Almost Christmas Devotions for the Season. Ingrid McIntyre

in very nature God,

       did not consider equality with God something to be

       used to his own advantage;

       rather, he made himself nothing

       by taking the very nature of a servant,

       being made in human likeness.

       And being found in appearance as a man,

       he humbled himself

       by becoming obedient to death—

       even death on a cross!

       (Philippians 2:6-8 NIV)

      In this Advent season, we worship God who leans in to who we are as creation as we seek God who loved us first. There are so many wonderful and challenging aspects of the behavior of God that we can read about in the Hebrew Scriptures and New Testament. One of the most powerful in my mind is God who came to us humbly, even as a newborn child, so we might love Jesus who walked the same paths we walk, suffered as we suffer, and loved perfectly.

      In this season of Advent, what does it mean to you that God leans in to creation? God whose love manifested in Jesus the Christ? God whose behaviors are beyond our wisdom and yet whose actions of love and grace are known through his Son Jesus? How do God’s actions challenge, encourage, and mold who you are today as you journey toward the wonderous birth of Jesus?

      In this Advent season, we are called to personal holiness and reflection as we consider God’s loving behavior for all of creation. We are also challenged to consider God’s love beyond our individual needs and personal devotion. If your spiritual gallon bag were to be filled today, what would you place within it? Would you add items of comfort for those needing to experience God’s presence? Would you focus on substance to feed those around you so they know your actions match your intentions? What would you write in each note to reflect the amazing grace God offers?

      As you begin your day, I invite you to thank God for the many ways in which God leans in to us, loves us, and seeks us. Offer to God all that you are, and all that you might ever be, in the name of Jesus.

       Rev. DJ del Rosario

      4

      Do I refrain from doing evil things, as is described in the Bible?

      I’ve often wondered: when Jesus was a toddler, did his mother have to teach him not to bite other children? Toddlers are some of the most violent humans on the planet. Most toddlers have to be taught not to bite or hit. They have to be taught to share.

      Christians typically have one of two answers to this question. Some say, “Absolutely not! Jesus was sinless and perfectly loving. He would have been a sweet child, even as a toddler. The Holy Spirit would have directed him to always share and never hurt other children.” Others, especially those who have been parents, are more circumspect. They say, “Of course he had to be taught not to bite. Learning is part of the human experience, and we can hardly say he was fully human if he didn’t have to learn right from wrong.”

      I don’t have an answer. The Bible is silent about Jesus’ childhood, except for that one time he wandered off and his parents spent three days searching for him in Jerusalem. As far as childhood stories go, that sounds pretty normal for a precocious kid.

      Our earliest training in ethics is pretty straightforward: “Thou shalt not.” Don’t hit. Don’t bite. Don’t throw objects in Grandma’s dining room. Don’t gossip or insult people. And when God brings freed slaves out of Egypt and gives them rules for living together, God gives them the Ten Commandments that often tell them what not to do. We might think of the Ten Commandments as the Israelite people’s version of toddler ethics. Don’t make graven images. Don’t kill. Don’t commit adultery. Don’t covet. These are minimum-level rules for getting along as a society of diverse people with diverse motives and interests. Ethicists call this “deontological” or “rule-based” ethics.

      As we mature, the lessons get more nuanced. We start asking why, and we begin to learn a version of ethics that goes beyond “thou shalt not” to a more positive vision of the world God wants. Why do we honor the sabbath? Because labor laws are important to keep people and animals from being worked to death. Because even the poorest among us need time off to honor God and their physical bodies. Because the land needs to lie fallow so it can replenish itself. Why don’t we murder? Because every person is made in the image of God.

      But all we have to do is look around at the world to know we never outgrow the need for these basic rules. John Wesley points out that Christians don’t own this kind of ethics. “Heathen honesty,” he calls it. When Jesus told a story about a man wounded on the side of the road, he made a Samaritan the hero of his story, to remind his listeners that God’s chosen people didn’t have a monopoly on decency. We don’t ignore people in need because that’s one of our basic rules. It implies a general responsibility toward the rest of society. Exodus 21:33 says that we shouldn’t dig a pit and leave it uncovered, in case an animal falls into it. If we’re going to live together and experience God’s grace through one another, we can’t be negligent of other living beings in our community.

      These rules extend beyond personal conduct and touch on social evils, also. “Doom to those who pronounce wicked decrees, and keep writing harmful laws to deprive the needy of their rights,” says Isaiah 10:1-2. Bribes, slander, and injustice tarnish not only our souls, but all of society.

      Wesley made “do no harm” the first of the General Rules of Methodist Societies. In “The Almost Christian,” he says this is part of “having the form of godliness.” By itself, it’s not enough. But it’s the place we all begin. During Advent, the beginning of the Christian year, it’s appropriate for us to return to this as a foundation of the Christian life.

      We all start our life and our spiritual journey as toddlers. We long to be grown-ups, but our immaturity causes us to wound ourselves, wound one another, and wound God’s good creation. But God, like a loving parent, gives us a set of simple norms. Like children, we learn to live together according to a basic level of human decency. If the world could even live up to this standard, we would be closer to the reign of God.

       Rev. Dave Barnhart