Dear Church,
We begin Advent this week, a time of preparation to receive the incarnation of Jesus Christ anew at Christmas. We talked about groaning and lament this past Sunday. Here, again, is what I preached on Romans 8:15-25:
- The hope of Advent isn’t being rescued out of Creation, but redemption of our bodies with and for Creation.
- Our bodies will be liberated and redeemed, not discarded. Joyous embodiment is a feature of New Creation.
- Lament, groaning in hope, is our faithful act of resistance against the bondage of sin and death. Lament is how hope lives in bondage. Lament is how hope waits for redemption.
The good news is that the incarnation of Jesus reclaims all creation as the place of redemption: earth, animals, the cosmos, even our earthly bodies. Let us enter Advent, then, breathing and pushing with all Creation, giving voice to spirit-powered, hope-filled, bondage-breaking groans.
What groan wants room in your life today? For healing, reconciliation, loss, grief, or redemption?
May we consent to the good work of hope this Advent. A hope that births lament at injustice and sin and death.
Pray with me these words from our friend K.J. Ramsey:
“Your Neediness is a Nativity”
O Christ,
You who came not in power but in need of protection, give us imagination to see our neediness through your nativity: that when we feel hopeless we might remember God needed to be held.
And when we hate our own hunger for things to be less hard
we might soften at the sight of your tiny hands reaching for your mom needing to be fedand so rise with your Spirit, indignant at the industries and institutions that shame humans into believing we must be less than you were, determined to bless vulnerability as the birthplace of the love that will save the world.
Amen.
Waiting in hope with you,
Fr. Matt
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