Dylan's lectionary blog

grid blog :: Christmas :: Union

This is my final entry for the Advent grid blog, though this one comes in the Christmas season. The theme is Union.

The catechism in the Episcopal Church's Book of Common Prayer describes the mission of the church as "to restore all people to unity with God and each other in Christ" (BCP, p. 855). Union is our mission.  Our time of preparation in Advent has called on us to look forward to the time when God answers our prayer that "your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven," to the time when that union with one another and with God in Christ is fully realized. We are called in Advent to experience the tension between our broken and divided world in the present and full consummation of the redemption for which we long.

And now it is Christmas. The world is still wounded, as any cursory glance at this morning's newspaper would tell us. But the mystery that we celebrate is that the tide of history turned with the birth of a peasant child. The Christ has come, and from his first sending forth of his followers to do his work of healing the sick, bringing the outcast back into community, and confronting the powers of injustice, evil fell. It won't get back up, though it'll be thrashing around and doing some damage in these prolonged last gasps. Like Jesus' birth, the defeat of evil isn't the kind of special effects moment we've become accustomed to in this age of Jerry Bruckheimer. It's a seed growing secretly, as inevitable as it is mysterious. But in Advent, we've seen how big this tree is going to grow. This Christmas, my prayer is that I might know the awe of seeing the small things, the mustard seeds, the early shoots, in the knowledge of what mighty work God is accomplishing in our world.

I wish you all a Christmas season of joy, wonder, and nourished seeds of peace.

grid blog :: Christmas :: Union

This is my final entry for the Advent grid blog, though this one comes in the Christmas season. The theme is Union.

The catechism in the Episcopal Church's Book of Common Prayer describes the mission of the church as "to restore all people to unity with God and each other in Christ" (BCP, p. 855). Union is our mission.  Our time of preparation in Advent has called on us to look forward to the time when God answers our prayer that "your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven," to the time when that union with one another and with God in Christ is fully realized. We are called in Advent to experience the tension between our broken and divided world in the present and full consummation of the redemption for which we long.

And now it is Christmas. The world is still wounded, as any cursory glance at this morning's newspaper would tell us. But the mystery that we celebrate is that the tide of history turned with the birth of a peasant child. The Christ has come, and from his first sending forth of his followers to do his work of healing the sick, bringing the outcast back into community, and confronting the powers of injustice, evil fell. It won't get back up, though it'll be thrashing around and doing some damage in these prolonged last gasps. Like Jesus' birth, the defeat of evil isn't the kind of special effects moment we've become accustomed to in this age of Jerry Bruckheimer. It's a seed growing secretly, as inevitable as it is mysterious. But in Advent, we've seen how big this tree is going to grow. This Christmas, my prayer is that I might know the awe of seeing the small things, the mustard seeds, the early shoots, in the knowledge of what mighty work God is accomplishing in our world.

I wish you all a Christmas season of joy, wonder, and nourished seeds of peace.

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grid blog :: Christmas :: Union

This is my final entry for the Advent grid blog, though this one comes in the Christmas season. The theme is Union.

The catechism in the Episcopal Church's Book of Common Prayer describes the mission of the church as "to restore all people to unity with God and each other in Christ" (BCP, p. 855). Union is our mission.  Our time of preparation in Advent has called on us to look forward to the time when God answers our prayer that "your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven," to the time when that union with one another and with God in Christ is fully realized. We are called in Advent to experience the tension between our broken and divided world in the present and full consummation of the redemption for which we long.

And now it is Christmas. The world is still wounded, as any cursory glance at this morning's newspaper would tell us. But the mystery that we celebrate is that the tide of history turned with the birth of a peasant child. The Christ has come, and from his first sending forth of his followers to do his work of healing the sick, bringing the outcast back into community, and confronting the powers of injustice, evil fell. It won't get back up, though it'll be thrashing around and doing some damage in these prolonged last gasps. Like Jesus' birth, the defeat of evil isn't the kind of special effects moment we've become accustomed to in this age of Jerry Bruckheimer. It's a seed growing secretly, as inevitable as it is mysterious. But in Advent, we've seen how big this tree is going to grow. This Christmas, my prayer is that I might know the awe of seeing the small things, the mustard seeds, the early shoots, in the knowledge of what mighty work God is accomplishing in our world.

I wish you all a Christmas season of joy, wonder, and nourished seeds of peace.