Friday, December 11, 2020                (today’s lectionary)
All creatures great and small
Thus says the Lord, our redeemer: I teach you what is for your good and lead you on the way you should go. Listen and follow what I say, and your prosperity will be like a river and your vindication like the waves of the sea.
Jesus is coming, and nothing’s gonna stop it. My life, your life, all our lives are made whole and fruitful by his coming. We have so many ways to worship, and we do. God is even willing, if we ask, to transform our idols and obsessions and fill our minds with heaven.
The Lord watches over the way of the just, but the way of the wicked vanishes.
Jesus, son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner. The Jesus prayer carries me down the path chosen for me.
Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee. The rosary reminds me of Mary’s motherhood, her love for Jesus, and inspires me to the same. Teach us to pray aright, O Lord. We make so many mistakes, please forgive us and lift us up again, now and in every hour.
We played the flute for you, but you did not dance. We sang a dirge but you did not mourn.
I think of Emily Dickinson’s sabbath. Sometimes she avoided the church building and went down another path into the woods. There she listened to the birds, feeling one herself for awhile, worshipping God together with all the other creatures. Her birds became the preachers and the choir.
God preaches, a noted Clergyman –
And the sermon is never long,
So instead of getting to Heaven, at last –
I’m going, all along.
O come, o come, Emmanuel. Ransom us, claim us from our slavery, rescue us from the world’s fires and floods, save us from ourselves. We are your children, so let us sing for joy!
(Isaiah 48, Psalm 1, Matthew 11)
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