Saturday 3 December 2016

December 3

Prayer: 

Our times are in your hands:
But we count our times for us;
we count our days and fill them with us;
we count our weeks and fill them with our busyness;
we count our years and fill them with our fears.
And then caught up short with your claim,
Our times are in your hands!
Take our times, times of love and times of weariness,
Take them all, bless them and break them,
give them to us again,
slow paced and eager,
fixed in your readiness for neighbor.
Occupy our calendars,
Flood us with itsy-bitsy, daily kairoi,
In the name of your fleshed kariros. Amen [1] 

Reading: Isaiah 29:17-24

Reflection: December 6 marks the Feast of Saint Nicholas. The legend of his life has taken on a particularly commercial aspect in the generations since his life and death; however, it seems that his life was rather unlike the man populating our malls, and instead looks very much like our Saviour in his sacrificial life. “One legend in particular illustrates his generosity; a family in his community was desperate; the father had lost all of his money and had been unable to find husbands for his three daughters. The daughters were in danger of being given over to prostitution or another form of degradation when, one night, Nicholas appeared at their home. He tossed three bags of god into the open window-thereby saving them from a terrible fate.”[2]



Application: It may seem like a nice fairytale, but there is something important to note, “while Santa has his bundle of toys, the gift that Saint Nicholas gives is nothing short of freedom from poverty and desperation. The life of Saint Nicholas is an example of faith made flesh.”[3] As we consider the Feast of St. Nicholas consider what it would look like to offer freedom to someone in your life. It may not be financial freedom; it may be the radical freedom of forgiveness or even the simple freedom of time as you do a task for them. As we are present in the places that the Kingdom calls us to break into, the places of darkness we can see our lives and communities shaped by the freedom of a life in Christ.



[1]  Walter Brueggemann, Awed to Heaven, Rooted in Earth: Prayers of Walter Brueggemann, ed. Edwin Searcy (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2003), 147.
[2] Richard John Neuhaus, God with Us: Rediscovering the Meaning of Christmas, eds. Greg Pennoyer and Gregory Wolfe (Brewster, MA: Paraclette Press, 2007), 39.
[3]  Ibid., 40.

No comments:

Post a Comment

We ask that all comments be respectful and on topic.