This beautiful and thoughtful Advent devotional has been shared through the generosity of Presbyterians for Earth Care.
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2018-Advent-Devotional-Presbyterians for Earth Care, USA
Presbyterians for Earth Care have created thoughtful and challenging, as well as beautiful, Advent and Lenten devotionals for several years. Click here to explore their archive of worship and devotional materials.
Advent brings a time of waiting, sometimes patiently or not so patiently, for the arrival of many things, namely Christ, in our lives. Advent brings a time of hope, of celebrating, of expectant joy. God is coming to live among us!
How beautiful on the mountains
are the feet of those who bring good news,
who proclaim peace,
who bring good tidings,
who proclaim salvation,
who say to Zion,
“Your God reigns!”
Isaiah 52:7
This passage in Isaiah reminds me of Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel’s famous quote about how his feet were praying while marching with Martin Luther King, Jr. in Selma during the Civil Rights Movement. Blessed are the feet of those who bring good news….
This passage reminds me of those speaking out, marching, and demanding protection for our environment. I think of the roots of the trees as feet, of all the living organisms that bring forth good news of life in abundance.
Advent is a time of waiting, but waiting doesn’t mean standing still.
In this season of Advent, we are reminded of all those who have prepared the way for the good news throughout history. The prophets, priestesses, proclaiming the good news, preparing the way for the infancy of this great truth.
It is also a time of Mary singing the lullaby of revolution; the lullaby and joy as resistance to what is the norm in our economic, greed-based society. Those who bring good tidings, peace, and the one who will bring salvation are not for commercialization.
How beautiful on the mountain are the feet of those who bring good news…of those who climb up the famous peaks to get a new vantage point to see the world, to see the
beauty of creation.
This Advent, may we embark on our own journey of movement as we (patiently) await the arrival of joy.
May we sing joy as resistance to the order of things, and practice faith based economics that remind us of creation.
If the world is the theatre for God’s glory, as John Calvin writes, then it is up to us, as human beings, to draw ourselves again and again to the living waters of the world, to protect our environment, and to stand at the mountaintop and see the beauty, and run down to proclaim the Good News.
Joanna Hipp, the editor, is a North Carolina native, residing in Charlotte, North Carolina. She is a member of the presbytery’s Ministry Resource Committee, vice president of the Alum Board of Louisville Seminary and serves on the Charlotte Clergy Coalition for Justice.
The artist is Jessica Jacks.
