Week 4 ~ The Promise Remembered, Post 1:

Matthew 11:2-11

When John heard in prison what the Messiah was doing, he sent word by his disciples and said to him, “Are you the one who is to come, or are we to wait for another?” Jesus answered them, “Go and tell John what you hear and see: the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have good news brought to them. And blessed is anyone who takes no offense at me.”

From the depths of his prison cell, John needs reassurance that the promise is real.  His disciples come to Jesus for verification and he shows them what is happening all around them… the kingdom is happening, but perhaps they have been blinded to it by their pain and discouragement.

Who are the ones who remind you that the promise is sure and is underway when you have times of doubt?

How do you see the signs of the Kingdom around you if you but pay attention?

Week 3 ~ The Hope of The Anawim, Post 4: The Hospitality of Mary (Theotokos)


mary-pregnant (1)

Mary, the mother of our Lord, is the living example of the insignificant one (a stump) that rests in God, and offers Holy Hospitality to whatever God sends her way.  As the Holy Child grows in her, Mary sings a song that celebrates YHWH:  Hope of the Anawim:

My soul magnifies the Lord,
and my spirit rejoices in God my Saviour,
for he has looked on the humble estate of his servant.
For behold, from now on all generations will call me blessed;
for he who is mighty has done great things for me,
and holy is his name.
And his mercy is for those who fear him
from generation to generation.
He has shown strength with his arm;
he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts;
he has brought down the mighty from their thrones
and exalted those of humble estate;
he has filled the hungry with good things,
and the rich he has sent away empty.
He has helped his servant Israel,
in remembrance of his mercy,
as he spoke to our fathers,
to Abraham and to his offspring for ever.”

Luke 1:46-55

 

NOTE

Image found without attribution at http://blog.timesunion.com/rudnick/mary%E2%80%99s-baby-bump-a-divine-scandal/1492/

Week Three ~ The Hope of the Anawim, Post 2: Stump Life

It isn’t easy being a stump.  To be deemed useless, a failure, unimportant.

Isaiah promised the stump of Israel that all was not lost (despite all evidence to the contrary).. that God would do something to fulfill the promise of salvation.  As I minister in the midst of the mainline denominations’ stump-dom, I draw the following from Isaiah:

  1. Our hope is not in our own strength/ways/constructs.  Our hope (and the hope of the world) rests in God.  God will bring the Kingdom to pass.  The Peaceable Kingdom is God’s vision and it is ultimately God’s work.  Yes, we have a part to play, but the play itself is God’s.
  2. In God, there is hope… there will be a shoot to come.
  3. We must live in hope.

stump

In the lonely places
The wilderness
Where we stand forlorn
Windswept and alone
Your voice calls out
Prepare a way for the Lord

In the dark places
The shadows
Where we hide our fears
Embrace our tears
Your voice calls out
Prepare a way for the Lord

John Birch
faithandworship.com

NOTES

Stump photo can be found at http://providencerbc.wordpress.com/2010/05/14/are-you-out-of-your-mind/

Week Three ~ The Hope of the Anawim, Post 3: Life in the Meantime

We are stumped.  No doubt about it.  There IS hope.  No doubt about that either.

So, how are we stumps to live faithfully until the shoot appears?  This is the question of Advent, and perhaps it is the question for us as well.

The RCL texts for Advent 2A include a passage from Romans 12.  As I read this passage, I hear some counsel about how we ought to live while we wait…

  1. BELIEVE  Trust in God’s promises.  Trust in God’s favor.
  2. REST  Rest in the trustworthiness of God’s character and promise.  Rest in the covenant that God has made with us in Christ.
  3. BE WITNESSES Let our lives be a testimony to God’s faithfulness  — in our words and by living as a people who are hopeful rather than those who are hopeless.
  4. BE HOSPITABLE   Make room and a way for others.  Even (especially?) the young upstarts.. the insignificant, unusual, outcast, different ones.  make room for them.  Receive them with genuine Christ-like hospitality
  5. SERVE Serve others so that they might have life, room to grow and thrive.

So.. how can a stump be hospitable?  It can become a nurse log…

Rest in God without struggle or strife.  Receive whatever comes with Christ-like hospitality:  the rain, the sun, heat or cold, bird droppings and whatever the breezes bring.  In so doing, we may play host to the seed that will become the shoot of God’s promised Kingdom.

Ghana nurselog
Nurse Log ~ Kakum National Park, Ghana

NOTES

Nurse log photo by Rebecca M. Blackwell

For more about nurse logs:  http://www.exploringnature.org/db/detail.php?dbID=27&detID=2310

Week Three ~ The Hope of the Anawim, Post 1 : Stumps

Isaiah 11:1-9

The prophet speaks a word of hope to a desperate people, using the imagery of a shoot emerging from a dead stump.

What amazes me is the contrast of images the prophet offers. First of all, he compares Israel to a dead stump… a tree of promise mowed down.  Contrast this with the image of a shoot of new life that shoot will flower into a Peaceable Kingdom, where “the earth of full of the knowledge of the Lord.”

In many ways, the US and the mainline churches are currently experiencing a time of stump-dom.  Our numbers, power, influence and wealth have been seriously diminished… our very life seems precarious.  The promise that once seemed so palpable has evaporated.

What do our current stumps look like?  Feel like?

Here are a couple of photos of a place I passed on the way to worship in Summerville, GA yesterday.  This area has experienced a lot of economic contraction, with many of the mills and manufacturing plants closing for good.

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