Rite II Spiritual Communion
Sunday, January 3
Collect for The Second Sunday after Christmas Day

O God, who wonderfully created, and yet more wonderfully restored, the dignity of human nature: Grant that we may share the divine life of him who humbled himself to share our humanity, your Son Jesus Christ; who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
 

Readings for today can be found here.


Rite II, Spiritual Communion & Meditation

Rev. Bambi Willis, Fred Kerby, and Barry Holliday have coordinated our service for this morning. The service can be found here: https://youtu.be/Gv1hXaAOG2E

We will be doing Rite II and you can follow along starting on page 355 in the Book of Common Prayer. The Book of Common Prayer (BCP) can be found here. The Psalm for today is Psalm 84:1-8 found on page 707 in the BCP. The readings are Jeremiah 31:7-14; Ephesians 1:3-6, 15-19a; and Matthew 2:3-15, 19-23.


A Meditation for The Second Sunday after Christmas Day

Jesus, Mary and Joseph are saved by a dream this morning. Joseph is warned in a dream that Herod wants to kill Jesus and is told by an angel to flea to Egypt. After Herod died, Joseph learned he could return to Israel, but in another dream learned he needed to settle in Nazareth.

Jesus, Mary and Joseph are saved by a dream.

Psychologists tell us that our dreams can reveal to us important truths. My spiritual director has invited me to keep a pad and a pencil on my bedside table so I can record my dreams as I have them. Unfortunately, once I turn the light on to write I am wide awake and have trouble going back to sleep. But we know dreams are important even if we cannot keep up with them or understand them.

I fear dreaming in this time is increasingly difficult. Folk have lost homes and livelihoods, kids have lost their dreams of going to college and many of us have lost our dream that we will gather in church anytime soon. I have lost my dream that I will simply wake up one morning and this pandemic will all be over. 

But we like Jesus, Mary and Joseph are saved by our dreams. When we dream we are envisioning a new way of being. I am blown away by small businesses who are envisioning a new way of doing business in this pandemic, by parents who are helping their children learn and grow on line and by the ways Trinity is dreaming about the future with a new priest.

When I was a chaplain at Snowden, the psychiatric facility at Mary Washington Hospital, I led spirituality groups for adults and adolescents.  One day I brought a bouquet of helium filled balloons into the adolescent group. I asked them to write their dreams on a piece of paper and attach them to the balloons. So many of them had stopped dreaming because their dreams had too often been crushed and not come true. Afterwards, we went into the courtyard and let the balloons go. Of course, that was a long time ago, before we were aware of the environmental damage releasing helium balloons can cause. But at the time, as the kids spoke of their dreams, I realized just how much the kids still wanted to dream in spite of everything they had been through.

When we stop dreaming, we close ourselves off from possibilities, possibilities that God really can make all things new. It is true that our dreams do not always come true, but it is also true that God can do the impossible. 

I dream of the day when my dining room table will no longer have to be our altar. I dream of the day when we will no longer be divided by the color of our skin or where we were born or who we vote for. I dream of the day when everyone will be able to earn a fair wage. I also dream of the day when I can keep up with the dishes and the dirty laundry and the bills!

Keep dreaming. Dreams saved Jesus, Mary and Joseph, and can save us too.  

Please remember all those on our prayer list this week found here or in the Good News Daily found here.

Rev. Bambi Willis
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