From the UCC Network: Devotional for 11/30 "Rejoice"

Rejoice!

Excerpt from Psalm 96

“Let the heavens be glad, and let the earth rejoice.”

Martin B. Copenhaver

This psalm issues a call to rejoice.  It is a common theme in scripture.  Over and over again we are enjoined to rejoice, instructed to rejoice and, indeed, we are commanded to rejoice.  Obviously, someone thinks this rejoicing business is pretty important.

It’s interesting that these injunctions to rejoice are offered in passages of scripture associated with Advent and Christmas.  Is that because this is a season when we rejoice so fully and naturally?  If that were the case, then why would we need the command to rejoice?  That would be like commanding someone to smile when she feels happy.  My hunch is that those who suggested these texts for this time of year were wiser than that.  It seems to me that many of us need to be told to rejoice in this season perhaps more than in others.  After all, it is a dark time—in the world without, to be sure, but sometimes in the world within, as well.

We are reminded to rejoice, not because this is a bright time, but because it is dark, and yet, even here, in the darkness, the light of the world has come.  Our God does not shrink from our darkness, but enters it fully and shares it completely, so that we, in turn, might be ushered into the light.

And that is cause for great rejoicing, indeed.

Prayer

Dear God, we join the heavens and the earth in our rejoicing, for you have come to us in this dark time and infused it with the light of your love.  Amen.

About the Author Martin B. Copenhaver is Senior Pastor, Wellesley Congregational Church, United Church of Christ, Wellesley, Massachusetts. His new book, This Odd and Wondrous Calling: the Public and Private Lives of Two Ministers, co-authored with Lillian Daniel, has just been published.

Daily Prayer

As I begin my journey through yet another season of Advent, O Lord, preparing myself for that coming day in which I will rejoice in the birth of the Christmas Child, the precious Prince of Peace, I find a world that is not at peace. How can this be so?


Your prophets of old boldly proclaimed His coming into the world; to show us the true light to follow. His words, his life, were there to lead us down new paths of love and compassionate life together. Yet the news of this day speaks of wars, terrorist acts, and persons driven to despair and hopelessness because of loss of jobs and lack of resources for food and bills. Once joyful hearts now feel despair. Lives once lived in happiness and hope, now are bend over with the heavy burden of not knowing whether tomorrow will provide food for life, or a roof for protection.


And so my journey this Advent beckons me to the vision of your broader plans, God; to prepare not only for Christmas Day, but to prepare my spirit and heart - and my daily life - for the larger celebration of Christ's return. An Advent preparation that requires of me much. A life lived always as a blessing to others. A life lived that always speaks the peace of the Prince of Peace. A life lived that always sees the stranger, the outcast, as my precious sister and brother.


My Advent journey. Celebrating the birth of Christ - of your presence here with us in this crazy world. Celebrating my own life, as a hallmark of the One who came among us so long ago, and who is yet to come among us still.


Amen.

Rev. Michael Kirchhoff