Second Sunday in Advent

As I mentioned in a previous blog post, I took a Lay Servant training class in my church. It was a class to teach people to give better sermons for the times when they might fill in for their pastor. Though I have no plans on preaching anytime soon, it did give me a few good pointers. In my blogging, I would like to be able to write at least one a week, if not two or even three, and sometimes ideas are hard to come by, so it gave me the idea to look at the lectionary that some pastors use to base their sermons on.

A lectionary is a book or listing that contains a collection of scripture readings for worship on a given day or occasion. Which the previous blog post, Assignment: Just the Right Time, was based on the lectionary reading for that week. I had used 1 Timothy 2: 1-7 and wrote a rather good five minute sermon. And again, thought I don't plan on preaching soon, having a weekly five minute devotional or something like that could be fun.

So I decided to look at the lectionary for the second Sunday in Advent. When I was reading it I felt a theme in them, one that I thought might be useful to today. The four readings were Isaiah 11:1-10,
Psalm 72:1-7, 18-19, Romans 15:4-13, and Matthew 3:1-12. I found Psalms to be an interesting one for me.

1 Give your love of justice to the king, O God,
and righteousness to the king’s son.
2 Help him judge your people in the right way;
let the poor always be treated fairly.
3 May the mountains yield prosperity for all,
and may the hills be fruitful.
4 Help him to defend the poor,
to rescue the children of the needy,
and to crush their oppressors.
5 May they fear you as long as the sun shines,
as long as the moon remains in the sky.
Yes, forever!
6 May the king’s rule be refreshing like spring rain on freshly cut grass,
like the showers that water the earth.
7 May all the godly flourish during his reign.
May there be abundant prosperity until the moon is no more.
8 May he reign from sea to sea,
and from the Euphrates River to the ends of the earth.
9 Desert nomads will bow before him;
his enemies will fall before him in the dust.
18 Praise the lord God, the God of Israel,
who alone does such wonderful things.
19 Praise his glorious name forever!
Let the whole earth be filled with his glory.
Amen and amen!

I look at this as more than just a song by Solomon, this seems to me to be a prayer. And now that his election cycle is over, we have many new leaders and some staying the same. Instead of fighting, we should be uniting. We should be praying for our leaders. If I were the psalmist today I would have started off "Give your love of justice to our president, O God, and Righteousness to our Supreme Courts. Help them to judge your people in the right way and to treat the poor fairly."

This should be the prayer Christians have. That whoever the leader is, that he is fair, just and does what is right for the people. I know there are Christians on both sides of the line. But the truth is, it truly doesn't matter who is leading us. in the end we belong to the Lord. He is our leader. But no one wants a hard and terrible time, so we should keep praying. Not just for the leaders, but for the rest of the nation as well. Maybe the psalmist would continue like this:  "Bless our lands to be prosperous and fruitful. Help our leaders to defend the poor, rescue the children who are in need and bring justice to those who would harm them. Lord teach this nation to fear you again. May the changes be new and refreshing and bring about an unrivaled prosperity to our nation. Praise the Lord God, who alone can do such wonderful things. Praise His glorious name forever and let the earth be filled with His Glory."

Either way, as we go into the holidays here, Hanukkah starting on the 24th, Christmas on the 25, Kwanzaa starting on the 26th, or Festivus, or even Bacon Day (if that is your thing(which bacon is delicious so even if your a vegan its ok to eat bacon on this day, it doesn't count because its your duty to eat it.)) we should be praying for, uniting with, loving, and protecting the people that we call neighbors in this country. How nice it would be if people just replaced their hate, indifference, or intolerance for one month with love.