PRINCETON UMC
DEVOTIONAL
Check out our Advent Devotional! Use it to supplement as you follow along with our worship series for Advent - "Making Room."
Making Room for God's Welcome
Rev. Jenny Smith Walz
First, God welcomes us, inviting us to be enfolded in God’s welcome, in the abundance of life and mercy, joy and peace. As we prepare to welcome Christ once again, may we make room for God’s welcome. We are both host and guest. Any welcome we in turn offer is rooted in God’s welcome of us and in God’s covenant law, which reminds us that we ought to show this Godly radical hospitality because we, too, were once strangers in Egypt, in need of welcome.
December 1, 2024
Making Room for the Lord
Rev. Tayler Necoechea
John the Baptist urges his listeners to prepare for the coming of God. To make room for God’s arrival, John says we must repent from our sins. We must also be ready for the overturning of the world as we know it. The good news is that this arrival of God is not just for us, but for the whole world!
December 8, 2024
Making Room for Others
Rev. Jenny Smith Walz
John the Baptist urges us to repentance and right relationship. As we take note of the ways that live with ourselves at the center, rather than making room for the needs and well-being of others, we see how we cut ourselves off from God, from others, and from the fullness of life. Repentance, turning around, living and acting differently makes room for others, after God’s own heart.
December 15, 2024
Making Room for the Stranger
Rev. Jenny Smith Walz
Wrapped in Elizabeth’s welcoming embrace, Mary boldly proclaims that God makes room for all kinds of people, especially favoring the hungry and the lowly. The Mighty One flips systems upside down, reorienting our priorities.
We are invited to make room for those who seem different from us. And in doing so, we might just find that we aren’t so different from each other after all.
December 22, 2024
Christmas Eve | 4 p.m.
Making Room in Ourselves
Rev. Tayler Necoechea
As we recall the familiar story of searching for a room at the inn, the birth of Jesus, and the shepherd’s visit, we are also compelled to ask ourselves: where can we make room for Jesus within us? All of us! Jesus wants to be invited even into the messy, hidden part of ourselves.
December 24, 2024
Christmas Eve | 8 p.m.
Making Room in the Neighborhood
Rev. Jenny Smith Walz
Even though there is “no room in the inn”, Jesus pitches his tent and moves into the neighborhood. Our neighborhood! Right in our midst! Jesus’ act of making room among us invites us to make room for Jesus and all of the others that Jesus invites into his embrace (including our very messy selves).
December 24, 2024
Making Room for Jesus and the Least of These
Rev. Tayler Necoechea
Jesus proclaims to us that when we make room for the hungry, homeless, and forgotten people in our society, we are making room for him.
When we make room, clothe, feed, serve, and remember the stranger, we can see Christ’s image in them and be blessed.
December 29, 2024