Posts Tagged ‘Luke 3:7-18’
Rejoice – Br. Luke Ditewig
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Br. Luke Ditewig
Zephaniah 3:14-20
Philippians 4:4-7
Luke 3:7-18
In Advent we wait, preparing to celebrate how God came as human in Jesus Christ. We also await God’s final triumph, accomplished and not-yet. Advent is more than these weeks before Christmas. Karl Barth wrote: “What other time or season will the Church ever have but that of Advent?”[i] Leaning toward the Word Made Flesh and the restoration of all is our life.
The prophet Zephaniah spoke to the people of Judah during the reign of King Josiah. Most of the book warns of coming judgement and destruction to Israel for turning away from God and for Israel’s enemies. Like other prophets, it’s a call and warning is to change behavior, to return to right living. There’s a dramatic change at the end including today’s text. The last word is not warning but instead joy and restoration. God “will rejoice over you with gladness” and “renew you in [God’s] love.” God says: “I will remove disaster from you,” “gather the outcast,” “change shame into praise,” “bring you home,” and “restore your fortunes.”
From prison, Paul encourages the church in Philippi again and again to rejoice. Rejoice in all circumstances, in suffering, even in chains. Celebrate. God is near. Act rightly by being gentle. Don’t be anxious. Pray your whole life—gratitude, grief, and desire—because God loves fully. We belong to God. God holds us as we are, including loss, grief, and in captivity. God’s peace, the wholeness here and not-yet, the restoration of everything that is beyond our understanding, will guard our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Read More
Unquenchable Fire – Br. Keith Nelson
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Luke 3:7-18
There was a time before the web of language was woven
before the rope of words
before symbols, those fine, strong threads, were spun –
it was long, long ago, but you remember.
Arouse your ancient memory and inward beholding,
You Homo Sapiens, You Wise One, to behold:
Fire.
Before the web of language, the rope of words or the thread of symbols, fine and
strong, there simply was the bare Thingness of the Thing that bears the name “Fire.”
Stoke the embers of recognition, burning deep in our primordial night.
Unforgettably, in our bones, the barest imagination of it
warms fingertips, summons blood, quiets the mind, enfolds the gaze…
or prepares the legs to flee.
But now, You Child of God, search deeper, touch the bedrock of being, and
recollect another Fire:
Before smoke or ash or kindling
Before the first hearth or altar
Before the first offering
Before pure and impure
there was a Fire you cannot see or touch but that you are made to long for.
Before wrath or fear –
Before mercy or love –
Before death or judgment or heaven or hell –
Before the beginning and after the end: there was this Fire,
The Unquenchable Fire in the Heart of God,
a God Who is Love. Read More
Wake Up and See – Br. David Vryhof
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Luke 3:7-18
How does one prepare for the coming of the Lord? We are in the season called Advent, the season in which – as members of Christ’s body, the Church – we prayerfully and intentionally prepare ourselves for the Lord’s coming. We speak of his coming in three ways:
his coming at Christmas, when we shall recall again the way in which “the Word became flesh and lived among us”[i] nearly 2,000 years ago,
his coming in the present moment, as we seek to remain alert and attentive to the signs of God’s presence and activity in our own lived experience and in our world,
and his coming in glory at the end of the ages, when he will “judge the living and the dead” and establish a “kingdom (that) will have no end.”[ii]
Advent is a season of waiting, of anticipation, of preparation. We are waiting expectantly for the Lord and preparing ourselves to meet him when he comes. But how exactly do we prepare for the coming of the Lord? Read More