DEVOTION
Turning and Mending (Again)
Devotional for the week of December 7, 2025
Being on the receiving end of sharp language can be heartbreaking. Indeed, words can wound—or worse. John the Baptizer, a key figure in our Advent narratives, finds himself at odds with other religious leaders of the time and uses the tool he has (language) to call attention to their broken relationship. It’s unclear what exactly led to this prickly, pointed exchange between John and the Pharisees and Sadducees, but there is a growing chasm between them.
“Prepare the way of the Lord,” John cries out in the wilderness, echoing the prophet Isaiah. Isaiah cried out in his own day centuries prior, testifying to God’s desire to mend the world (though the world seemed to be at an end). Perhaps John repeats Isaiah’s plea in order to remind the people of his day of God’s intent for all things: for the world to be mended, healed, and made right; for the reign of heaven to be revealed on earth, here and now. Often, however, mending brokenness requires honesty first about the wounds that have been inflicted and the death that has been wrought. With John’s painful honesty, his strained relationship with other leaders of his time takes a step toward healing, toward justice, so that a new beginning might take hold. This is a starting point, as difficult as it may be.
Every Advent, as the church year begins again, we hear the familiar call: Repent. Turn back to God. Repentance is no easy thing, but thankfully, God draws us back to this imperative, year after year, day after day, hour after hour. With infinite mercy, once again God invites us to turn toward healing, toward justice, toward the righting of the world, one relationship at a time.
Devotional message based on the readings for December 7, 2025, reprinted from
sundaysandseasons.com.
Copyright © 2023 Augsburg Fortress. All rights reserved.
This Week's Featured Resource
Remind Me Again: Poems and Practices for Remembering Who We Are
Poetry can offer reminders for ourselves, each other, and the world. Poet, artist, and educator Joe Davis has written
Remind Me Again: Poems and Practices for Remembering Who We Are, a collection of 41 poems that will inspire, challenge, and affirm readers from all stages of life. These poems speak to our mind, body, and spirit, to our community, and to our purpose.
Advent Signs
Devotional for the week of November 30, 2025
Few things in life are as jarring as awakening to the shriek of a fire alarm. Of course, that is by design. The safety of those gathered indoors calls for a blaring warning of impending danger so that all might be delivered from harm. Jesus offers a similar signal to his beloveds today, begging us to pay attention to the seriousness of the message he bears: Be ready! Keep awake! Pay attention to your surroundings! Deliverance is coming soon!
Advent is a season of preparation, directing our focus toward the incarnation, toward Christmas, when God becomes human and the weary world rejoices. Sometimes preparations take the form of monthslong laborious planning, as we might do for an international trip or the renovation of a home. Other times, preparations must happen immediately, within hours, minutes, or seconds. When a fire alarm sounds, there’s no time to plan: we must act quickly, gathering what is most important to get to safety together.
This first Sunday of Advent is a chance to take stock of what is most important in life, to attune our spirits to the reign of heaven that God is birthing in our world. We may be unsettled by these gospel images of the great flood and of field workers disappearing. Such stories indeed may spark fear, anxiety, and distrust. Yet God comes to be with us amid all the great uncertainties of life, amid the atrocities of human violence, amid the worst of our losses and fears. Jesus reminds us that God is always drawing near to the world, always extending mercy, and always acting with love. Mercy and love are Advent signs worth paying attention to, worth staying awake for. Be ready, beloveds, and fear not! God’s deliverance is coming soon.
Devotional message based on the readings for November 30, 2025, reprinted from
sundaysandseasons.com.
Copyright © 2023 Augsburg Fortress. All rights reserved.
This Week's Featured Resource
Humble and Holy: Devotions for Advent and Christmas 2025-2026
Humble and Holy continues a centuries-old Christian tradition of setting aside time to prepare for the celebration of Jesus’ birth and to anticipate his return. The Advent season of preparation then unfolds in the joy of the twelve days of Christmas and the day of Epiphany.
This devotional offers daily devotions from the first Sunday of Advent (November 30, 2025) through Epiphany (January 6, 2026). The writers bring their unique voices and pastoral wisdom to these texts and offer the voices of other witnesses in the quotations they have chosen in the “To ponder” sections. The devotional also provides household blessings and prayers (see pages 81-93) to enrich your preparations and celebrations during the Advent and Christmas seasons.
The Servant King
Devotional for the week of November 23, 2025
Many congregations will sing a hymn this Sunday that declares, “Crown him the Lord of life, who triumphed o’er the grave and rose victorious in the strife for those he came to save” (ELW 855). This is an image of a conquering hero who fought Satan and won. Hail to the king! But that is not the king we are presented with in today’s gospel reading. Jesus is a broken, rejected man hanging naked in public shame, dying for a capital offense, sandwiched between two criminals.
Many people struggle to think of Jesus as king because of the negative actions of historical kings. Kings have too often been men wielding power for their own gain, sitting on thrones upheld by patriarchy and wealth. Furthering this negative image are colonialism and the kings who issued decrees to ravage and control people in their native land. Neither is this the image of Christ the king in today’s reading.
At Gonzaga University (Spokane, Washington), a focus on servant leadership is offered as a concentration in the master’s program in organizational leadership. Its focuses are forgiveness and restorative justice, listening and discerning, community-building, foresight and strategy, and transformational thinking. Doesn’t that sound a lot more like the leadership of Jesus?
Perhaps we are reminded of the hard parts of Jesus’ journey to draw our attention to his purpose and the focus of his teachings. He wasn’t a conqueror, and he didn’t wield power for his own gain. He hung naked on the cross to be the ultimate servant leader. We claim Jesus as our king because of his servant leadership—his focus on forgiveness and restoration, building community, and thinking in transformational ways. Hail the servant king!
Devotional message based on the readings for November 23, 2025, reprinted from
sundaysandseasons.com.
Copyright © 2023 Augsburg Fortress. All rights reserved.
This Week's Featured Resource
The Helplessness of God:
Biblical models of leadership
Many people are uncomfortable with the way in which leadership has been exercised within Christianity, and in this book Nicholas King looks at what the Bible tells us about the exercise of authority. The message is that human beings, with the exception of Jesus, always get it wrong, unless they are prepared to 'lead by listening' or exercise authority as an act of loving service. For the only absolute authority is God. Why speak of 'the helplessness of God'? Because God is voluntarily dependent on our response, helpless until we make our decision, and will not force us to choose our own good. God's love is never tyrannical, always utterly respectful of human freedom. That must be the way ahead for authority in the Church.
Honoring Creators of Justice
Devotional for the week of November 16, 2025
This week’s gospel reading is a part of an apocalyptic speech Jesus gives in the temple. Jesus’ talk of war can be alarming to our ears. We want to hear him speak about peace and love and mercy. However, there is much in this world that is scary and violent. Jesus would not be doing his pastoral due diligence if he did not talk about these things. Jesus reminds us that, yes, things are going to get bad. But he calls us to cling to our faith and respond to God’s charge that we love and serve our neighbor. And by this, he assures us, we bring about the kingdom.
November 11 is honored as Veterans Day in the United States and Remembrance Day in Canada. Originally it was called Armistice Day to commemorate the ending of World War I and the signing of a ceasefire. It signaled the end of the violence.
An “armistice” is an agreement to stop fighting, to bring about peace. But as Martin Luther King Jr. famously observed, “Peace is not the absence of conflict but the presence of justice.” Jesus tells us that violence will happen, but our calling as baptized Christians is to live in the promise of his grace and to go out into the world to be creators of justice and peace.
This week, as we honor and remember those who have served and experienced the violence Jesus speaks of, we must heed Jesus’ pastoral words of hope: “Do not be afraid.” In the midst of chaos and fear, Jesus gives us his strength and the wisdom to follow him. Blessed are all who work toward armistice in service of peace and justice.
Devotional message based on the readings for November 16, 2025, reprinted from
sundaysandseasons.com.
Copyright © 2023 Augsburg Fortress. All rights reserved.
Important dates to remember
Friday, November 21, pick up pre-order dinners between This Sunday, November 23
Prayerful Perseverance
Devotional for the week of October 26, 2025
Whether you have lived in several places or very few, you probably have a method for transforming a space to live into a home. Maybe you put family photos on the walls, set out mementos, or spread a favorite quilt on the bed. These touches are important if we want to feel like we belong in a new space.
Jesus offered the gift of belonging to people who newly believed in him, but they had a hard time accepting it. He said if they would continue, or abide, in his word, they would be his disciples, know his truth, and be set free. They would receive the gift of belonging to his household forever.
To us the listeners’ response is surprising, as if the new believers had shut their ears as soon as they heard Jesus say, “The truth will make you free.” They didn’t want to accept that there was anything they needed to be set free from. On a deeper level, they didn’t want to believe that someone else would need to set them free. Jesus’ words invite us to reflect on where our freedom comes from, and where we belong, as his disciples.
On Reformation Sunday, we celebrate how the Holy Spirit is constantly reforming the church, the community of Jesus’ disciples. We give thanks for the gospel message that Jesus saves us from sin and death through his cross and resurrection. We don’t have to earn our salvation; we can simply trust that Jesus is the one who makes it possible. That’s how we receive genuine freedom—as a gift of God’s grace. Thanks to Jesus, we have a permanent home. No matter how many times we move, we abide with Jesus forever. This festival day encourages us to keep listening to Jesus’ word, growing in faith as his disciples, and giving thanks that with him, we are always at home.
Devotional message based on the readings for October 26, 2025, reprinted from
sundaysandseasons.com.
Copyright © 2023 Augsburg Fortress. All rights reserved.
This Week's Featured Resource
Christ in Our Home: Quarterly Devotionals
Christ in Our Home is a quarterly devotional resource that encourages readers to live out their faith daily. Each reflective reading is accompanied by a daily scripture reference and prayer for the day that follows the Revised Common Lectionary.