Daily Lesson for December 12, 2019

Today’s Daily Lesson comes from Matthew chapter 2 verses 13 through 15:


13 When they had gone, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream. “Get up,” he said, “take the child and his mother and escape to Egypt. Stay there until I tell you, for Herod is going to search for the child to kill him.”
14 So he got up, took the child and his mother during the night and left for Egypt, 15 where he stayed until the death of Herod. And so was fulfilled what the Lord had said through the prophet: “Out of Egypt I called my son.”

Every Sunday of Advent the lights in the sanctuary dim and and a single candle is brought forth into the darkened space. Then a strong and consulate voice is heard:

“O come, O come, Emmanuel
And ransom captive Israel
That mourns in lonely exile here
Until the Son of God appear . . .”

The Advent season is a time of waiting. The captives wait in darkness, in exile, in Egypt. They mourn. They grieve. They suffer. They pine. They endure.

And then a light appears — a star in the sky, a burning bush in the desert, a proclamation of emancipation from someone somewhere that says, “Arise, shine, your light has come.” And suddenly the exile turns to exodus. And mourning to laughter. And the long, midnight of hell to the hard, yet joyous road to starting again . . .