What’s Old Is New Again
by Anne Packard
Throughout 2023, Bishop Graves asked the South Georgia Conference to pray for God’s faith, hope, and love as the United Methodist Church navigates changing times. The Ministry of Memory gratefully fulfilled this request by remembering the prayers of other well-known Methodists who also navigated changing times with prayer. Beginning with John and Charles Wesley, moving on to Francis Asbury and Richard Allen, and ending with prayers for women’s full inclusion and greater racial equality, this monthly article has shown a spotlight on the power of prayer, most especially in difficult moments. For the last column of the last month of the year 2023, the Ministry of Memory would like to remember the most difficult of times and the greatest prayer which has already been fulfilled. This is our Advent prayer.
Of Solomon. Give the king your justice, O God, and your righteousness to the royal son! May he judge your people with righteousness, and your poor with justice! Let the mountains bear prosperity for the people, and the hills, in righteousness! May he defend the cause of the poor of the people, give deliverance to the children of the needy, and crush the oppressor! May they fear you while the sun endures, and as long as the moon, throughout all generations! ...
Psalm 72:1-20
For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end, on the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time forth and forevermore. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this. Isaiah 9:6-7
Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, declares the Lord. For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the Lord. For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more. Jeremiah 31:31-34
“Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel” (which means, God with us).Matthew 1:23
And Joseph also went up from Galilee, from the town of Nazareth, to Judea, to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was from the house and lineage of David, to be registered with Mary, his betrothed, who was with child. And while they were there, the time came for her to give birth. And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling cloths and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn. Luke 2:4-7
“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. John 3:16
Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. John 14:6
May the season of Advent be to you a season of faith, hope, and love - no matter the times - knowing that the greatest prayer has already been fulfilled. We will find the baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and laid in a manger. He has come to defend the poor, deliver the needy, and crush the oppressors. He was given by God with love to be the way, the truth, the life and is called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
Merry Christmas!
Anne Packard serves as Conference Historian and director of the Arthur J. Moore Methodist Museum on St. Simons Island. Contact her at apackard@epworthbythesea.org.
