Narrative Lectionary Key Verse for Today
“Here is my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen, in whom my soul delights; I have put my spirit upon him; he will bring forth justice to the nations.”
NL Daily Devotion for Sunday, December 11, 2022
by Dr. Kimberly Leetch, Clergy Stuff
Main Idea: God promised to do a new thing with an old covenant, and it’s coming. Soon.
God spoke to a weary, exiled people—a people that had suffered because of their own failure to walk alongside God. God would not let them suffer indefinitely. One day God would send a servant. This servant would have God’s spirit. He would bring forth justice not with a shout or might, but with strength and faith.
God would renew God’s covenant with God’s people, but in a new way. God would use this servant to bring light to darkness, to free prisoners, to bring God’s people back so that they might worship only God once again. God would do a new thing with an old covenant.
On this third Sunday in Advent, we too can become weary of waiting. We are weary of consumerism, of war, of cold, of a seemingly unending cycle of seasons, spending, enduring, and then doing it all again.
What if this season we took God true to God’s word and acknowledged the freedom, light, and joy that comes with stepping off the hamster wheel and living in a new way, according to the newness offered by God through the servant, Jesus. What if we stepped into this Christmas with new eyes, new goals, and new expectations? What God might do with us then!