 St Alban’s Episcopal Church Bolivar, Missouri Tuesday, November 29, 2022 Come, Lord Jesus Come, Lord Jesus Advent is a time of waiting – of eagerness for the Lord to come – again, and again, and finally, one day, forever. Waiting for God’s coming is not passive, but active, even though we cannot force God to come to us. We “prepare him room,” as the carol says. And sometimes that requires hard, sustained effort. We do what we can to clear the way – to make the rough places within us, plain – to break down whatever barriers we have built up against God’s coming to us. And we ask God to come as he is with whatever words God wishes us to hear, whatever demands he wants us to accept, with all of God’s desires for our joy and holiness. And then we rush our to meet him as we are without pretense – with all our failures and sins and wounds. We rush out with hope, to invite him in – no matter how discouraged we might be, seeing ourselves as we are. When God’s power and love meet our humanity, there the miracle happens: All of us become Mary, full of grace, full of God, and then we, too – if we dare to wait for God to do what does – will also bring forth the Lord Christ in our lives so that others may see and love Him. Advent is the time in which the whole Church is pregnant – awaiting the birth of a Savior. But we do not want to be sentimental. This is joyful and serious. And pregnancy takes time. It is not comfortable, or easy, and it is full of risk as well as hope and anticipation. And it matters very much what we invite to take up life within us, what we allow to grow there, whether it is God we ask to come – or not. Because we will bring forth something – whether we have welcomed and nurtured the Christ life, and being forth the living presence of Christ Jesus, “God who is with us” or something else.  The Sunday Potluck To celebrate the feast of St Nicholas, the bishop’s visitation, 9 confirmations and receptions, and Ryan Williams’ progress towards ordination we will eat together after church. Of course there will be the traditional bags of St Nicholas treats for everybody – but we will want real food as well. We will have a ham and something else for the main dishes – but we also have people who have signed up to bring the following sides dishes so far: baked beans, corn casserole, hash brown casserole, a couple of salads and several desserts. We expect that we will be pretty full this weekend since everybody is eager to meet the bishop, so if you did not sign up, please just bring something to share if you are able – You are going to love Bishop Diane – and she already loves you – so you are definitely going to want to be here!  |
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