His messengers, the Prophets

Deisis in Hagia Sophia, 12th century

Merciful God, who sent your messengers the prophets to preach repentance and prepare the way for our salvation; Give us grace to heed their warnings and forsake our sins, that we may greet with joy the coming of Jesus Christ our Redeemer; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. AMEN

Today on this Advent II, we celebrate the lives of all the prophets, but in particular John the Baptist, all of whom waited expectantly for the salvation of God.  John's journey was foretold to his father and indeed to his mother, whereupon her greeting by the Theotokos, John leapt joyfully in the presence of His Savior. At John's birth, everyone said, "What then will this child be?" For the hand of the Lord was with him.

Zechariah, his dad, prophesied concerning his relationship to Jesus:  

"Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for he has visited and redeemed his people and has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David, as he spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets from of old, that we should be saved from our enemies, and from the hand of all who hate us.  And you, child, will be the prophet of the Most High; for you will go before the Lord to prepare his ways, to give knowledge of salvation to his people, in the forgiveness of their sins because of the tender mercy of our God, whereby the sunrise shall visit us from on high to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace."  

Then the word of God came to John when he lived out in the wilderness at which point he went all throughout the land, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.  Though this was the Good News, he held out hope for all of them that "he who is mightier, whose sandal John was not worthy to untie, would come to baptize them with the Holy Spirit and fire", an even fuller picture of the salvation of God.

When John had been imprisoned by Herod, he had his doubts and curiosities and sent word to Jesus to ask him if He was the one to come?  Jesus uses the words of prophets to confirm to John that indeed the Good News he himself had preached was being fulfilled in Jesus.  Then, Jesus gives a beautiful picture of His love for John and asks the crowd: "What did you go out to see in the wilderness?  A reed shaken by the wind? A man dressed in soft clothing?  A prophet?  Yes!  Yes, I tell you, and more than a prophet! And he confirms the call God placed on John, saying, "I tell you, among those born of women none is greater than he."  This is confusing because Jesus also was born of a woman and yet he anoints and exalts John.  I think that is what it means for God to befriend us and is so beautiful that even in the midst of John's doubt, Jesus upholds his faithfulness and the hope that John expressed in God.  And so, he is still one of the great cloud of witnesses who calls us into preparation and heralds the making straight of the crooked.  Alleluia.

Listen below to There's a Voice in the Wilderness Crying (1982 Hymnal #75), instrumental only, on organ

Branch of the Lord

  

In that day
the branch of the Lord shall be beautiful and glorious

Isaiah 4.3

Return, O my soul, to your rest; for the Lord has dealt bountifully with you.
For you have delivered my soul from death,
my ears from tears, my feet from stumbling.
I will walk before the Lord in the land of the living.
I believed even when I sopke, "I am greatly afflicted";
I said in my alarm, "All mankind are liars."
Psalm 116.7-11

noah

So, I remember that I said that thing about noah the other day and the only thing I have to say is that my general conclusion was that often Father does things for Father and for us, too but often incomprehensible to the human mind....so he makes this rainbow as covenant between the earth and he, but mostly to remind himself. How odd is that? Could it be that he is slightly more evasive than we usually think? And by evasive I mean he's less monophonic than we would like, I think. Mind you these are just the musings of a bear of very little brain so disregard what you discern to be faulty thinking. I think it's really cool that this is the case and it does not challenge my power to believe at all but it does seem odd nor am I discounting the views of the saints who I know had to say something about him for the belief to continue...

Anywho, I just thought that was interesting and we also had a discussion about whether or not the curse on the land was lifted, as it appears to have been since father seems to be almost most upset that he largely destroyed his creation. These are neither here nor there really, but just fun thinks to think :)

So, anywho, trying to think of other things to say. While this seems like it is Mink's news to tell and she should, I'm not sure how much you guys talk or not and posting a blog is so much faster than a snail mail letter...she's dating the estimable Ben Petty now! As of a couple days ago and after several years of his trying and after quite a bit of debacle, they finally concluded that it would go that way. Phew, this is such a relief to friends of hers such as myself who have thought and thought about this and wished something would go well in her life. So, thankfulness all around.

Greg's birthday party was a smash hit and it was very fun even though we arrived at Dave and Buster's almost 2 hours late (freakin' Chicago traffic!!!!!). But it was quite the time and some of his friends from other states came and that was a huge surprise and a well-received one at that. I still have about 24 jumbo muffins in my house, a pain when I can't have any cuz I gave them up for Lent. Gotta get rid of those things, can I send you cupcakes? :) We had a decorate your own cupcake bar at Jenn's house after we all left Dave and Buster's. His real b-day was the 28th as you could see but we just went to Olive Garden and then went and watched LOST with Carrie cuz I spent so much time on the surprise party, I didn't have much to do on the real day! Oops. I'm also working on this little journal thing where everybody wrote a little something and he can keep it and see it for years to come....that didn't get done by his b-day either, though :( Oh well, vigil is my life now. Going in about 20 minutes to go load up the trailer with vigil stuff (when will we get a building of our own!?)....

Hope Beijing is fun, Life of a Pilgrim. Write comments if you like cuz I don't think anyone else really even looks at this though they could post too if they wanted (I like that about Blogspot, anyone can post even if they don't have one).

It's palm sunday this week (i hope that's cg; they're too normal words, right?), should be a good partylicious change, yeah for feast days! Thinkin' of ya, have fun travellin'....
Peace out!