OK, so here goes another try. This Advent I'm off-lectionary; it does happen once in a while. I was captured by a series highlighted in Reformed Worship entitled 'looking for the REAL Jesus' which uses passages from Colossians 1. This week we have vs. 1-8 and 28-29 (the 'bookends') and are given the theme or title:
Jesus, Our Good News.
So what is there to say, really, about the truth of this statement? That the one we are preparing for as a darling baby is our Good News ONLY because he has bought us our salvation at so dear a price? That the only real hope we have is in a baby, vulnerable and powerless, who allows himself to be crucified for our sakes? That all this is by the grace of our loving and forgiving God without any means of meriting it ourselves?
Some hear that and call it a downer. What do you hear?
And how do we respond? Has it indeed been bearing fruit in you from the day you heard it and truly comprehended the grace of God?
How will we move through this week, shopping and wrapping and decorating, now that we are reminded of this good news?
May the blessings of Advent time -- a time of preparation -- examen -- be with you.
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| Entrance to The Heugh, Lindisfarne (Holy Isle), England |
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| Looking from The Heugh down at the outline of St. Cuthbert's cell, Lindisfarne |
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| OLD arches signifying the entrance to St. Andrew's, Scotland |
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| Elegant stairway in Sir Robert Scott's home, Abbotsford, England |
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| 'Faery Steps' and path on Iona, Scotland |
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| Road to north pasture and bathing beach on Iona, Scotland |
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| Walking down from the 'Beehive' atop Dun I, Iona, Scotland |
