2nd Sunday in Advent

Luke 3:1-6

John came with the message

Prepare

Prepare your hearts

-----minds

----------lives

for the one who is to come

and is here

fill the world with the love

that we

----on this side of the cross

know came into the world

on that lonely night

when all the world broke for the light

and song

and the angels sang with the shepherds

Joy

Joy be to this world

Joy be in your hearts

----Immanuel has come

Prepare ye the way

In a world filled with hatred

And walls

And change

Prepare in your heart

Prepare in your world

For the One of whom John spoke

Immanuel

God with us.

Jesus Loves me this I know.......

Sunday December 6th Malachi 3: 1 "See, I will send my messenger, who will prepare the way before me. Then suddenly the Lord you are seeking will come to his temple; the messenger of the covenant, whom you desire, will come," says the LORD Almighty. The old song, “Jesus Loves Me” for the most part, is wrong. Instead of “Jesus loves me this I know, for the Bible tells me so” should be, “Jesus loves me this I know, for God’s People tell me so.” The message of the Bible is in the relationship. John was a messenger, sent to prepare the way into the hearts of humanity in a hurting world. You also are a messenger, sent to prepare the way in the hearts of humanity in a hurting world. Live your life knowing that you are a messenger. Live your life letting the love of God flow through you. Live your life letting people know “Jesus loves them, this they know, for you as a child of God, simply letting God’s love flow through you, showed them so.” The message is in the relationship, and you and I are called into relationships with one another and with others “out there” who need to “see” the Jesus Loves Me in our lives. Of all the things we can do in this world, it is our highest calling.

Potholes or luminescence

Monday December 7^th, Malachi 3: 2 But who can endure the day of his coming? Who can stand when he appears? For he will be like a refiner's fire or a launderer's soap. 3 He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver; he will purify the Levites and refine them like gold and silver. When you refine gold or silver, it requires a bit of heat. In the process of purifying the impurities separate out from the metal and the purity and beauty within can now shine for all the world. When it is our heart, our soul, our life that is refined, it also requires a bit of heat. No one said the life of a follower of God was easy or without difficulties. The desire to walk with God and be a child of God means that eventually we begin to dig down a little deeper in our lives and with God’s help and a lot of prayer pull out and get rid of some of the bigger hunks of junk. Without prayer the difficulties produce only heat and tear up the road to the heart, hence the potholes in our life. With prayer, the heat generated by getting rid of some of the big hunks of junk, also gets the heart, the soul, the self, to glow with the purity of God’s grace shining through. This somewhat cleaner heart, resembling at least in part is what God sees in you and why God loves you. It is also what others see that draws them to a God life of prayer. Our lives tend to display either potholes or luminescence, the difference is all in the prayers.

natural transition

Tuesday December 8th, Philippians 1: 5 There has never been the slightest doubt in my mind that the God who started this great work in you would keep at it and bring it to a flourishing finish on the very day Christ Jesus appears. The day of the Lord’s appearing will come to each of us. It is that day when we transition from this life to the next. Up until that day, the work goes on. The refining of who you are as a child of God and the roadwork into the hearts and minds of others as an ambassador for God’s love and grace continues. If we are really into living as a child of God, full of hope, full of passion, full of caring and confident in forgiveness and status as a called and redeemed child of God, it will seem like such a natural transition that we will hardly notice. If we are filled with anxiety, fear, hopelessness in the midst of normal doubt, the transition will happen none the less, perhaps just not so smooth. Either way, the path has already been prepared. Our choice is how to live on this side of the transition.

Amo

Wednesday December 9^th, Philippians 1: 9-11 So this is my prayer: that your love will flourish and that you will not only love much, but well. Learn to love appropriately. You need to use your head and test your feelings so that your love is sincere and intelligent, not sentimental gush. Live a lover's life, circumspect and exemplary, a life Jesus will be proud of: bountiful in fruits from the soul, making Jesus Christ attractive to all, getting everyone involved in the glory and praise of God. What a wonderful baptismal blessing, may you not only love much, but well. That is what we are called to do as the children of God, love much and well. Make love your aim. To rephrase and correct Descartes, it is not “Cognito Ergo Sum” (I think therefore I am) but rather “Amo Ergo Sum” (I love therefore I am) that makes life a life worth living. Let “Amo Ergo Sum” be the motto of your life today and from now on. It will be a Christmas gift to yourself and to all around you that will never fade, and will always bring joy and life.

Preparing

Thursday December 10th, Luke 3: 1 In the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar—when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea, Herod tetrarch of Galilee, his brother Philip tetrarch of Iturea and Traconitis, and Lysanias tetrarch of Abilene— 2 during the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John son of Zechariah in the desert. Very specific times and places are mentioned in this text. We also live in a specific time and place, and the Lord is coming to us in our specific time and our specific place in this world. The Lord comes into your life where you are at. Your life is not some “Left Behind” distortion of scripture, it is a celebration of the Lord walking with you in this life, now, this day and tomorrow, and the days after that. Second Advent is about preparing the way, and yet, the Lord comes into your life in the here and now and guides you in the ongoing process of preparing the way. That is the good news of Immanuel, God with us. Preparing the way starts with the Lords help in the here and now filling our lives with grace, and leads us into a world of grace forever and always.

smooth

Friday December 11^th Luke 3 : 3 He went into all the country around the Jordan, preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. 4 As is written in the book of the words of Isaiah the prophet: "A voice of one calling in the desert, ‘Prepare the way for the Lord, make straight paths for him. When a King was coming to town, the town’s people went out of the way to make the road presentable. It was time to pick the stones out of the path and fill in the ruts, take the edge off the steep hills and use it to fill in the gullies at the bottom, a time to make straight the paths. Advent is a time to clear the path to our hearts. Prayer is the way we pick up the stones and fill in the ruts, mellow out the peaks and fill in the gullies. As with any road maintenance, it is ongoing. Left unattended, the troubles of life tend to produce potholes in anyone’s road to the heart. It’s the adversaries’ way of trying to trip us up. Prayer smoothes the path and sooths the soul and makes straight the path to the heart created to love the Lord.

Luminescent

Saturday December 12th Luke 3: 5 Every valley shall be filled in, every mountain and hill made low. The crooked roads shall become straight, the rough ways smooth. 6 And all mankind will see God's salvation.' "When we fix for roads to our hearts with prayer, our lives take on a new look. It is that “God dwelling in our hearts” look and it causes others to sit up and take notice. You will never see the others looking, but they are, and when prayer has fixed the road, they will notice something. You will become a beacon of God’s grace. If what they see is you tootin’ your own horn, all they will see is a harsh glare. If what they see is a reflection of God’s luminescent love, then they see hope. That is how all humankind will see God’ salvation, it’s that luminescent love of God, not some made up, pumped up, tongue speaking imitation, but God’s luminescent love flowing through you they seek. It is what God seeks also.

St. Andrew Apostle

John 1:35-42

The Sound Crashed in the heavens

look

the Lamb of God

demanding the response that came

the response

to follow

to tell

your sisters and brothers

of this one

who had come to change the world

behold

rang the voice of John

as Andrew followed

to that somewhere unknown

where he would find

all that was life

and death

in this one

unknown

Lamb of God

God’s voice rang

with Andrews response

as he simply told his brother

to come

follow

this Lamb of God

that takes away the sins of the world

come

follow