ADVENT WEEK FOUR: LOVE

December 25 Rev. Allie Utley, PhD

Pondering

Luke 2:(1-7), 8-20

So they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph and the child lying in

the manger. Luke 2:16

Can you imagine giving birth in an outdoor stall? And then, as you begin to re-

cover, a group of shepherds show up and tell you that an angel told them that

your baby is the Son of God and Messiah?

You aren’t surprised by the announcement. The angel has come to you as

well. But every time someone says it out loud—you are the mother of the Holy

One—it feels shocking and overwhelming.

Can you imagine mothering this child? An all-powerful, all-knowing deity, now

fully dependent on you for shelter, nourishment, care?

This is the mystery of Advent: God comes as a vulnerable baby. The Son of

God is also the son of Mary. Then and now, God entrusts the work of love to

human hands. God needs us—our arms to cradle, our voices to sing, our lives

to bring grace and mercy to a weary world.

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ADVENT WEEK FOUR: LOVE

December 24 Rev. Allie Utley, PhD

You Are Family

Titus 3:4-7

This Spirit he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so

that, having been justified by his grace, we might become heirs according to

the hope of eternal life. Titus 3:6-7

We are a people born of water and the Spirit. In our baptism we are claimed

by God and grafted into a family of faith. One of my favorite songs for worship

is Mark Miller’s “Child of God.”

In the last verse, he writes, “No matter what the world says… you are a child,

you are a child of God… There is nothing and no one that can separate you

from the truth that you’re someone—you are family; you are meant to be a

child of God.”

Baptism is historically associated with the seasons of Lent/Easter/Pentecost

rather than Advent/Christmas/Epiphany. But I love that the daily lectionary

includes this passage about being heirs of God, being part of the family of

God, because in Advent, we do think a lot about genealogies and generations.

I think the inclusion of this passage invites us to think about the communities

that hold us—our chosen families.

How might we draw closer to one another in this season of waiting? What

relationships need tending, mending, or nurturing? How does belonging to

God’s family help us prepare to receive Christ’s love? And how might this fam-

ily work toward the fulfillment of God’s kin-dom of love and justice?

In this season and the next, may your belonging be deep, your connections

tender, and your waiting full of love.

That’s a Christmas celebration comprising proclamation of God’s jus-

tice-working actions and a celebration of what God is doing.

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ADVENT WEEK FOUR: LOVE

December 23 Rev. Allie Utley, PhD

Who am I?

2 Samuel 7:18, 23-29

Then King David went in and sat before the Lord and said, “Who am I, O

Lord God, and what is my house, that you have brought me thus far?”

2 Samuel 7:18

This chapter of 2 Samuel opens with King David pondering how to best play

host to God: “Here I am, living in a house of cedar, while the ark of God re-

mains in a tent.” David plans to build a house for the Lord. If you know your

Bible well, you will not be surprised that God isn’t interested in a permanent

dwelling place.

God declares to David, You will not build me a house; I will build you one. God

promises to establish David’s family line, to make his name great, and to plant

his people in a home of their own.

David’s response is a performance of humanity: “Who am I, O Lord God, that

you have brought me this far?” He might have been wondering: Who am I to

be held by your promises? Who am I to bear a legacy of faith? Who am I to be

given a place in your unfolding story?

As we approach Christmas, many of us are thinking about homes and houses

too. Where will we gather? For whom will we make space? What traditions will

we tend? Making plans for Christmas brings up questions of place and identi-

ty.

I recently spoke with a group of young adults trying to navigate the pressure

of holiday expectations: how to honor family traditions while creating their

own rhythms, how to choose where to dwell and whom to prioritize.

Perhaps David’s story invites us to hold our own questions about home lightly.

God reminds David—and us—that the truest “house” is the one God is build-

ing: a household of promise, presence, and peace that transcends cedar walls

and travel plans.

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ADVENT WEEK FOUR: LOVE

December 22 Rev. Allie Utley, PhD

The Turning

Luke 1:46b-55

…indeed, his mercy is for those who fear him from generation to generation.

Luke 1:50

There is a group of researchers at Samford Center for Worship and the Arts

studying the experiences of young people in worship. According to their web-

site, “the purpose of the Young People and Christian Worship (YPCW) study

is to listen deeply to how young people, including teenagers and emerging

adults (aged 13–29), experience public Christian worship in a range of liturgi-

cal contexts—Roman Catholic, mainline Protestant, evangelical, and charis-

matic.”

In a recent survey, they found that one of the favorite songs among young

people in the Roman Catholic and Mennonite traditions is Canticle of the

Turning, a hymn text based on the song of Mary*.

It inspires me that young people connect with Mary’s vision of a God who

subverts the world order. From generation to generation, God casts down the

proud and powerful and shows preferential love to the marginalized. From

generation to generation, God promises that the tyrants of this world will fail

and fall.

But even if we trust in this promise, we can struggle to see beyond the evils of

our day. We might remember that Mary sings about the mighty work of God

while she is still pregnant. She embodies expectancy and hope. Advent is a

season of tension for us as well: God’s love is breaking in, and still, we wait for

its fullness.

Where might you catch a glimpse of that turning today? And as you wait, how

might you live as though God’s love is already reshaping the world?

________________________________

*Emily Snider, “Young People and Christian Worship: Seeing the Liturgical Assembly through

the Eyes of Teenagers and Emerging Adults” (Societas Liturgical, Paris, July 30, 2025).

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ADVENT WEEK FOUR: LOVE

December 21 Rev. Allie Utley, PhD

The Origins of Love Incarnate

John 1:1-18

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word

was God.” John 1:1

The poetic first verse of the Gospel is something of an origin story. We often

read this passage on or around Christmas as we celebrate the birth of Jesus:

God taking the form of a baby. Christ comes to us, fragile, small, dependent.

But the writer of John reminds us that Jesus’ life doesn’t begin at Christmas;

it reaches all the way back to the beginning of the cosmos. His very being is

eternally woven together in the very being of God our creator.

In advent, we wait for the coming of the Son of God through whom the love of

God was, is, and will be revealed. That doesn’t mean the Hebrew people didn’t

know God’s love, or that Jesus is the only way God makes love known. But

one reason I claim Christianity as my faith is that I am moved by this mystery:

that God would become human, that God would take on vulnerability, tempta-

tion, even suffering.

In Christ’s coming, God draws close not only to reveal love, but to know our

lives fully. There is no part of you, no part of me, that is hidden from that

knowing love. This knowing can make us feel loved, but it can also make us

feel vulnerable and exposed.

Advent is a season of anticipation and preparation. What might it look like to

open ourselves to that love and to allow ourselves to be truly known?

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ADVENT WEEK THREE: JOY

December 20 Rev. Jenny Wynn

Between Memory and Hope

Psalm 126

Then our mouth was filled with laughter, and our tongue with shouts of joy.

Psalm 126:2a

Rituals are an important part of our faith. They provide structure and meaning

in our lives while helping to manage anxiety and stress. When we feel disori-

ented, rituals can help reorient us to what matters most.

Rituals connect us to our faith story. They remind us of who we are, where

we have been, and where we are going. Most importantly, rituals remind us of

God’s presence in our lives and that we belong to God.

Psalm 126 reflects a period after exile. Joy erupts in the Psalm as the com-

munity looks back on their deliverance. The psalm goes beyond an exercise

in longing for “the good old days.” It remembers the joy of the past, but it also

orients the readers toward anticipating joy. It engages both rituals of celebra-

tion and lament, using them to point to an ever-present God who meets us in

our sorrow and our joy.

How can you engage in the rituals embodied in this psalm by acknowledging

the pain while also celebrating what has been lived?

You might consider lighting a candle and naming a loss that you have expe-

rienced this year, then name a hope for the coming year. As you engage in

these rituals, remember that you are not alone.

Remember the promise of the psalmist: “Those who go out weeping, bear-

ing the seed for sowing, shall come home with shouts of joy, carrying their

sheaves (v. 6).”

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ADVENT WEEK THREE: JOY

December 19 Rev. Jenny Wynn

Joy Breaks Through

Isaiah 52:7-9

Break forth; shout together for joy, you ruins of Jerusalem, for the Lord has

comforted his people; he has redeemed Jerusalem… Isaiah 52:9

Advent draws us into a liminal space, a threshold between what is and what is

yet to come. Advent invites us to voice our longings along with our bold decla-

rations that our broken and fragmented world can be made whole.

Advent draws our attention to those who have existed and continue to exist in

difficult and painful liminal spaces. It is into such places that the prophet Isa-

iah spoke. The prophet knew the deep pain that the Judeans in exile voiced

when they cried, “The Lord has forsaken me, my Lord has forgotten me” (Isa-

iah 49:14).

Yet into this despair, God speaks words of hope, words brimming with joy. Isa-

iah responds to their fears with profound assurance that God was still moving,

still working toward renewal. “Break forth; shout together for joy, you ruins of

Jerusalem, for the Lord has comforted his people; he has redeemed Jerusa-

lem (v. 9).”

This is Advent’s promise: our whispered prayers in uncertainty are not the end

of the story. We are not alone, God still has need of us, not as passive waiters,

but as joyful, active participants working for the peace we long to see through

acts of compassion, justice, and love.

Where might God be calling you to participate in bringing wholeness to bro-

ken places this Advent?

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ADVENT WEEK THREE: JOY

December 18 Rev. Jenny Wynn

More than Crumbs

Matthew 15:21-28

She said, “Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their

masters’ table.” Matthew 15: 27

Mary Oliver wrote in her poem “Don’t Hesitate,” “Joy is not meant to be a

crumb.” This wisdom echoes Matthew 15:21–28, where a Canaanite woman

seeks mercy for herself and her daughter, who is tormented by a demon. She

cries out loudly to Jesus. Her cries are met by Jesus’ silence. Annoyed the

disciples urge him to send her away for being too loud.

Jesus finally speaks, saying, “I was sent only for the lost sheep of the house

of Israel.” Undeterred, she kneels and pleads. His reply is harsh and cuts

deep, “It is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs.”

Nevertheless, she persisted. This outsider refused silencing, even by Jesus.

With an expansive vision of God’s household, she fought for her and her

daughter’s place in it. Her bold reply, “Even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall

from their masters’ table.” opened his eyes. He praised her faith. Her daughter

was healed. This woman helps Jesus to see how wide God’s welcome ex-

tends.

In Advent, this brave woman teaches us. Standing between what was and

what could be, she joined the endless chorus crying out to Emmanuel. She

clung to a crumb of hope, believing her world and her daughter’s world could

change.

Her voice joins countless others still crying for a different way, namely the way

of justice. She reminds us never to settle for crumbs. God’s welcome, mercy,

and joy were never meant to be mere crumbs for anyone.

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