Book: Psalms

There are no words given to Saint Joseph in all of Scripture, and yet, Joseph is the greatest example of a husband and father in all of humanity. Indeed, Joseph is the most important man who ever lived (apart from Christ). He is here to prove that a good man doesn’t need attention, he doesn’t need to say many words, he doesn’t need to be a superhero. A good man needs to be a righteous man. May we all imitate his uprightness of life and his obedience to God’s commands.

We are not very good at being patient. As devout Christians, we really should be wanting Jesus to return, to judge the living and the dead, being patience while living among a world that hates us. What we shouldn’t be doing is wishing for Jesus to wait until after our lifetimes, as if our own plans are more important than God’s plan of salvation! When the LORD comes should not be our concern; it should be how we prepare for the LORD’s return!

We need Advent to remind us of these responsibilities as we wait for Christ to return. And for that reason, Andrew is the perfect saint to start the Advent season. He also (unsurprisingly) embodies the call of John the Baptist in today’s Gospel reading for the second Sunday of Advent to “bear fruit in keeping with repentance.”

We need to constantly realize that in Christ, we are a new creation. We need to be reminded of this truth by, and for, each other. Christ gives us grace anew so that we are equal to the task of fighting back the darkness, even when the odds and circumstances seem overwhelming. Like Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain, and many other heroes who went before us, we must put on the full armor of God in the battle against evil.

Like many holidays in America, the meaning of Thanksgiving has been totally lost by the majority of Americans. Thanksgiving only has meaning when you know what you’re thankful for, to whom you are thankful, and why you are thankful. Christians must be the first to give thanks to God, even when everything in life goes wrong.

There is only one Kingdom that will last forever! And that Kingdom is the only place we can take refuge. Until Christ comes again, earthly kingdoms will rise and fall. Christians will face persecution, but our hope is in the one who reigns forever.

You can give all the money in the world to the Church and still not be right with God! True stewardship consists of giving God the best of our time and talents, as well as our treasure. Most importantly, right stewardship starts with the condition of the heart. And if we are spiritually fatigued, then our stewardship is going to be limited. We can’t give our best to God if we are running on spiritual fumes!

Do you ever grow tired of hearing the noise of the world around you? Our world has been saturated with evil since the fall of man in the Garden of Eden. For the Christian, it is easy to be discouraged by the many voices that speak out against the Gospel. Even greater is the temptation to give in to them. Here, the Rev. Galloway shares God’s reminder for us to be still, and trust in Christ.

For every Saint whose name we remember, there are a thousand more who silently served and suffered for the sake of the Gospel, and they are as much responsible for the advance of the Gospel as the great heroes of the faith whom we celebrate. We forget this so easily, and this is precisely why we need the heroes of the faith – to encourage us in the ordinary work of Sainthood. The ordinary life is a beautiful thing, because God ordains the ordinary to accomplish His divine and perfect Will.