knitternun

Sunday, December 31, 2006

On the Seventh Day of Christmas

31/12/06, 1st Sunday after Christmas

Collect:
Almighty God, you have poured upon us the new light of your incarnate Word: Grant that this light, enkindled in our hearts, may shine forth in our lives; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

Readings:
Psalm 147 or 147:13-21; Isaiah 61:10-62:3; Galatians 3:23-25; 4:4-7; John 1:1-18

From Forward Day by Day:
Galatians 3:23-25, 4:4-7. God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, in order to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as children. And because you are children, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, "Abba! Father!" So you are no longer a slave but a child, and if a child then also an heir, through God.

We are all the adopted children of God. It doesn't matter who we are or where we live or the color of our skin or our income or our sins. We are all God's children. We all have the opportunity to receive God's love and grace, but we have to participate. We have to love and forgive one another.


We must embrace God's message each day because we don't know when it will be our last day. We must live each day as if it were our last day, loving God and all those around us. At night, we are called to give thanks and ask for forgiveness. If we get to tomorrow, we start all over again. This is the reality of being God's heir.


He gives the right to become sons of God to those who receive him, that is, to those who "believe on his Name." The Name is the manifested nature; to baptize into the Name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost is to plunge or bathe the person in the manifested love of God. --William Temple


Readings for the Eve of Holy Name:
PM Psalm 90; Isa. 65:15b-25; Rev. 21:1-6


Anglican Cycle of Prayer: Lexington - (Province IV, USA) The Rt Revd Stacy Fred Sauls


Advent calendar: Ways to Move Systems -- like businesses and governments -- Toward Sustainability:
5. Keep informed, share ideas, join a social justice listserve, such as Center for a New American Dream, www.newdream.org.


Advent Calendar: Open Wide the Doors To Christ by Elizabeth Bookser Barkley
(Jer 23:5-8; Mt 1:18-24) Thank a father today. Today’s is Joseph’s Gospel, one of the few where this unassuming man takes center stage. Of course, being central to the story is all about moving out of the limelight. A just, humble man, Joseph has descendants in all the holy fathers around us. Today, do something special for your father, your husband or a man who epitomizes Christian fatherhood.


From: Christmas CLARESHARE December 2006
Ty Mam Duw Poor Clare Colettine Community

31st December
New Year's Eve
St Sylvester.
St Sylvester was a Pope. You may have noticed that all Bishops and Popes
have coats of arms with mottos (even if they are not in the least
aristocratic!) Pope Benedict's motto is Cooperatores Christi - Co-workers of
Christ.
Archbishop Gardin, a Franciscan, has the lovely motto, Enthralled with the
beauty of God.
A bishop who is a Claresharer and who will be reading this has as his motto
Duc in altum - put out into the deep.
Chose your motto for the coming year - any language will do.




"O God, all holy one, you are our Mother and our Father and we are your children. Open our eyes and our hearts so that we may be able to discern your work in the universe. And be able to see Your features in every one of Your children. May we learn that there are many paths but all lead to You. Help us to know that you have created us for family, for togetherness, for peace, for gentleness, for compassion, for caring, for sharing.

May we know that You want us to care for one another as those who know that they are sisters and brothers, members of the same family, Your family, the human family. Help us to beat our swords into ploughshares and our spears into pruning hooks, so that we may be able to live in peace and harmony, wiping away the tears from the eyes of those who are less fortunate than ourselves. And may we know war no more, as we strive to be what You want us to be: Your children, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen."

Desmond M. Tutu Archbishop Emeritus of Cape Town, South Africa




On the 7th day of Christmas my true love gave to me...

Day 7, December 31
Seven Swans A-swimming
The seven gifts of the Holy Spirit: 1) prophecy, 2) ministry, 3) teaching, 4) exhortation, 5) giving, 6) leading, and 7) compassion (Romans 12:6-8; cf. 1 Corinthians 12:8-11)



From John E. Rotelle, O.S.A., Tradition Day by Day: Readings from Church Writers. Augustinian Press. Villanova, PA, 1994

People of peace

Did the angels sound military trumpets when Christ was born? The Jews, who were permitted war, heard the sound of such trumpets; they were allowed to hate their enemies. The angels of peace sing a different song to the people of peace. They do not call men to war. They proclaim peace and the oracles of the prophets. They proclaim peace, not to murderers and warmongers, but to those who in good will are inclined to concord.

Let people pretend what they will about their own injuries. If they did not love war, they would not war continually among themselves. What did Christ teach besides peace? What did he express himself on besides peace? He saluted his disciples with, Peace be with you. He prescribed it as the only worthy form of greeting for Christians. The apostles, mindful of this, begin the epistles with wishes of peace to all and to those whom they particularly love. Whoever wishes for good health desires an excellent thing; but whoever wishes for peace desires the very totality of happiness.

Erasmus of Rotterdam, Erasmus (1466 - 1536), canon regular of Saint Augustine, was a prolific writer during his time and had a great influence in all fields of knowledge.



The Light Has Come

John 8:12 (NKJV) Then Jesus spoke to them again, saying, "I am the light of the world. He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life."

It happened when I was only 12 years old. I was a paperboy who won a subscription sales contest-a trip to Mammoth Cave, Kentucky. Wow, three days and nights without mom, dad, brothers or sister to bother me. Fantastic!

Upon arrival the park ranger sat us all down for an orientation. The ranger warned us not to go out on the trails after dark. "It's too dangerous," he said.

We went on a trail to the cave. Then we took a boat ride through part of the cave having to carry the boat over certain spots. We ate supper around a campfire before heading to bed for the night.

I was awakened around 2:00am by a beautiful full moon that sent light into my cabin room. I disregarded the park ranger's warning and slipped quietly out onto one of the trails. It was a cool evening just right for hiking on a trail. The moonlight assured my safety, I reasoned, as I hiked deeper and deeper into the woods. I was having so much fun I didn't notice that the trees were forming a canopy that light couldn't penetrate. Nor did I see the clouds that would soon conceal the full moon.

Before I knew it I was surrounded by darkness. The trail that only moments earlier seemed so wide had vanished. I panicked! Wiping tears from my eyes I began running desperately in an attempt to find the trail and my way back to safety. The harder I ran the more lost I became. It was hopeless!

But then I noticed a glimmer of light in the distance. I also heard a faint voice calling out, "Mark! Mark! Where are you?" Running as hard as I could towards the light I called back, "Here! I'm over here!"

Realizing how adventurous 12 year old boys are, the park ranger had done a bed check at 2:30am. When I wasn't found in bed a search party was organized and sent out. Soon I was united with my savior, the park ranger. When I was returned to my cabin I never ventured back out onto the trail.

God did a bed check on His creation. He found people lost in the darkness of sin. The situation seemed hopeless. So God sent out a search party. Jesus came to rescue us from the darkness! The light of the world came. The first of the coming light was called the Star of Bethlehem. It came on that first Christmas so long ago. It's light signaled the coming of a greater light, Jesus. The light has come. He has saved us from the darkness. Now He calls upon all Christians to shine the light of their faith into the darkness of the world so the lost can find their way back to God.

Thank you Lord for rescuing us. Thank you for being our Savior. Thank you for allowing us to light the way for others.

~ Mark S. Armstrong
Ardmore, Oklahoma, USA

Lord Jesus,

Your beloved disciple calls you the Light of the World. Even with all the storms of doubt and fear You are still the one who gives us the ability to find our way. And, not only back to You, but You show us the paths that our efforts should follow each day. We need You. We've tried living without You and we confess that it did not work. Help us to remember that, and to always ask for Your guidance. A new year is about to begin. Remind us to carry our Light!

Amen




"THE WORD OF GOD" AND "CIVIL WAR AND CIVIL HEALING"

Today's eMo is really two different meditations on texts that will be read in many churches this Sunday. The first is the usual sermon preparation eMo. The second, intended for preachers who wish to focus their congregations' attention on the Church's work with the poor and those who suffer, explores the worldwide ministry of Episcopal Relief and Development. As with all the eMos, preachers and teachers are welcome to borrow, with the usual attribution. No further permission is necessary.
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The Word of God

And the Word became flesh and lived among us...
John 1:14

Although it's not obvious to us, "The Word of God" and "The Son of God" refer to the same thing. When "The Word of God" is used in this way, it has nothing to do with the words of scripture -- that's a different kind of "word." Words on a page are lower-case "words." Jesus is upper-case.

Remember that God speaks the world into being, in the book of Genesis. Light and darkness, the sun and the moon, plants and animals, us -- God names them all and then there they are. God's Word creates. And the relationship between God's speaking a creative word and the Son of God is that a Being who is alone has no need to speak. At most, such a being need only think. To have a Word at all must mean that someone is there to hear.

All this is why we say that everything was created by God the Father through God the Son. If that distinction seems fairly minor to us, it didn't to people long ago. Some of them killed each other over it. We no longer do that; we kill each other over other things.

And so the first chapter of John, though lovely, seems abstract to us. Hard to picture, what with no baby and no mother and no shepherds and no nothing, except for the mysterious Word. But the flesh is there, and there is an us among whom the Word dwells. There is an austere excitement in the elegant cadences of these verses, a mysterious sense that something is about to happen, that the stage is being set for a play that will speak directly to our fear of being overtaken by all the darkness of which the world is all to capable. The back of your neck tingles when you hear these ancient words, and you don't really know why.

Yes, there is darkness. Yes, there is betrayal. Yes, those from whom you have a right to expect fairness may be cruel instead, sometimes, and you may never know why. You may fear being overcome by the darkness, but the light will not be overcome. Flesh though we are, and therefore temporary, we can find the light and hold onto it if we decide that's what we want to do. We know it's here somewhere, that Word that brought us into being. Because without it we wouldn't be here, and here we are.
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Christmas I, Year C (These are the Christmas I lessons every year)
Isaiah 61:10-62:3
Galatians 3:23-25;4:4-7
John 1:1-18
Psalm147 or147:13-21
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And here is the ERD meditation:

Civil War and Civil Healing

He came to what was his own, and his own people did not accept him.
John 1:11

Civil war is an especially savage kind of war -- all war is hell, but not all war involves so bald a betrayal of the bonds of shared history and kinship. Civil war pits brother against brother, in spirit if not in the flesh, people who have much more in common than they have
separating them, choosing estrangement over relationship.

The civil war in Liberia has been among the worst of them all, although competition for that distinction is surely keen. It went on for 14 long years. It killed 200,000 Liberians and wounded hundreds of thousand more. It sprinkled lethal land mines across the countryside, and destroyed much of the infrastructure the country would need if it were ever to emerge from the abyss -- roads, airports, railroads, farms -- as if to ensure that nobody who survived the war, on either side, would thrive.

Episcopal Relief and Development supports a health clinic at the Bromley Mission School in Monrovia, Liberia's capital city. Bromley has a distinguished history: it has educated Liberian girls for more than 100 years. Bromley was closed during the war, and only reopened in 2003. Today, most students at the school come from the Internally Displaced Persons camps that surround Monrovia, and sixty girls, ages 6 to 14, board there. Almost all of them are orphans of the war. The clinic serves the local community, offering maternal and infant health care as well as immunizations and curative treatment for common diseases.

Slowly, Liberia emerges from its civil nightmare. Sound bodies and the curious minds of childhood are not too much to ask for its young people now, after all this. To help bring them back to the Bromley Mission School is an honor we can know this very day, without even leaving our desks.

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To learn more, or to make a donation, visit http://www.er-d.org/ or telephone 1-800-334-7626, ext 5129.
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A Closer Walk With God, For People On the Run:
8 Sunday Evenings in February and March at St.Bart's, NYC
Been away from faith for a while? Or never had much exposure to it at all? Have a few doubts? More than a few? Or just want to learn more and talk it all over with some good folks? A simple meal, a talk and some open discussion at a round table. You're out by 6:45, and St.Bart's 'Emerge' worship service begins at 7pm, if you'd like to stick around and check it out.

Get more info and register at St Bart's Central, 212-378-0222.


Copyright © 2006 Barbara Crafton - http://www.geraniumfarm.org

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