Devotion for the Sunday of the First Week in Advent

THEME FOR THE WEEK: HOPE

Devotion for the Sunday of the First Week in Advent

READING: 2 Corinthians 3:4–18 (NRSV)

⁴ Such is the confidence that we have through Christ toward God. ⁵ Not that we are competent of ourselves to claim anything as coming from us; our competence is from God, ⁶ who has made us competent to be ministers of a new covenant, not of letter but of spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life. ⁷ Now if the ministry of death, chiseled in letters on stone tablets, came in glory so that the people of Israel could not gaze at Moses’ face because of the glory of his face, a glory now set aside, ⁸ how much more will the ministry of the Spirit come in glory? ⁹ For if there was glory in the ministry of condemnation, much more does the ministry of justification abound in glory! ¹⁰ Indeed, what once had glory has lost its glory because of the greater glory; ¹¹ for if what was set aside came through glory, much more has the permanent come in glory! ¹² Since, then, we have such a hope, we act with great boldness, ¹³ not like Moses, who put a veil over his face to keep the people of Israel from gazing at the end of the glory that was being set aside. ¹⁴ But their minds were hardened. Indeed, to this very day, when they hear the reading of the old covenant, that same veil is still there, since only in Christ is it set aside. ¹⁵ Indeed, to this very day whenever Moses is read, a veil lies over their minds; ¹⁶ but when one turns to the Lord, the veil is removed. ¹⁷ Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. ¹⁸ And all of us, with unveiled faces, seeing the glory of the Lord as though reflected in a mirror, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another; for this comes from the Lord, the Spirit.

REFLECTION:

Some days we wake up wondering if we can even get out of bed, much less do what needs to be done that day. Maybe it is just bone weary tiredness—exhaustion from just doing too much the previous day. Or maybe it is soul weariness that makes us want to pull the covers up over our heads and ignore the morning light. On those mornings, of body or soul weariness, we wake, feeling that we just can’t depend on ourselves.

Questions linger in our minds such as: “What HOPE is there?” “Why should I keep going on?” This complex passage from 2 Corinthians gives us three points of hope to deal with those times of questioning uncertainty. First in verse 5 we hear the words, “not that we are competent of ourselves,…but our competence is from God.” Two, Paul tells us that “because we have such a hope (from God), we act with great boldness.” Lastly, in verse 18, we are told how we are being transformed by the Spirit.

From this passage, I draw the hope that I am not in this life alone; I not depending only on my competence. It is God’s competence, far beyond my understanding, that keeps me going. When I feel weary or just down in the dumps, I have the hope that is grounded in Christ Jesus—the hope that anything I need to do to live out life in God’s covenant will be supported by the power of God. God will transform me to do what God expects me to do.

PRAYER:

On this first day of Advent, may the light of the single candle burn brightly in your heart as you look toward the hope of Christ’s coming and feel the transforming power of the Spirit. Amen