Weekly Devotion & Prayer - December 12, 2022

Weekly Devotion for December 12, 2022
By Dan Schwerin

An Advent Devotional

Isaiah 7.10-16

Greetings in the grace and hope we have in Jesus the Christ.

I write now, one week after the elections at the NCJ Conference, trying to complete all I can before I transition to a new role. That new role is pulling up to the curb right now.
Our days, like Ahaz, have moments of incomprehension punctuated by the presence of the voice that arrives in epiphany and signs. The House of David would be given a child, a relationship.

Relationships are the essence of creation. Every relationship is a relationship of both sameness and difference. The only way we learn is from difference. Sameness and difference are doors to the interdependence of creation. We are always living into interdependence. We are in it, we breathe it, we tear at its fabric, but by faith living into equity and justice as we follow Jesus.
The child is a budding sign of the Cosmic Christ of Colossian 1:15-20, how all things cohere, in him. Slow down for the signs that come to you that we might see them and mark their significance.

You have been an incarnational presence for me, Wisconsin Conference. As I say yes to a new role, deeper into my sense of calling, let me say a few things:

• Thank you. You are so faithful and resilient, and you have received my humanity with such grace.
• Forgive me. I have made mistakes. Many of them. I am sorry for the harm I have caused.
• I love you. My goodness. I love your faithfulness, your grittiness, your pioneering spirit, and your faith.
• Farewell. Be well. Try new things with the new people you are given. Be well—and pray for me, please.

I love poetry of epiphany, especially haiku. They signal relationships unfolding in seasons right before our eyes. I will leave you with a haiku that is as close as I can come to a toast.
 
his bartending story
while I set up the cups
winter communion
 
I will be praying for you.
Dan