This area for temporary and important messaging. COVID RESOURCES

Apply
Your Journey Starts Here
Apply
Donate
Support Our Mission
Donate

Advent Meditation: Tuesday, December 8, 2020

:


Psalm 27  •  Isaiah 4:2-6  •  Acts 11:1-18

Who was I that I could hinder God? (Acts 11:17)
In today’s reading from Acts, Peter receives a vision in which he is reminded that human practices are often at odds with God’s divine way. In the vision, God instructs Peter to eat animals considered unclean under Jewish law; when Peter refuses, God replies, “What God has made clean, you must not call profane.”
Peter then applies this teaching from God to the Jewish-Christian practice of shunning uncircumcised Christian Gentiles. If Christ has welcomed them in baptism, Peter concludes, who are we to deem them unworthy? Who are we to hinder God?
Which makes me wonder: How might I be hindering God with my own personal standards for the acceptance of others — or even myself? How might those standards be blocking the approach of Wisdom?
According to the text, the vision “happened three times” before the message got through. I like this detail; if Peter needed extra practice with a concept, there may be hope for me. It also rings true. The teachings we most need are not usually one-offs. They recur across our lives. They keep showing up until we can receive them.
Repeated teachings are signs not of our failure, though, but of God’s persistence. They are signs that nothing we do can hinder the coming, and coming again, of God.

Soften our hearts, O God, so that we may herald rather than hinder your coming.

Dr. Claire Colombo
Assistant Professor of Writing, Theology, and the Arts and Director of the Center for Writing and Creative Expression
Seminary of the Southwest
Listen to Claire read her meditation and prayer:


Dr. Claire Miller Colombo, as director of the seminary’s writing center, facilitates the delivery of writing support services for all students and develops writing- and arts-related programming for the entire community. She oversees the publication of Soul by Southwest, the seminary’s literary and arts journal, and hosts Soul in the Cityan event series featuring musicians and other artists from the wider Austin community. Colombo has served on the seminary’s faculty since 2012, teaching in the areas of writing, theology, and aesthetics, and she is co-author with Cynthia Briggs Kittredge of Colossians in the Wisdom Commentary series (Liturgical Press, 2017). Colombo develops religion curricula for Loyola Press of Chicago and writes literature, language arts, and humanities curricula for several other major publishers. She serves on the editorial team of Theopoetics: A Journal of Theological Imagination, Literature, Embodiment, and Aesthetics.

 


The Advent Meditations and Prayers are a gift to our seminary community and are made possible through gifts to our Annual Fund. Seminary of the Southwest appreciates the support of its friends, alumni, and the communities around the world that its graduates serve for the glory of God. This support ensures that Southwest, as an institution made of individuals dedicated to service to God and their fellow members of the body of Christ, can continue doing its part to build the body of Christ.

Theological Degrees

Learn more about a Master of Divinity, a Diploma of Anglican Studies, or other programs that lead to ordination.

Clinical Mental Health Counseling

Learn about a CACREP accredited Master of Mental Health Counseling Degree.

Ways to Support

Learn about opportunities to support  Southwest through Annual Fund, Scholarships, and more.

Looking for Something?

Apply Now (MHC and MSF)

Apply Now (MDiv, MAR, and DAS)