Love, the Guest

Daily, except Sundays from November 28th to January 6th

Image: Icon of the Nativity of the Mother of God.
St. Anne is figured with the midwives who are celebrating with a feast. (Private image)

Advent is a time when we begin to mark the closing of the year and reckon all of its challenges and blessings. Advent also represents the turn of the church calendar year, and the beginning of new hope. Throughout the Advent and Christmas seasons, we take pleasure in bringing people together, to offer and share in abundant hospitality. This Advent, we may be feeling somewhat more able to offer that hospitality than we could last year, but we are also mindful of the many who are still not able to gather fully, or whose resources have been depleted. How can we both celebrate hospitality and also encourage a greater hospitality in each other?

This year’s Advent devotional is inspired by a minor player in the nativity story — the inn. There was no room at the inn for Mary, Joseph and the soon-to-be born Jesus. The Greek word used for ‘inn’ in Luke’s gospel is found only one other time in the New Testament: when Jesus instructs the disciples to go into a Jerusalem inn to make preparations for the Passover. He tells them to say that “the Teacher” is inquiring, make clear his knowledge that they will be accommodated. The room in this inn will become the site of the Last Supper and be later known to us as the “upper room”. Thus, the word used in a story of rejection becomes the word that leads to a transformed understanding of who Jesus is and will be. How can our own hospitality offer comfort and even a bit of transformation to those we love?

Join us every day except Sunday, from November 28th until January 6th, as we celebrate the moments of hospitality in Scripture, small and large, from across the many books of the bible and within a complex variety of contexts. We will also explore some contemporary stories of hospitality and generosity that take place year round. Let us come together to make room in the inn of our hearts for Jesus.

May God bless you on your Advent journey!

~ from Lutherans Connect Facebook page

This on-line devotional can be accessed from the Lutherans Connect Facebook page or their blog.

The Lutherans Connect online devotional projects are supported by the Eastern Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada, through its Mission Committee partnerships.