Scripture: Romans 6:16 (Common English Bible)
Don’t you know that if you offer yourselves to someone as obedient slaves, that you are slaves of the one whom you obey? That’s true whether you serve as slaves of sin, which leads to death, or as slaves of the kind of obedience that leads to righteousness.
Thought for the Day: In her book, A Fruit Always in Season, Mother Teresa writes:
At this Christmas when Christ comes,
will He find a warm heart?
Mark the season of Advent
by loving and serving the others
with God’s own love and concern.
Tomorrow officially begins Advent for Christians around the globe. In a time of violence and division, fear and distrust, the words of Mother Teresa are both challenging and troubling. Yet their discomforting quality does not make them any less important for us. One of the ways Advent meets us is by suggesting strange or even absurd ideas, and then clearly saying to us, “This is the way of God’s righteousness.” Allow yourself to be pushed a little this Advent season, nudged out of your usual and comfortable ways.
Prayer: I know your grace is with me, O Righteous Lord, and with that gift I am willing to step outside of what I know and claim as comfortable. Even with this grace, I ask you to guide me ever so gently. Amen.
TOMORROW
The First Sunday of Advent
Hope Sunday
