Help us look for you, Lord

/ Eric Mathews / 1 Comment
The Christ Mosaic, Maria Laach Abbey Germany, via pikpik
 
Jesus,
   how clearly we see you at Christmas time,
   cradled by Mary,
   protected by Joseph,
   worshiped by shepherds,
   honored by kings,
   enshrined on the altar,
   and loved by the world.

But, oh, Lord,
   help us look for you, too,
   among the taxes of life,
   and the wanderings of rootless travelers.
   In the world’s smelly stables,
   and in makeshift mangers.
   In sweat-like drops of blood
   and rough-hewn crosses, humanly fashioned.
   Help us look, Lord –
   and help us find!

Not only at Christmas,
   but throughout a New Year
   that it might become indeed
   ‘the year of our Lord’.

Mary Sue Rosenberger 1940-2020 American author, nurse and chaplain
Prayers Encircling the World
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Hosea 10:12

Sow righteousness for yourselves,
   reap the fruit of unfailing love,
and break up your unplowed ground;
   for it is time to seek the Lord,
until he comes
   and showers his righteousness on you.
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What is one practice you can adopt that would help you seek Jesus throughout the year?

Jesus, Enter this Dark World again

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Massacre of the Innocents, ​Giotto, via Wikimedia Commons
 
Dear Jesus,

It’s a good thing you were born at night. 
This world sure seems dark. 
I have a good eye for silver linings. 
But they seem dimmer lately.

These killings, Lord. 
These children, Lord. 
Innocence violated. 
Raw evil demonstrated.

The whole world seems on edge. 
Trigger-happy. Ticked off. 
We hear threats of chemical weapons and nuclear bombs. 
Are we one button-push away from annihilation?

Your world seems a bit darker this Christmas. 
But you were born in the dark, right? You came at night. 
The shepherds were nightshift workers. 
The Wise Men followed a star. 
Your first cries were heard in the shadows. 
To see your face, Mary and Joseph needed a candle flame. 
It was dark. 
    Dark with Herod’s jealousy. 
    Dark with Roman oppression. 
    Dark with poverty. 
    Dark with violence.

Herod went on a rampage, killing babies. 
Joseph took you and your mom into Egypt. 
You were an immigrant before you were a Nazarene.

Oh, Lord Jesus, you entered the dark world of your day. 
Won’t you enter ours? 
We are weary of bloodshed. 
We, like the wise men, are looking for a star. 
We, like the shepherds, are kneeling at a manger.

This Christmas, we ask you, heal us, help us, be born anew in us.

Hopefully,
Your Children

Max Lucado, 1955-, Texas pastor and author, written after the Sandy Hook shootings, 2012
source: Christian Post
 
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Matthew 2:16-18

When Herod realized that he had been outwitted by the Magi, he was furious,
    and he gave orders to kill all the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity
    who were two years old and under, 
    in accordance with the time he had learned from the Magi.
 
Then what was said through the prophet Jeremiah was fulfilled:
  “A voice is heard in Ramah,
      weeping and great mourning,
  Rachel weeping for her children
      and refusing to be comforted,
      because they are no more.”
 
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Where is a dark place in your world where Jesus needs to enter anew?

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Defend the cradle of my mind

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The Three Wise Men, by Henry Ossawa Tanner, via Wikimedia Commons
 
Come closer to me, closer still, O Power of the Holy Trinity.  
Enter into my consciousness more deeply 
    than thoughts and emblems of the world can.
In the same way as a wise mother, when she conceives,
    prepares and embellishes a cradle for her child,
    so prepare and embellish my mind for that which will be begotten from You,
    O Beauty and Purity.

Many evil thoughts lurk like serpents around the cradle of Your Son.
And many wicked desires emerge from my heart and seek the cradle of Your Prince,
    to poison Him with their arrows.

Defend the cradle of my mind,
    and teach my soul how to give birth and care for an infant.

Shroud in deep darkness 
    the journey of all malevolent visitors coming to see my newborn son.
And raise aloft a most radiant star 
    over the way of the Wise Men from the East,
    men who are truly wise, 
    because they are coming to visit my most precious child with three gifts—
    faith, hope, and love.

Come closer to me, still closer, my majestic Lord.

Nikolai Velimirovich 1881-1956 Serbian Orthodox monastic
Prayers by the Lake, source, edited
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Matthew 2:9-12

After they had heard the king, they went on their way, 
    and the star they had seen when it rose went ahead of them 
   until it stopped over the place where the child was. 
When they saw the star, they were overjoyed. 
On coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother Mary, 
    and they bowed down and worshiped him. 
Then they opened their treasures 
    and presented him with gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh. 
And having been warned in a dream not to go back to Herod, 
    they returned to their country by another route.
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How is your mind vulnerable to harmful thought patterns?
How can reflecting on the personhood of Jesus help protect your thought life?

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To Become like your Disarming Child

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Adoration of the Child, ​Gerard van Honthorst, via Wikimedia Commons
 
Father,
People of the world walk in darkness.
The struggle for power
   ruins the weak
   enriches the wealthy
   and gives power to the powerful.
We need to see the great light
   the light that shines in all its brightness.

Your kingdom of peace comes through a child,
   and liberation is bestowed on people
   who become as children:
      disarmingly defenseless,
      disarming through their defenselessness,
      and making others defenseless
      because they themselves are so disarming.
The birth of this child opens for us the future
   of a life in peace that is different from all life before,
   since that life was bound up with death.
This child is Jesus Christ,
   the child in the manger,
   the preacher on the mount,
   the tormented man on the cross,
   the risen liberator.
Help us to follow this child even today
   making visible something of this peace
   that he will complete.
Help us to share in the new creation
   born again to a living hope
   and live as new men and women.

Jürgen Moltmann 1926-2024 German Reformed theologian

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Matthew 2:1-6

After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, 
Magi from the east came to Jerusalem and asked, 
    “Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? 
      We saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him.”

When King Herod heard this he was disturbed, and all Jerusalem with him. 
When he had called together all the people’s chief priests and teachers of the law, 
he asked them where the Messiah was to be born. 
    “In Bethlehem in Judea,” they replied, 
    “for this is what the prophet has written:

“‘But you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah,
    are by no means least among the rulers of Judah;
for out of you will come a ruler
    who will shepherd my people Israel.’”
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How was Jesus disarming as an infant and throughout his life?
How can you be more childlike in the ways that Jesus was?

Becoming Real Human Beings

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The Nativity, ​El Greco, via Wikimedia Commons
 
You became human, really human.
While we endeavor to grow out of our humanity,
    to leave our human nature behind us,
    You became human,
    and we must recognize that You want us also to be human –
    really human.
Whereas we distinguish between the godly and the godless,
    the good and the evil, the noble and the common,
    You love real human beings without distinction. . . .
    You take the side of real human beings and the real world
        against all their accusers. . . .
 
But it’s not enough to say that You take care of human beings.
This sentence rests on something
    infinitely deeper and more impenetrable,
    namely, that in the conception and birth of Jesus Christ,
    You took on humanity in bodily fashion.
You raised your love for human beings
    above every reproach of falsehood and doubt and uncertainty
    by yourself entering into the life of human beings as a human being,
    by bodily taking upon yourself
    and bearing the nature, essence, guilt, and suffering of human beings.
 
Out of love for human beings, You became a human being.
You do not seek out the most perfect human being
    in order to unite with that person.
Rather, You take on human nature as it is.
 
after Dietrich Bonhoeffer 1906 – 1945 German Lutheran theologian and martyr

_______________________________

John 1:14

And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us,
    and we have seen his glory,
    glory as of the only Son from the Father,
    full of grace and truth.
 
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How do you value your own humanity 
   in light of the reality that God chose to become a human being?

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Understanding the Mystery of your Incarnation

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Adoration of the Christ Child, School of Jan Joest, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons
 
O Lord Jesus Christ,
   make me worthy to understand
   the profound mystery of your holy incarnation,
   which you have worked for our sake and for our salvation.
Truly there is nothing so great and wonderful as this,
   that you, my God, who are the creator of all things,
   should become a creature,
   so that we should become like God.
You have humbled yourself and made yourself small
   that we might be made mighty.
You have taken the form of a servant,
   so that you might confer upon us a royal and divine beauty.

You, who are beyond our understanding,
   have made yourself understandable to us in Jesus Christ.
You, who are the uncreated God,
   have made yourself a creature for us.
You, who are the untouchable One,
   have made yourself touchable to us.
You, who are most high,
   make us capable of understanding
   your amazing love
   and the wonderful things you have done for us.
Make us able to understand the mystery of your incarnation,
   the mystery of your life, example and doctrine,
   the mystery of your cross and Passion,
   the mystery of your resurrection and ascension.

Angela of Foligno 1248-1309 Italian Franciscan tertiary
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Hebrews 1:1-3

Long ago, at many times and in many ways,
    God spoke to our fathers by the prophets,
    but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son,
    whom he appointed the heir of all things,
    through whom also he created the world.
He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature,
    and he upholds the universe by the word of his power.
After making purification for sins,
    he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high
 
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How do you understand the incarnation of God’s son?

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Let us grow with him

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The Nativity, Federico Barocci 1597, wikimedia commons
 
 
O food and bread of angels,
   the angels are filled by you, are satisfied by you,
   but not to the point of satiety.
They live by you; they have wisdom by you.
By you they are blessed.

Where are you for my sake? In a mean lodging, in a manger.
For whom? He who rules the stars sucks at the breast.
He who speaks in the bosom of the Father is silent in the Mother’s lap.
But he will speak when he reaches a suitable age,
   and will fulfill for us the Gospel.
For our sakes he will suffer, for us he will die.
As an example of our reward, he will rise again.
He will ascend into Heaven before the eyes of his disciples,
   and will come from Heaven to judge the world.

Behold him lying in the manger; he is reduced to tininess,
   yet he has not lost anything of himself.
He has accepted what was not his,
   but he remains what he was.
Look, we have the infant Christ; let us grow with him.

Augustine of Hippo 354-430
Praying to Our Lord Jesus Christ
_____________________________

Who, being 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!
Therefore God exalted him to the highest place
    and gave him the name that is above every name,
that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,
    in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord,
    to the glory of God the Father.
____________________________

How is it that Jesus could be fully God even as he was a tiny baby?
How is Jesus’ birth the beginning of the Gospel fulfillment?

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The birth of our Savior

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Nativity with St Francis and St Lawrence, Caravaggio, via wikimedia commons
 
 
When waves of pain contort Mary’s body
her face is cramped and pale
Her eyes scuttle apart like crabs
The waves pull, recede again

and attack more violently
She clings to the wagon wheel,
grits her teeth, and her screams
terrify the beasts in the stable

Joseph, pacing nervously,
stumbles and falls
At last, seated, he strokes her back,
grasps her hand; his strength flows into her

Then a tremendous power moves within Mary
Like the sun emerging from a mountain ravine
the infant’s head appears slowly, deliberately
Joseph grips it in both hands

Now the baby’s cry flies out, rends the night
Joseph’s doubts dissolve
On the straw bed
Mary peacefully shuts her eyes

Yorifumi Yaguchi, 1932- , Japanese Mennonite poet and pastor
Readings from Mennonite Writings New & Old
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Galatians 4:4-5

But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son,
    born of woman, born under the law,
    to redeem those who were under the law,
    so that we might receive adoption as sons.

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Imagine what the birth of Jesus was like for Mary and Joseph.
How can you give thanks to God for the humble, beautiful birth of Jesus?

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We welcome Your Arrival

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The Birth of Christ, Albrecht Altdorfer c.1513, wikimedia commons
 
Night has fallen; the clear, bright stars are sparkling in the cold air; 
    noisy, strident voices rise to my ear from the city, 
    voices of the revelers of this world who celebrate with merrymaking 
        the poverty of their Savior. 
Around me in their rooms my companions are asleep, 
    and I am still wakeful, thinking of the mystery of Bethlehem.

Come, come, Jesus, I await you. . . .

I am a poor shepherd; 
I have only a wretched stable, a small manger, some wisps of straw. 
I offer all these to you, be pleased to come into my poor hovel. 
I offer you my heart; 
    my soul is poor and bare of virtues, 
    the straws of so many imperfections will prick you and make you weep
    –but oh, my Lord, what can you expect?
This little is all I have. . . . 
I have nothing better to offer you, Jesus, 
    honor my soul with your presence, adorn it with your graces. 
Burn this straw and change it into a soft couch for your most holy body.

Jesus, I am here waiting for your coming. 
Wicked men have driven you out, and the wind is like ice. 
I am a poor man, but I will warm you as well as I can. 
At least be pleased that I wish to welcome you warmly, 
    to love you and sacrifice myself for you.

Amen.

Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli 1881–1963 also Pope John XXIII
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Luke 2:4-7

And Joseph also went up from Galilee, from the town of Nazareth, 
    to Judea, to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem,
  because he was of the house and lineage of David, 
    to be registered with Mary, his betrothed, who was with child.  
And while they were there, the time came for her to give birth. 
And she gave birth to her firstborn son 
    and wrapped him in swaddling cloths 
    and laid him in a manger, 
  because there was no place for them in the inn.
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What is one sacrifice you can make to welcome Jesus anew this Christmas?

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We ask for Good Tidings

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Angels Announcing Christ’s Birth to the Shepherds, Govert Flinck, wikimedia commons
 
Dear God:
The newspaper brings nothing new
    only an old, old story of war—
    more bombing, more shooting, more bloodshed.
    One more family wailing a funeral song.
Against the backdrop of brutal images,
    we hear the old, old story of an angel with good news,
    who brought good tidings of great joy for all people.

Angel of Bethlehem, we long to hear your song again this day.
We want good tidings for countries in crisis.
We want good tidings for people who long to govern themselves.
We want good tidings for soldiers caught in webs of violence.
We want good tidings for all who grieve, and who see no end to grieving.
We want good tidings for terrorists whose actions spread fear and anguish.
We want good tidings for ordinary people who long to live in peace.
We want good tidings for children, who long to inherit a country
    where peace has blossomed.

Jesus, our Savior,
    you escaped Herod’s best-laid plans.
May your Spirit of peace be born again this year
    in the hearts of all who work for peace.  Amen.

Carol Penner, Canadian Mennonite pastor and professor
leadinginworship.com  source 
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Isaiah 9:6-7

For to us a child is born,
    to us a son is given,
    and the government will be on his shoulders.
And he will be called
    Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
    Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
Of the greatness of his government and peace
    there will be no end.
He will reign on David’s throne
    and over his kingdom,
establishing and upholding it
    with justice and righteousness
    from that time on and forever.
The zeal of the Lord Almighty
    will accomplish this.
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In what ways is the coming of Jesus the best news that the world needs to hear?
Who is one person that you can share this news with?

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