Wednesday, December 4, 2019

Thursday after Advent 1

Great, good Lord, that we may receive you in your hidden majestic power that runs beyond our imaging.  Forgive us that we domesticate you in order to accommodate the worlds we prefer.  Give to us your new world of well-being.  In his name,  Amen. 

Psalm 18:1-20 

Amos 4:6-13 

2 Peter 3:11-18

Matthew 21:33-46 

These readings invite us to be at the pivot point in the life of the world,  poised between what is old and passing and what is new and emerging.  The hard words of prophetic speech concern the undoing and dismantling of a world that is failed.  Thus Amos can chronicle the undoing by environmental crises that leave us as desolate as Sodom and Gomorrah.   In his parable Jesus imagines that status as God's people with blessings of chosenness will be taken away,  forfeited in disobedience.  

This same moment, however, is one of radical newness.   The newness consists in new heaven and new earth, a cosmic emergence of well-being that the creator has always intended.   That new world of well-being will not be according to common expectations.  The "stone rejected" judged inadequate by conventional norms, will be Jesus,  the Messiah, who fits none of our expectations.

To stand in that vortex of divine resolve requires some intentional preparation.  The epistle urges specific disciplines of "holiness and godliness,"  being "without spot or blemish."  This means to be focused in a way very different from our careless society that does not think anything will be undone and does not anticipate any deep newness.   It is the peculiar invitation of the gospel that we may be witnesses and recipients of a turn of the ages.  Only the disciplined can perceive and receive.  Homework is required.  

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