3rd Friday in Advent (December 17) I have come to do your will, O God

Prepare to Listen.  Light the pink candle and the first 2 purple candles.  Be still with this reminder: The Lord’s mercy is for those who fear him from generation to generation.
 
Prayerfully Read Hebrews 10:5-10
5Consequently, when Christ came into the world, he said,
‘Sacrifices and offerings you have not desired,
    but a body you have prepared for me;
6in burnt-offerings and sin-offerings
    you have taken no pleasure.
7Then I said, “See, God, I have come to do your will, O God”
    (in the scroll of the book it is written of me).’
8When he said above, ‘You have neither desired nor taken pleasure in sacrifices and offerings and burnt-offerings and sin-offerings’ (these are offered according to the law), 9then he added, ‘See, I have come to do your will.’  He abolishes the first in order to establish the second.  10And it is by God’s will that we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.
 
Prayerfully Wonder
We conclude this week’s ‘call stories’ with two reflections on the kind of life we, as Christians, have been called to, beginning with Jesus’ example of obedience to the Father. 
 
The book of Hebrews shows the inadequacy of the Levitical priesthood and the superiority of Christ’s, using different parts of the Hebrew Bible for support.  These verses are an almost exact quotation of Psalm 40:6-8.  The writer imagines Christ, at his incarnation, “taking the words of this psalm upon his own lips as the expression of his mission.”[1]  They highlight Jesus’ awareness that his only task was to do God’s will.  In the brief interpretation that follows the quotation, key phrases are repeated, accentuating the importance of doing God’s will.  The Levitical sacrificial system (note the 4 terms used for sacrifices), as essential as it once was, was never sufficient.  Obedience to God’s will was and still is the essential ingredient.  Jesus exemplifies this obedience, offering his human body once for all.  His most important words were, “See, I have come to do your will.”
 
Obedience to God’s will to the point of offering himself is what makes Jesus’ priesthood far better than the old way of sacrifices and offerings.  This, he says, is why he came.  During Advent we prepare once again to gratefully worship this Christ who came to fulfill God’s will so we can fully live.  But that’s not where it should stop for us.  We know that we’re to follow Jesus’ example and to say with him, “See, I have come to do your will, O God.”
 
Prayerfully Reflect
Read Psalm 40:6-8 and wonder about the minor changes the writer of Hebrews made.
 
Respond to Jesus
Lord Jesus you came to do God’s will, offering yourself in human flesh once and for all.  Thank you and give me the wisdom and courage to live your way of obedience to God.  Amen.
 
Live obediently by practicing obedience in the little things today.

[1]Donald Guthrie.  The Letter to the Hebrews.  Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans.  1983, p. 203.