Advent Devotions Door County 2022

Fourth Week of Advent: Love December 18: Laylat Al-Milad (Arabic) - Links & Lyrics Below I wonder what the most important part of the Christmas celebration is for you. Before you read on, maybe you’d like to jot down a few things about Christmas that are meaningful for you. Here are a few things that would be on my list:      • The quiet of Christmas Day.      • Singing the favorite Christmas carols.      • The candlelight part of the Christmas Eve service. I think for many of us, Christmas worship would be on our list in some form. Not surprising. The warm sentimentality of Christmas Eve touches my heart every year. And there are times when the prophets remind us that our worship is never for the sake of ourselves and our good feelings, even when the good feelings are true and real. Read Isaiah 1:10-18 for one of the most blistering indictments of worship that exists for its own sake. (Go ahead. I’ll wait.) Ouch. Our religious observan...

Third Week of Advent: Joy December 17: Angels We Have Heard on High (French) - Links & Lyrics Below Eighteen notes for one word in this song. I remember as a youth when we would sing this Christmas hymn in church. It was a hymn that I liked but it was challenging. Do I have enough breath to sing the word “Gloria” as it is written? A lot of times I had to sneak in an extra breath. Why did the composer have to accentuate this word with so many notes and go for so long without letting us take a breath? Angels must have really good lungs. We’re singing about a special heavenly glory. Glory to God in the highest. Gloria in excelsis Deo. In the story of the Transfiguration, Jesus appeared in glorified form. His appearance changed. His clothes became dazzling white. A cloud came and overshadowed Peter, James, and John and they were terrified as they entered the cloud. To the shepherds living in the fields, the angel of the Lord appeared before them and the glory of the Lord shon...

Third Week of Advent: Joy December 16: Infant Holy, Infant Lowly (Polish) - Links & Lyrics Below Why is it such a big deal that God chose to enter our world as a baby? In a world more likely to associate saviors with muscle-bound men and women imbued with superhuman traits from the comic books, the classical Polish hymn Infant Holy, Infant Lowly paints a very different picture of salvation. In just two short verses the events of Luke 2:1-20, Jesus’ humble birth in Bethlehem and the angelic host guiding the shepherds to see their newborn king lying in the manger are beautifully described. Unlike our expectations of superheroes and saviors today, Jesus came to save us in the least-expected way. The Lord of all humbly came into our world to fulfill His Father’s plan of salvation, the plan He promised already at the end of Genesis 3 when He sacrificed an animal to clothe our sin and nakedness. This baby lying in the manger is the true sacrifice that has set us free from all our s...

Third Week of Advent: Joy December 15: Adeste Fideles/O Come, All Ye Faithful (Latin) O Come, All Ye Faithful is a Latin hymn from the eighteenth century, now translated into more than 100 other languages. The original Latin text consists of four stanzas, but the second stanza is missing in most hymnals. Here are some thoughts gleaned from all four stanzas. First, the need for understanding. Christ was not created, but is eternal; only at the first Christmas was He virgin-born into the human race, to pay the ransom and make salvation available to all. He became the living Word - God in the flesh John 1:14. He was the promised Lamb that taketh away the sin of the world in John 1:29. He can forgive sin, but never excuses it. Hence, He is worthy of true and dedicated worship; every knee shall bow and every tongue confess. You cannot call Him Lord and not do the things which he says, Luke 6:46. We need to be obedient in our everyday walk. True worship is not always convenient, it should co...

Third Week of Advent: Joy December 14: Los Peces en el Rio (Spanish & Latin American) - Links & Lyrics Below But look how the fish drink in the river, But look how they drink to see God being born . . . . The Virgin is combing her hair Between curtain and curtain. This popular Spanish Christmas carol alternates between scenes of the Virgin Mary consumed in mundane tasks like combing hair and the fish in the river drinking to the newborn God in Christ. The contrast between the devotion of the fish and Mary’s mundane distraction is startling. That’s not the way Christian art often portrays Mary! But, a closer look tells a different story. Fish have always drunk in the river, even before the birth of Christ. That’s what fish do. The coming of God in the flesh transforms this into devotion because Jesus’ Incarnation and death reconcile God and creation. For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, . . . making peace ...

Third Week of Advent: Joy December 13: Rise Up Shepherd and Follow (African American Spiritual) Read  Luke 2:8-20 What must it have been like for the shepherds the night Jesus was born? Out in the fields with their sheep, stoking a fire as the temperature dropped. Something strange was already in the air – was that a new star in the sky? Suddenly an angel is before them and the whole sky lit up in a glorious and holy way. Shuttering with fear they heard the angel’s announcement “Don’t be afraid – I’ve got great news – the Savior is born in Bethlehem! Rise up Shepherds – go and see!” And they did! They left their flocks, the sheep and the lambs, the goats and the rams and went. And it was just as the angels said it would be. And they returned to their fields glorifying and praising God. The shepherds were blessed to receive news of the Savior in such an unexpected way. And they dropped everything and went to see Him. They did indeed rise up and follow the word of the angels. This p...

Third Week of Advent: Joy December 12: Sing We Now of Christmas (French) - Links & Lyrics Below Most days we don’t make the news. Important things happen in our region all the time, but most of the time the occurrences that take place here don’t reverberate across the world. Sometimes that can make people feel insignificant or overlooked. It is fascinating that out of all of the places God could have chosen to arrive on the scene, it was in a small, overlooked town.      Angels from on high say, ‘Shepherds come and see.      He is born in Bethlehem, a blessed lamb for thee.’ Micah 5:2 alludes to the small nature of Bethlehem and yet goes on to proclaim all of the hope that will cross the world because of our Savior who was born there. One of the advantages to being less notorious is the often times peaceful nature and pace it provides in life. This is especially beneficial with all of the adjustments a newborn causes a family. The early days of Jesus’ ...