Dr. Karla J. Bellinger

Dec 05 2024

The Urge for Cleanliness

Sometimes a small thing can jolt a memory. I was startled one morning to discover that my COVID-19 bar of soap was gone. That brown-and-tan–striped soap bar had grown paper thin. I rubbed my hands together with it after breakfast and . . . it was gone.

For six weeks, I remember scrubbing my hands raw with that bar of soap. My hands had to be clean. Immaculate. Germ-free. The coronavirus with which I was infected must not pass on to my husband or to others. My hands had to be clean. Sterile. Spotless. It was urgent. It mattered.

Today, we celebrate that urgency for cleanness. Pure, true, immaculate—these are attributes of the Most Holy One. God is good. That statement sounds clichéd, but it is urgent. It matters: God is good. True. Pure. Holy . . . Good.

Since the earliest days of the church, the Incarnation has been urgent—that this good and holy God should become human? Oooh. With the people of faith throughout the centuries, we bow at that mystery. Who, then, was the young woman chosen to be God’s mother? It was urgent that she be made holy in order to house the Holy. The Mother of God had to be unstained from the beginning, clean and immaculate. Today we celebrate that. Mary is the new Eve, a startling counterpoint to the sordidness that has infected the human race. She is good. Clean. Pure.

That gives hope for you and me. God’s plan is to open the way of holiness to us as well. The viruses of life can pollute our lives. But the Spirit of God can fill us with the determination to grow toward goodness. We have to be holy. It is urgent. It matters. God is good. The pure of heart will see God. We want to see God. Come, Holy Spirit, Sanctifier, Purifier, scrub us clean!

Consider/Discuss

Sometimes the world feels dirty. Do you ever get tired of hearing lies and deceptions in the news, the planting of stories designed to sway you and public opinion? Where is wholesomeness? Where is goodness? Millions of dollars have gone into research into how to change people’s habits and minds. It can become manipulation. It can pollute us. Whom can we believe? In this Advent season, we seek to turn away from dirt, to be washed clean, to start anew. What is one concrete thing that we can do this week to make that happen?
When has God’s mercy freed you to see God present in your life?

Living and Praying with the Word

O Jesus, help us! You said, “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.” We want to be pure of heart. We want to see you. As we celebrate this day of purity, help us to think about our habits and our way of life. Transform us so that we can live more simply and more purely. You call us to holiness. You call us to wholesomeness. Cleanse us from the dirt that clings so closely. Turn us away from sin. We want to follow you, you who are good and holy and pure. Wash us so we that we live in a way that is close to you.

Dec 05 2024

Hanging on to Joyful Expectation

I remember sitting on the couch next to my grandma. She was ninety-two. I asked her, “Who would you like to see when you get to heaven?” Her eyes behind her glasses brimmed with tears. “I would like to see Bobby,” she said. Bobby was born when my mother was four years old. He died six months later. His death was a deep chasm in my grandma’s life. More than sixty years later, she had not forgotten her baby boy. She still ached to reach across that rift to touch him.

John the Baptist knows about deep valleys. The Judean wilderness is a series of parallel gorges, many more than a thousand feet deep. Some precipices are sheer rock, scary to look down.

In the first reading, Baruch also knows those scary cliffs; he prophesies that God will fill those same valleys. The Jews had sown a trail of tears on their way to exile in Babylon. Baruch reassures the captives that God will level out those rough roads and bring them back home. They’re in a bad place. What is coming? They don’t know. But their hope is in the One who can make that pathway straight. It is God who will do it. Their tears will be in the past. Joy will be their future.

My grandma died when she was ninety-four and a half. I believe that her tears of sorrow have turned into tears of joy. I hope she sees Bobby. Across the rift of death, God has healed her past and has given her a future.

In Advent, what is coming? Jesus, the baby born to be king, is coming. The chasm between heaven and earth has been leveled. That is the source of our hope. We are called to be Advent people. We hang on to joyful expectation, whether we have five or thirty or sixty more years still to come.

Consider/Discuss

As winter deepens into darkness, the radiance of Advent still shines. The flame of the second candle on the Advent wreath flickers to tell us that the Savior is coming, coming, coming: that God’s best is yet to come. For what are you waiting in joyful hope?
Life’s valleys can be steep. Sometimes, we may feel as though we have to cross them all by ourselves. When we hear today’s call to repentance, to make the pathways straight, it can feel heavy, as though we have to get better all by ourselves. Yet both prophets say that it is God who levels the mountains and raises the valleys. Do you walk alone? How can God’s grace lift you and help you through the course of your life?

Living and Praying with the Word

Lord, we bring you the chasms and the deep valleys in our lives. Sometimes it feels as though we could fall off of one of those scary cliffs. Lift us with your love. Lead us with your glory. Strengthen our courage to be Advent people, to hang on to hope—this year, next year, even if it takes sixty years. Heal our past. Give us confidence for the future. You alone are our Advent strength. O come, O come, Emmanuel!

Dec 05 2024

Counting on the Calendar—or on God?

“The days are coming,” says the Lord. I flip through my calendar to look at this upcoming new church year. Events are already penciled in—birthdays, speaking engagements, dental cleanings . . .
those days are coming . . .

I remember my calendar in March 2020. Those days were penciled black with busyness. The schedule looked exhausting. How could I possible get it all done? Then, one by one, each of those “busy-
nesses” was erased by the COVID-19 pandemic. What was scheduled to come—it did not come. All was cancelled. By the middle of August, I could not recall whether it was Tuesday or Saturday. Time became a blur. I had no idea what was coming.

It is now the end of November of 2021. What is coming? There may have been a time when we felt sure that our calendar was under our control—what was scheduled to be, that would be. Now, well . . . maybe that surety has been shaken? What will this next year hold? Will nations be “in dismay,” as Jesus says? Will people be “in fright” because of what befalls them? What is coming? We do not know.

Thank God for Advent! Advent is all about “what is coming.” As we move into this season, we reach back to see that the Lord has been steadfast, always with the people in their trials. Wrapped in that security, in that beloved-ness, we walk into the unknown. We have no other guarantees. Advent also means to hope for the future. No matter what comes, we will not be abandoned.

Jesus is coming. Jesus has come. Jesus is here. He tells us to look to him, to “stand erect and raise your heads.” That is hope. No matter what happens, God will be with us. No matter what.

Consider/Discuss

How has the experience of the COVID-19 pandemic affected your sense of control of the future? What is happening in the world today that shakes you? In your own personal history, how have you seen that God has been with you?
Looking back at salvation history, the everlasting, holy, and eternally wonderful God has promised to you and me to be our future. Our future is not something. Our future is Someone. In the strength of the Holy Spirit, how can we be vigilant in remembering the steadfastness of God and secure in faith no matter what lies ahead?

Living and Praying with the Word

Come, Lord Jesus! You know our fears. You know our feebleness. To be human is to know not what the future holds. We look into the unknown. We do not know what will happen. But you are our hope. Strengthen our weak knees. Help us to stand erect and raise our heads. Give us the inner assurance of faith that you are the Rock that will hold. Come, Holy Spirit, and stir up our hope. In you. Only in you. Come, O Prince of Peace, come and be born in our hearts!

Dec 03 2024

Living on the Edge—of Time

When you stand at the lip of the Grand Canyon, you can see into a vast distance. You know that you are at the edge of something. Today, we are on the edge of something, too—the edge of time. That is a little harder to see. A pregnant mother breathes with the contractions of her womb; she is on the edge of the moment of birth. The family of a dying man waits by his hospital bed, attentive to his breathing, on the brink of the time of his death. Time has edges. Time has moments when something is about to shift.

At the time of First Isaiah, bloodthirsty Assyria hovered over Israel. The prophet sensed that time was about to change. Now we know that it was the total destruction of Israel’s northern kingdom and the loss of the ten northern tribes. Only Isaiah felt it coming. His people didn’t know. They were on an edge when history was about to shift.

Jesus alerts us to this edginess: we do not know our own time or hour. We do not know the time or the hour for our loved ones. Each moment of the present is a shifting point between past and future. We live on the edge of time.

Today, we are on the edge of Advent. Advent is the liturgical time that alerts us: Stay awake! Be ready! We know that Christmas is coming. We do not know when Jesus will come again in glory. With Isaiah, we pray that swords will be turned into plowshares. Are we on the edge of a shift in history? We do not know. But with God’s help, we hold onto this quiet Advent hope: Our God is timeless, but is also the Lord of time. Jesus is here, now and always.

Consider/Discuss

Think of your own moments of transition and change, the edginess of time in your own life. How has God been with you in those moments?
As we look toward the unfolding of Advent, how can we use this season of preparation purposefully to grow spiritually stronger for the next “something” that is coming our way?

Living and Praying with the Word

Lord, as we begin our Advent preparation, we wait for you. We listen for you in the stillness. We wait for you as in the quiet darkness before the dawn. We do not know what is ahead, but in this moment, breathe within us and strengthen us. Abide with us. Cleanse our hearts and let us be ready to receive you, no matter what may swirl around us. Come, Lord Jesus! Come and be born in our hearts.