Wednesday – December 2
Psalm 119:1-24; Amos 3:12-4:5; Matthew 21:23-32
Listen to the author read their meditation and prayer:
The Rev. Dr. Nathan Jennings Advent Meditation
The Psalmist sings, “oh, that my ways were made so direct that I might keep your statutes.” In the face of the word from Amos today, we beg the same from God. We do not want to go to Bethel and transgress, to Gilgal and multiply transgression. But we find that the very thing we do not want to do we do again and again. Who are we today?
Are we like that son who said to his father, “I go, sir,” but failed to make good? Or are we like that son who was insolent but, in the end, did what he was asked? “My soul is consumed at all times with longing for your judgments,” we cry out with the Psalmist.
In the end, whether we obey or not, whether we are insolent or acquiescent, the glory belongs to the Lord. In this season of Advent, all we can do is wait for our salvation. There is no formula, no step by step set of commandments to follow. There is only the waiting. And the promised grace.
Father of Lights, from whom all good and perfect gifts descend; Father of the incarnate Word: make our ways direct, that in keeping your Word, we may live in him, and he in us, even your only Son our Lord; through whom we pray. Amen.
The Rev. Dr. Nathan Jennings
J. Milton Richardson Associate Professor of
Liturgics and Anglican Studies
SEMINARY OF THE SOUTHWEST
The Rev. Dr. Nathan Jennings is the Milton Richardson Associate Professor of Liturgics and Anglican Studies at the Seminary of the Southwest. A native of Austin, Professor Jennings returned to his hometown when he joined the faculty of Seminary of the Southwest in 2005. Jennings has also served as the Director of the Anglican Studies Program at Seminary of the Southwest since 2008. Jennings is interested in liturgical theology, dogmatic theology, ascetical theology, theological hermeneutics and the way these disciplines intersect and inform one another. His book, Theology as Ascetic Act: Disciplining Christian Discourse, published in 2010, represents a light revision of his doctoral dissertation and argues that Christian teaching and reflection are embodied acts analogous to, and part of, Christian asceticism. Jennings has published various book reviews and articles in journals and collections. He is currently working on a book that will provide a liturgical theology of sacred text and its interpretation. In teaching, Jennings reflects on liturgy theologically as that which enables participation in God and God’s work in the world. In addition to the required liturgy and Anglican studies courses, Jennings offers elective seminars in Liturgical and Sacramental Theology, Liturgical Hermeneutics, and occasional seminars on Anglican Divines and Church Fathers. BA, University of Texas; MDiv, Yale Divinity School; MA and PhD, University of Virginia
