Advent Devotional Dec 15
Week Three:
Creating Shalom means Sounding Joy
Thursday, December 15, 2022
“Bouncing with Joy” – Read Galatians 3:23-29
“There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus.” (v. 28, RSV)
You need to know that I have a superpower. I love to read, and as the oldest child with three very noisy brothers, I developed the ability to block out EVERYTHING while immersed in a book. One memorable Christmas, my parents bought all of us kids the gift of a trampoline. I also received a few books!
Not long after the holidays, my parents had some errands to run and left my teenage self in charge for a couple of hours. I immediately started reading. The more active members of my family began plotting their own fun. Now, nothing brings a rural “neighborhood” full of children together like a trampoline. On a trampoline, “there is no Jew or Greek, no male or female, no slave or free,” just a bunch of evil geniuses, and left to their own devices, they hatched a plan.
As I read about Nancy Drew’s latest adventures, oblivious to the world around me, they drug the trampoline from the middle of the yard very close to the eaves of the house. For “safety,” they removed every mattress from every bed in the house and surrounded the trampoline with them. As my parents pulled into the driveway, they were greeted with the sight of every kid for miles around (except me) flinging themselves off the roof with great joy onto the trampoline and bouncing to a stop on the mattresses.
I’m still grounded.
My siblings and our neighbors broke no rules because who would think to make a law for something so specific? Yet, we were all in violation of the spirit of good behavior. The law, given with the greatest of love by God, who wants to protect God’s children, will always have loopholes, and we will find them. So, God, the giver of all good gifts, devised the best plan, predicated on the greatest gift. God’s own son was given so that we could see what true hope, true peace, true love, and true JOY look like. Rather than hurtling ourselves toward certain doom, we now have something better than a trampoline to bind us together as one: baptism into Christ’s family and acceptance into eternal life.
Lord, I confess that too often, I search for joy in fleeting moments of happiness. Help me find true joy only in the everlasting gift of Christ that comes to us this Advent season. Amen.
Rev. Desi Sharp Brumit
Senior Pastor, St. Paul’s United Methodist Church, Shawnee, OK
“Bouncing with Joy” – Read Galatians 3:23-29
“There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus.” (v. 28, RSV)
You need to know that I have a superpower. I love to read, and as the oldest child with three very noisy brothers, I developed the ability to block out EVERYTHING while immersed in a book. One memorable Christmas, my parents bought all of us kids the gift of a trampoline. I also received a few books!
Not long after the holidays, my parents had some errands to run and left my teenage self in charge for a couple of hours. I immediately started reading. The more active members of my family began plotting their own fun. Now, nothing brings a rural “neighborhood” full of children together like a trampoline. On a trampoline, “there is no Jew or Greek, no male or female, no slave or free,” just a bunch of evil geniuses, and left to their own devices, they hatched a plan.
As I read about Nancy Drew’s latest adventures, oblivious to the world around me, they drug the trampoline from the middle of the yard very close to the eaves of the house. For “safety,” they removed every mattress from every bed in the house and surrounded the trampoline with them. As my parents pulled into the driveway, they were greeted with the sight of every kid for miles around (except me) flinging themselves off the roof with great joy onto the trampoline and bouncing to a stop on the mattresses.
I’m still grounded.
My siblings and our neighbors broke no rules because who would think to make a law for something so specific? Yet, we were all in violation of the spirit of good behavior. The law, given with the greatest of love by God, who wants to protect God’s children, will always have loopholes, and we will find them. So, God, the giver of all good gifts, devised the best plan, predicated on the greatest gift. God’s own son was given so that we could see what true hope, true peace, true love, and true JOY look like. Rather than hurtling ourselves toward certain doom, we now have something better than a trampoline to bind us together as one: baptism into Christ’s family and acceptance into eternal life.
Lord, I confess that too often, I search for joy in fleeting moments of happiness. Help me find true joy only in the everlasting gift of Christ that comes to us this Advent season. Amen.
Rev. Desi Sharp Brumit
Senior Pastor, St. Paul’s United Methodist Church, Shawnee, OK
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