Friday, December 18

Psalms 40, 54; Zechariah 7:8-8:8; Matthew 25:14-30

Listen to the author read their meditation and prayer:

Dr. Steve Bishop Advent Meditation

The season of Advent feels, to me, like a homecoming.  The joyful anticipation that is marked by the deliberate progression toward the announcement of Christ’s birth fills the weeks leading up to the celebration of God becoming human and dwelling among us.  Zechariah 8:7-8 anticipates a homecoming for the Judean exiles: “Thus says the LORD of hosts: I will save my people from the east country and from the west country; and I will bring them to live in Jerusalem. They shall be my people and I will be their God, in faithfulness and in righteousness.”

These words ring out with hope and promise.  The season of displacement comes to an end and God takes up residence with us in ‘faithfulness’ and ‘righteousness.’  Annually we remember, we gather, and we celebrate God’s act of graciousness to become one of us and live among us.  We participate in the ancient promise through a new and robust expression in Christ’s birth.

Our spiritual ancestors found comfort in God’s declaration of a homecoming where God’s presence would be experienced anew.  May we find comfort and joy as we experience the advent of our Lord.

 Our hearts are open to You, O God, as we remember Your faithfulness through the birth of Jesus. Amen.

Dr. Steve Bishop
Associate Professor of Old Testament
SEMINARY OF THE SOUTHWEST

Dr. Bishop came to the Seminary of the Southwest from the Boston area in 2004 where he earned three graduate degrees and taught at several universities. Formerly an ordained minister of the Church of Christ, he served churches in Texas and Massachusetts before beginning graduate studies in the early 1990s. Dr. Bishop’s academic interests include the poetry of the Hebrew Bible and literary translations of it into English, and the influence of Hellenistic thought on Hebrew wisdom literature. In addition to writing book reviews and presenting scholarly papers, Dr. Bishop assisted the well known Old Testament scholar Bernhard Anderson in editing and revising two books: Out of the Depths: The Psalms Speak for us Today and Contours of Old Testament Theology. Dr. Bishop worked again with Anderson as an editor and contributor for the fifth edition of Understanding the Old Testament. That book was published in spring 2006. B.S., Abilene Christian University. M.S., Texas A&M University. M.T.S., Boston University School of Theology. M.A. and Ph.D., Boston University.