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ADVENT MEDITATIONS – SUNDAY, DECEMBER 18

Psalm 24,29; Isaiah 42:1-12; John 3:16-21

 
Listen to the author read their meditation and prayer:
The Rev. Dr. Javier Alanis, Advent Meditation
 
Advent is a season of light and darkness. We light Advent candles during Sunday worship to signal2016_advent_cover_large the hope and expectation of the promised Messiah. The annual ritual dispels the darkness of the winter season and of hearts grown cold by neglect of love. As the candle flame flickers we recall the ancient promise made to Abraham and Sarah of descendants too numerous to count.
We remember the promise made to King David that his lineage would include an heir whose reign would last forever. Ancient promises are once again renewed in the light of Advent. We wait. We hope. We long for the fulfillment of the promise made to an ancient people, a promise now our own. We await the coming of the holy one who will dispel the darkness from our lives and renew our hope for a brighter future.
It is a time to take stock of everything that keeps us in the dark. We reflect on those areas of our lives that yearn for freedom from darkness. We want to believe the truth that love overcomes evil. We look within to examine what might impede spiritual growth and realize that in looking we are set free. The story will invite us to believe that “God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.”
Light overcomes the darkness.
 
Savior of the world, Be born again in our hearts that we might share in your divinity as you share in our humanity. Amen.
 
Rev. Dr. Javier (Jay) Alanis, ‘92
Executive Director
LUTHERAN SEMINARY PROGRAM OF THE SOUTHWEST
AUSTIN, TEXAS


jay-alanis Professor Alanis was appointed Interim Executive Director of LSPS in July 2009. Prior to that he had been Associate Professor of Theology, Culture and Mission, as well as Associate Academic Dean. His academic interests include liberation theology and ethics from the underside of history; missiology in a multicultural context; and peace and justice concerns as they relate to the role of the church in society, and in particular along the U.S.-Mexican border. He has a particular interest in Hispanic/Latino theology and ethics and the contribution that U.S. liberation theologians bring to the theological roundtable. He also brings with him training in spiritual direction and formation as a discipline and model for the spiritual life and the vocational discernment process. After graduation from LSPS in 1992, he served as pastor of Trinity Lutheran Church in San Antonio for four years. During that time he chaired the Southwestern Texas Synod’s Multicultural Committee and Anti-Racism Team. He has written numerous articles on the Image of God from a Hispanic/Latino perspective and is currently working on a borderlands hermeneutics as a lens for understanding and interpreting the ethical response to migration.

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