But it was the musical approach that drew my mind to where it was supposed to be:
Day by day, Dear Lord, of thee three things I pray:
To see thee more clearly,
Love thee more dearly,
Follow thee more nearly,
Day by day.
(St. Richard of Chichester)
It reminded me that that's what is important. Our macro-vision is not the whole story, and I may not understand why things happen, but I can "Follow thee more nearly" every day.
I'm looking forward to continuing on as Andrew teaches through the Gospel of Mark. The beautiful autumn morning, the celebration of baptism, (and enjoying the soft baby noises during the service), the whole worship service made me ready for a fresh, new beginning. Especially with news so important as this: Jesus the Christ has come to humankind.
What about you, what did you bring home from church this Sunday? What spoke to you?
At the end of August, Micah posted on Facebook asking for people's reflections on how the world has changed in the past ten years. As I thought about it over the next days, and after reading another link that he posted, I was struck by the contrasts that we've seen since then: moments of hatred and violence thrown into sharp relief by expressions of love and grace. Those instances of love and grace, those moments of universality and commonality are how I choose to define these days. That view doesn't exclude the hatred and violence nor ignore it, but I refuse to believe that these Years of Our Lord will be defined by evil.
ReplyDeleteDuring Andrew's sermon he noted that academic institutions are moving toward less Eurocentric names for the two primary eras of history, using the term "Common Era" instead of Anno Domini. What occurred to me as he spoke about this was that using this new term for our current age does not deny or ignore the Good News.
This is a common era, one in which all belong to the universal brotherhood of a world of salvation. These are the days in which salvation is at hand for every person should they so choose and accept it. As Paul writes, there is now neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, neither male nor female. We are made one in Christ, the Christ who breaks all barriers, even the barriers we ourselves have built which separate us from God.
And now here we are in a post-9/11 world and while some choose to see only division, we have seen people come together. We have seen the love and grace of Jesus Christ extended from Muslim to Christian and back again.
This is a common era, and I thank God for it.
Darlene, it seems the love and grace shines all the more brightly when it's contrasted against hatred and violence. (And I too am so grateful that salvation has no barriers.)
ReplyDelete-Maureen.