2025 Advent Devotion: Day 5

Friday, December 5

Isaiah 30:19-26; Acts 13:16-25

Seminarians have always been encouraged to have a “sermon in their pocket,” one ready to go as the occasion arises. Folk in some churches might ask for a sermon even on a day one anticipated a visit only! Being ready with something to say, then, is, wise. One strategy is to have the testimony of God at work in the world through the many people and occasions of Scripture. Paul took just such an opportunity on the occasion of his visit to the synagogue in Antioch.

According to Acts 13, the synagogue leaders extended the invitation to Paul and others after a reading from the Law and the Prophets. Paul takes the opportunity and gives a summation of God at work in the world in relation to the Hebrew people in Egypt and their wilderness wanderings. In this, Paul appeals to Genesis—Deuteronomy, the Law. Then, starting with mention of judges, then Samuel, Saul, and David, Paul appeals to the Prophets, specifically the Former Prophets or the books of Joshua—Kings. For the occasion, Paul extends the focus of God’s work in the world beyond the Old Testament to John the Baptist and Jesus.

Paul’s sermon is actually a biblical pattern of rehearsing God’s work in the world before adding to it from one’s own time and experience. Within the Law and the Prophets themselves, the pattern is there for us to consider. Look how Deuteronomy 8:14-16, 11:2-6, and 29:2-9 rehearse specific works of God first presented in Exodus—Numbers. Consider then how Joshua 24:2-13 rehearses specific works of God from Abraham in Genesis to Jericho in the book of Joshua itself. Samuel gets his turn as well, according to 1 Samuel 12:8-12, mentioning among others Jacob from Genesis and Exodus, Jephthah and Samson from Judges, and Nahash the Ammonite, who is first presented just one chapter earlier in 1 Samuel 11:1! Add Ezra in Nehemiah 9, and Hebrews 11 to this list of rehearsals, and we have something of a rolling testimony from one to the next that updates it along the way!

These passages are good for us to consider. They remind us of specific occasions of God’s work in the world as accounted in the Old and New Testaments. In addition, they invite our own additions to the rolling testimony as we find God at work in our own place and time.

I’m willing to bet that at Christmas we each think through several generations or more of family members and the traditions we’ve learned from them specific to the Christmas season. Perhaps we think also about how God saw them through their times of challenge, as God saw the biblical folk through theirs.

As we rehearse these things, let’s consider what we would claim from the past year to add to this generational testimony. Then, let’s find a time to share our “pocket sermon” of testimony about God’s work in the world with our family and friends, especially about the Christmas Child, even Christ our Lord, in whom Christmas begins and ends.

Cal Robertson
Professor of Biblical Studies