Word to the Wise
Thursday, December 15, 2011 - 3rd Week of Advent - Thurs
[Isa 54:1-10 and Luke 7:24-30,276]Though the mountains leave their place and the hills be shaken, my love shall never leave you nor my covenant of peace be shaken, says the Lord who has mercy on you.
In the rush and challenges of this season, we are accustomed to hearing Christmas carols in the background. We may even hum along. We may know the first verse of many of them! Their familiarity has a way, however, of making us sing the lyrics without taking time to ponder them! One simple refrain from one of them, GOD REST YE, MERRY GENTLEMEN!, sticks with me: "Oh tidings of comfort and joy!"
The stores and the culture seem to start earlier and earlier each year to get their seasonal shoppers motivated! Some begin even before Halloween! Our liturgical calendar, however, resolutely begins four weeks before Christmas and the message is a simple one: "Oh tidings of comfort and joy!" The passage from Isaiah in today's first scripture, quoted above, tells us that God's love is enduring and that God will not abandon us. The best material sign of this enduring love is that manger scene. (Have you put yours up yet?) An even more powerful sign could be our reaching out in love to someone for whom this season does not seem to have much in the way of glad tidings of comfort and joy! Just as the child in the manger is a sign of God putting "skin on love," we can do the same. We can do more than sing about it, we can BE tidings of comfort and joy! AMEN