What are the advent traditions of your home and family? The food we eat, the parties we arrange and attend, elf on the shelf, 12 days of Christmas, giving gifts, volunteering, decorating, caroling,
To what do we hold fast? To what do we let go?
In this tradition, the Episcopal tradition, we remember the words and the actions of the prophets who announced the coming of the Messiah, the savior. The prophet Isaiah proclaimed with beauty, with poetry and with promise the One who comes, who brings peace. The images of a kingdom where natural enemies are no longer in conflict and where the methods and purposes of war making are used for life giving, life sustaining.
I want this for the world, the universe, this parish. Not overlooking injustice just knowing that the love of God for God’s people changes the basic desires of everything, even animals. AMEN.
John the Baptizer, living 600 years later in a different era tries another approach. He proclaimed that the work of making a peaceable kingdom lies in repentance to the ways in which we have stood against kingdom living. Making a new start in a different direction.
I guess both Isaiah and John are necessary; believing in possibility of God’s amazing majesty and seeing clear to recognize our part in it. I want to enter the picture of the Peaceable Kingdom ready to accept snakes and lions and bears as satisfied and not hungry. I want not to be overcome with shame so I can see my way with God’s help toward living a repentant life.
As we lighten up letting go of the ways that serve selfishness and personal gain and allow the light of the world, the light of the Word come among us, to illuminate our paths toward peace, may the words of the prophets prepare our hearts to receive the gift of Love come down.
Alison Schultz+
Priest in Charge
