Tuesday after Ad te levavi, The First Sunday in Advent
Posted on November 29, 2022 by under
Scripture: Colossians 1:12-23 (NKJV)
1:12 Giving thanks to the Father who has qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in the light. 13 He has delivered us from the power of darkness band conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love, 14 in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins.
15 He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. 16 For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him. 17 And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist. 18 And He is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things He may have the preeminence.
19 For it pleased the Father that in Him all the fullness should dwell, 20 and by Him to reconcile all things to Himself, by Him, whether things on earth or things in heaven, having made peace through the blood of His cross.
21 And you, who once were alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now He has reconciled 22 in the body of His flesh through death, to present you holy, and blameless, and above reproach in His sight—23 if indeed you continue in the faith, grounded and steadfast, and are not moved away from the hope of the gospel which you heard, which was preached to every creature under heaven, of which I, Paul, became a minister.
Devotion
With today’s reading and this week’s collect, we give thanks to the Father by asking our Brother, the Firstborn, to stir up His power, come to our rescue today, and to bring the Last Day soon. In God the Son, the Father has entirely given us the qualifications to partake of the inheritance of those who are holy. That is, as it must always and only be, He has given us holiness in Christ. He has given to us–who were alienated from Him by our sins–the peace that could only be available to us by His perfectly fulfilling the Law, and His suffering and dying on the cross.
St. Paul’s description of this is through the image of power delivering us from power, just as our collect says. “Darkness” is a tyrant power, and it held us (as it holds all people) under its authority and command, as shown by our alienating works. We have received a “mighty deliverance” that even now saves us from “the perils of our sins” and has “conveyed us into the Kingdom.”
We pray that we might be protected from ourselves and the consequences our flesh continues to bring upon us, that we would learn to reckon ourselves as citizens of His Kingdom here, and that we would soon experience in both body and soul what it means that He has transferred our citizenship there.
Prayer: Stir up, we beseech Thee, Thy power, O Lord, and come, that by Thy protection we may be rescued from the threatening perils of our sins, and saved by Thy mighty deliverance; who livest and reignest with the Father and the Holy Ghost, ever One God, world without end. Amen.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
