Our Advent Word for Monday, December 22nd is Declared. It is taken from the Epistle reading for the 4th Sunday of Advent. Romans chapter 1 includes: Paul, a servant^* of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God, ²which he promised beforehand through his prophets in the holy scriptures, ³the gospel concerning his Son, who was descended from David according to the flesh ⁴and was declared to be Son of God with power according to the spirit^* of holiness by resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord

The dictionary says declared means “to make known formally, officially, or explicitly”. Paul makes the point that all the prophecies regarding the Messiah were fulfilled in the birth, life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, all of which declares him to be “Son of God with power according to the spirit of holiness by resurrection from the dead.” God also declares Jesus to be the Son at his baptism, transfiguration, and in John’s gospel when the Greeks ask to meet him. It is, in this sense, a royal edict, a holy announcement, an affirmative statement as to who Jesus was and is and will be. Our Lord.

Our Advent word for Sunday, December 21st is DEEP. It is taken from the 1st lesson for the 4th Sunday of Advent – Isaiah 7: Again the Lord spoke to Ahaz, saying, Ask a sign of the Lord your God; let it be deep as Sheol or high as heaven. But Ahaz said, I will not ask, and I will not put the Lord to the test. 

“As deep as Sheol” is just a phrase used to describe the deepest place they could imagine, just as “high as heaven” indicating the highest place. God tells Ahaz, who was King of Israel and well known for ignoring God and worshipping false idols, to ask for a sign. Ahaz refuses so God sends Isaiah the prophet to him to give him a sign anyway. “Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Look, the young woman is with child and shall bear a son, and shall name him Immanuel“. The prophet foretells the coming of the Messiah, Immanuel (God with us). Ahaz was warned constantly by several prophets to change his ways but he never got deep enough in his faith to do so. Fortunately his son, Hezekiah was a good king who followed God and reformed much of what Ahaz had done. Hezekiah’s faith was deep, and unlike his father he was true to that faith. Advent is a good time for all of us to examine how deep our faith is, and high how it can go to honor God.

The Advent word for December 20th is TRULY. It is taken from the gospel of Matthew, chapter 11 (the gospel reading for the 3rd Sunday of Advent: “Truly I tell you” as he was letting folks know the TRUTH about John the Baptist.

Whenever I see “Truly” attributed to Jesus, my King James Version trained brain translates it to “Verily”. Verily seems a heavier, more important word, I don’t know why it is that way with me, blame the King James translators! Jesus talks a good bit about Truth – he says in John’s Gospel that he is the truth, saying “You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” Also in John’s Gospel he proclaims “I am the way, the truth and the life”, and earlier in that Gospel says, “God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.”. Truth, Verily, means a lot to Jesus as he is the TRUE embodiment of truth in his teaching and in his life. Verily.

Our Advent Word today (Dec 19) is ROBES. What an interesting choice! It is taken from the gospel for the 3rd Sunday of Advent, Matthew chapter 11 includes this: Jesus began to speak to the crowds about John: “What did you go out into the wilderness to look at? A reed shaken by the wind? What then did you go out to see? Someone dressed in soft robes? Look, those who wear soft robes are in royal palaces.

I don’t know about you but I flashed to that old Easter movie, “The Robe”, when I saw this word for the day – the Robe was worn by Jesus yet the soldiers cast lots to see who would “win” the robe for themselves. A centurion who did not believe was the winner, and the movie tells the story of how he comes to believe in Christ.

In Matthews gospel lesson Jesus is responding to John the Baptist wondering if he (Jesus) was the ONE? He sends disciples back with an answer to John, to just tell John all the miracles Jesus has been doing on behalf of the sick and the poor. He also chastises those in the crowd who were disappointed in John’s camel-hair-wearing, locust-eating presence. You are looking for the wrong kind of king, someone who wears soft robes in royal palaces. Jesus says, “Truly I tell you, among those born of women no one has arisen greater than John the Baptist; yet the least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.” Following Jesus is not a soft walk in the park, not a soft robe to wear, yet it means everything to us who believe.

Our Advent Word today (Dec 18) is Cleansed. It is taken from the Gospel for the 3rd Sunday of Advent, Matthew chapter 11 which includes this: “Go and tell John what you hear and see: the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have good news brought to them. And blessed is anyone who takes no offense at me.”

Lepers were cleansed by Jesus, to such an extent that when they presented themselves to the Priest to prove they were cured of whatever skin condition they had, they would have been without blemish or sores (side note – I am DELIGHTED priests don’t have that job any more!). The Bible also says WE have been cleansed of our sins by Jesus. 1 John 1:7-9: States, “if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.”

As a young person this imagery always greatly bothered me. How does blood clean anything from us? I would flash to the movie Carrie, a Stephen King horror story, after the mean kids dumped a bucket of pig’s blood all over her. She was NOT feeling cleansed. If you don’t know what happens next, you must not be a King fan!

There is an old gospel song that also creeped me out in my youth, “what can wash away our sins – nothing but the blood of Jesus”. I would picture blood coming out of the shower head as my sins went straight down the drain!

Of course the blood which “washes away our sins” is the sacrificial blood of Jesus on the cross, one of the theological ways of looking at the atonement. I would rather imagine my sins being transformed by Jesus’ love and healing spirit, imagine THAT feeling as the lepers in one of the healing stories of Jesus in the gospels, ran to show themselves to the priest to be readmitted to the community at last. Healed. Made whole. Back in good graces. That’s the kind of cleansing I prefer!