Advent Sunday

Operation successful, recovery well on the way, and I should be home tomorrow. Blessed Advent everyone!

The following was written by Craig Uffman and taken from a blog named "Covenant".

An important teacher of mine taught that the Church "must provide skills to transform fate into destiny so that the unexpected, especially as it comes in the form of the visitor, can be welcomed as gift." There’s something quite profound here. The movement from fate to destiny is a "transforming of the mind" such that we no longer see life as given, but as gift. As Christians, we claim that human existence does not lie in the hands of fate. When the Christian story is told, when it is performed in the practices of our community, when the character of our common life reflects that we have learned to receive all of life as gift, then our existence is seen to be in the hands of divine destiny. And it is that destiny that we anticipate this Advent season.

So, in these tough times, we are not powerless. Our power is in our freedom, our ability to choose how we respond. If we have the faithfulness to shower our neighbor with love in these times, if we have the courage to focus on the timeless while rocked by the tempest, we can expect to experience the joy of a life fulfilled, the joy of being united with God. It’s not that we earn this joy and this peace of fulfillment, but rather that we claim and participate in the gift already given. When that happens, we are "more than conquerors of life." Nothing can take that joy from us. An ancient tentmaker said it best. "Neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor depth, nor any other created thing shall separate us" from this joy, this fruit of a life in union with a love that knows no bounds.

My Extended Vacation Down East

This has been an unusual few weeks for me. It began on October 21 with my arrival in St. John, New Brunswick for a one-week vacation with my sister and brother-in-law in the town of St. Stephen. Two days in we crossed the border for a round of US golf, in the process of which I lost at least 4 golf balls (actually about par for me!). Things went downhill from there.

The following evening I began to experience serious pain and instead of going to church the next morning went to Emergency at the local hospital. "Serious urinary infection" was the diagnosis and I was sent off with a prescription for antibiotics. In the morning I was back at Emerg. and now it was "very serious infection. You aren't leaving here for a while." "A while" turned out to be over a week, after which I was advised to remain in the area and they would arrange for a "trans-urethral resection of the prostate" - (not serious, just necessary). Not being one to look a gift horse in the mouth I agreed. Tomorrow I go to the Saint John Regional Hospital for the procedure and then, if all goes well, will be back with my very understanding hosts for a few more days before finally bringing my extended vacation to an end.

Yesterday I was treated to a meal at the Chinese food restaurant just down the road. Might as well check out my fortune cookie, eh?

"Need some adventure and enjoyment? Take a vacation."

P.S. Many thanks to everyone who has been with me through this process including: my family, the hospital staff, and all who have been upholding me in their prayers.

Grace, Love and Fellowship

Will you be reading this shortly before attending an Anglican Eucharist? No? Never mind; the words of scripture in the passage below will be familiar to you, and they are the ones with which the congregation is greeted at the beginning of that service. The passage itself is adapted from an article by Michael Thompson in the latest issue of Ministry Matters.

When Jesus referred to the "kingdom of God" he was speaking of a kingdom founded on those qualities we name. often unreflectively, at the beginning of our weekly celebration - "The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit." These words mean more than we mostly take them to mean, I think. Most of the time we recognize them as a signal that worship is about to begin, recognizing them as religious words without recognizing that they are laying a claim on this time, this place, and on those of us who gather in them. This isn't just (St. John's/St. Swithan's...) ; this is a holy place, governed by the ethic of the kingdom of God, an ethic of grace over entitlement, of love over hostility and indifference, and of fellowship over the lonely pursuit of personal aggrandizement. From the first words uttered by the presider, we are told to expect a transforming encounter with God.

It's the nature of public worship that we move from prayer to scripture to hymn with little or no opportunity to reflect. You or I might dally on some word, everyone else plowing merrily (mindlessly?) on, only to suddenly wake to the fact that we have lost our place and the whole sequence of worship.

Anyway, for this Sunday, and perhaps for a few more, I intend to prepare for worship by meditating on that opening greeting as an invitation "to expect a transforming encounter with God".