December 7, 2010 Praying the Advent Season

Candle Lighting: Come, Lord Jesus.

Opening Prayer:

Stir up our hearts, Lord God
To prepare the way of your only Son
By his coming, nurture our growth
As a people of repentance and peace.

Today’s reading is from Paul’s letter to the Romans - 15:14-21

Paul the Minister to the Gentiles 14 I myself am convinced, my brothers and sisters, that you yourselves are full of goodness, filled with knowledge and competent to instruct one another. 15 Yet I have written you quite boldly on some points to remind you of them again, because of the grace God gave me 16 to be a minister of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles. He gave me the priestly duty of proclaiming the gospel of God, so that the Gentiles might become an offering acceptable to God, sanctified by the Holy Spirit.
17 Therefore I glory in Christ Jesus in my service to God. 18 I will not venture to speak of anything except what Christ has accomplished through me in leading the Gentiles to obey God by what I have said and done— 19 by the power of signs and wonders, through the power of the Spirit of God. So from Jerusalem all the way around to Illyricum, I have fully proclaimed the gospel of Christ. 20 It has always been my ambition to preach the gospel where Christ was not known, so that I would not be building on someone else’s foundation. 21 Rather, as it is written: “Those who were not told about him will see,
and those who have not heard will understand.”[g]

Who has never been told of Christ’s love? Who has never heard of him and does not yet understand? Paul’s stated mission was to the Gentiles, the non-religious of the day. To them he brought the good news of God’s love in Christ Jesus. He preached that God’s love was for all – Gentile and Jew, slave and free, male and female.
But there is another mission too, to those who are familiar with the name of Christ. The religious can be as blind and deaf to the name of Christ as those who have never heard it. But thanks be to God that one day we will all see and hear and understand, for the name of Christ, by the power of the Spirit seeps into villages and jungles as surely as it seeps into hardened hearts and anxious souls.

Dear Lord,
Help us to see thy word. May the Holy Spirit open our hearts as we read your scripture and hear your word preached. May our hearts fill to bursting that we, as Paul, may see the good in people…all people and invite them to hear your word with us. We especially ask your blessing on the members of the OSLC Welcoming & Visiting committee as they call upon our Sevier County neighbors, inviting them to join us for worship. Amen

Called as God's people;
Equipped by the Holy Spirit;
Sent to boldly proclaim the love of Jesus Christ to all people
Thanks to: The Lutheran Theological Seminary of Philadelphia, ELCA