Devotional for the Third Sunday of Advent

When I had the chance to give the message during worship on Epiphany Sunday several years ago, I learned that “epiphany” means “the appearance or manifestation of the divine.” The Christmas story has not one but two big epiphanies: one to the shepherds and one to the wise men, which struck me as having an illuminating difference. Each story can speak to us in a distinctive way as Christians.

The story of the shepherds is a story of God coming to us: a choir of angels breaking in upon shepherds going about their ordinary sheep-tending business on a cold winter’s night. Shazoom! Kaboom! The skies open up and the angels sing. Wow. What was THAT? It resonates deeply with our understanding of what grace is and how it works in our lives. Grace is unmerited, unearned, undeserved. Grace is the same payment given to the laborer who arrives in the fields at dusk as to the laborer who arrives to toil at dawn. Grace is salvation through faith, not works. Grace means, quite simply, that we don’t have to do anything to receive God’s love, we just have to be. The story of the shepherds tells us to expect the unexpected, to be prepared for the divine to break out amidst the most ordinary and humdrum of activities.

In this Advent season, I’m prepared to be surprised by the holy. I’m expecting it to come upon me unawares.

Let this be a season of sacred surprises!

 

—Claudia Mills