December 3rd
A mighty river of the Spirit Advent 2

Pastors Blog

A Mighty River of the Spirit

Advent 2

Meet Joseph. He’s one of those dependable guys – maybe not too flashy, but you sure can count on him! Remember, when Joseph found out that his fiancé was pregnant and he knew that he was not the father of the child, he chose not to divorce Mary. In a dream he was encouraged to go ahead with the marriage and raise the child as his own son. Then when he was warned in a dream about King Herod’s plan to massacre all male babies in the neighbourhood in hopes that the newborn Messiah would be one of them, he took the child and Mary and beat it to Egypt. He had the good sense to stay until Herod’s name was in the obituary column. This was probably not the first plan he had for his life.

There’s a word for this expression of spirituality. It’s called holiness, or maybe more like righteous living, or better yet, transformed in heart and outer habits which result in a nurturing parental form of care. Now that’s a lot for one sentence.

Let me describe what I think holiness spirituality is through an illustration. Consider the action word steadfastness. Consider holding hard on the edge of a canoe you are trying to launch from a rocky shoreline on a choppy day. It’s work to hold on tight while the waves crash around you - work to not lose your grip when your hands get wet - work to steady it while other people transfer not-so-graciously into the boat. Steadfastness or should I say holiness, requires a sometimes-tenacious effort that allows you to hold on no matter what. And what you are holding on to is not necessarily a canoe, nor a particular belief system, nor a desire for perfection, but hope.

Hope that things will get better, that this too will pass, that God is still at work in our world, that we will feel uninhibited joy once again. And that we will participate in this hope when invited.

Consider:

  1. For what do you hope this advent season?
  2. How are you allowing Jesus in to transform your life? Fill you with hope?
  3. How might you reach out for the presence of God, hold tight to the faithfulness of God’s promise, or work towards the righteousness of God’s Kingdom come?