December 24, 2022

Advent Devotional December 24, 2022

Scripture

Revelation 22:12-17, 21

12 “See, I am coming soon; my reward is with me, to repay according to everyone’s work. 13 I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end.” 14 Blessed are those who wash their robes, so that they will have the right to the tree of life and may enter the city by the gates. 15 Outside are the dogs and sorcerers and fornicators and murderers and idolaters, and everyone who loves and practices falsehood. 16 “It is I, Jesus, who sent my angel to you with this testimony for the churches. I am the root and the descendant of David, the bright morning star.” 17 The Spirit and the bride say, “Come.” And let everyone who hears say, “Come.” And let everyone who is thirsty come. Let anyone who wishes take the water of life as a gift.”

21 The grace of the Lord Jesus be with all the saints. Amen.

Devotional

The Rev. Mary Robin Craig ’10

As Advent draws to a close, we stand on the cusp between the end and the beginning. The church year is coming to an end. In the Northern Hemisphere, the agricultural season has wound down. The secular calendar is near its end.

And here is Jesus, saying not, “I am the end and the beginning,” but “I am the beginning and the end.” He is pushing us toward a new beginning. He is not lingering in the late hours of the night, but traversing time and space toward his appearance as the morning star.

If your life has been marred by sleepless nights, then you have looked up toward Venus, the planet traditionally called the morning star. Venus appears in the sky a few hours after sunset or a few hours before dawn. Venus is the light-bearer, the dawn-bringer.

Whether you are an outcast in the late-night fields of physical labor, an individual of prominence and wealth seeking something more in the light leading you onward, a young mother working through the waves of the final hours of pregnancy, whether you are anyone at all who feels an unsettled longing and a deep thirst for a new future, the morning star shimmers for you.

The darkness is filled with sorrows and travails. The winter winds of want and need blow cold. But tonight we wait in hope for the star which heralds the breaking forth of the dawn.

Prayer

Light of the World, soft and gentle, radiant and bright, we pray on this Christmas Eve that you break into our world tomorrow with the insistence of the cry of a newborn and the power of ruler of the universe. May we rejoice as the end becomes the beginning and the least becomes the greatest! Amen.

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