Detecting Christmas December 10 Devotional

Third Sunday of Advent

Candle Lighting

Lighting a candle each week of Advent is part of our VPC worship tradition. It marks time during this season of anticipation and helps us prepare our spirits for the celebration of Jesus’ birth at Christmas. If you choose to participate in this tradition at home, we hope you find this guide useful.  Enjoy the readings, discussion, and prayer as a family as you prepare your hearts and homes to receive the Christ child.

Read:

The third week of Advent, we re-light the candles of HOPE and PEACE, remembering the hope we have in Jesus and the perfect peace he promises us. This week we also light the candle of JOY (this is the pink candle in traditional Advent wreaths). At Christmastime one of the ways we celebrate is by giving gifts to one another.  In fact Jesus teaches us that we can find joy in giving to others. The Bible teaches us to give generously especially to those in need. WHAT was the first Christmas gift? Jesus!

Discuss:

Who do you plan to give gifts to this year?

Is there anyone in need that you could add to that list?

How about the gift of prayer? Is there someone you can be praying for?

Pray:

Heavenly father,

As we light the Advent candle of Joy, we thank you for the first and best Christmas gift ever. Help us to give your love away to others this Christmas season and throughout the year. Amen.

MATTHEW 1:18 | ¹⁸ Now the birth of Jesus the Messiah took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been engaged to Joseph, but before they lived together, she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit.

Some Old Testament practices seem barbaric and disproportionate to the modern reader. One such is punishing adultery by stoning. Although many human communities condemn similar kinds of bad actions, they view the character of human life and identity in different ways, impacting and separating their sense of what constitutes justice. Hebrew sensibility stresses communal identity and social roles. Adultery, and in Mary’s case, the equivalent prescriptive violation of engagement by unfaithfulness, was understood as a stain on the entire community, a kind of collective uncleanliness. Breaking the law on marriage was more than an individual lapse, it was an attack on the main institution and social practice that sustained the life of the community. Stoning Mary would have felt to the elders at the gate to be a tragic necessity in defense of their town and family life. Joseph was within his rights to demand her execution.

Do you define your identity by your unique characteristics or your relationships?

Gracious God,

Give us the sensitivity and insight to be individuals who value life together. In Jesus’ name, Amen.