I don’t want to do something I don’t have any problems justifying it to myself. Maybe you can relate. So maybe sending an angel would be overkill. Maybe all I really need is to open my heart and ears to hear from the people who know and love me best and who I know want God’s best for me too.
So I don’t have an amazing dream story or an angel visitation tale to tell you. I’m actually willing to bet most of us don’t. I’m willing to bet that most of us have angel stories in the form of a stranger who helped out, a mom who hugged us and prayed with us, a pastor who shared his insight and wisdom through care and love, or a friend who walked beside us. If you do have a story of an interaction with an angel or a dream message (and I don’t doubt that some of you have them), please share your stories with us. We need to hear about the supernatural ways God sometimes moves.
And if you have people in your life who maybe seem less supernatural and more, well, just super, praise God for them. We need them in our lives. Keep yourself open to ALL the ways that God may choose to lead you. And maybe, most important, keep yourself open to be used in the life of someone else. Whose angel will you be?
-------
Download the GPS App
The United Methodist Church of the Resurrection
13720 Roe Avenue
Leawood, Kansas 66224, United States
913.897.0120
-------
No comments:
Post a Comment