Dear All,
Wishing you a very joy-filled Christmas & hoping it will be a good day for you.
We have just a little in the way of reflections today knowing that it isn’t a day that needs a lot of words.
Our blessing comes with our prayer for you, & also for those you are with, maybe for those you would like to be with but circumstances prevent, as well as those you are concerned about. It is John Glynn’s blessing ‘May the Lord bless you’.
Our love & prayer
As we said last week, no Evening Prayers this coming week – just a Saturday Reflection for New Year’s Day & then back to our normal programme from Sunday January 2nd – Gospel Reflection at 5.30 (not 5pm as before) followed by Evening Prayer.
Christmas sets the centre on the edge;
The edge of town, the outhouse of the inn,
The fringe of empire, far from privilege
And power, on the edge and outer spin
Of turning worlds, a margin of small stars
That edge a galaxy itself light years
From some unguessed at cosmic origin.
Christmas sets the centre at the edge.
And from this day our world is re-aligned
A tiny seed unfolding in the womb
Becomes the source from which we all unfold
And flower into being. We are healed,
The end begins, the tomb becomes a womb,
For now in him all things are re-aligned.
Malcolm Guite
Who’s willing?
by Scott Erickson
What does it say about a God . . .
who’s willing to be this vulnerable with us?
who’s willing to come into this world through the statistical risk of childbearing?
who’s willing to be attached by a placenta for nourishment and life to Its own creation?
who’s willing to wait and grow in the human womb?
Who’s willing to be fearfully and. wonderfully made, just like we are?
Any real connection involves vulnerability because it takes the act of making oneself open to truly be known.
God came to us floating in embryonic fluid. Slowly forming and taking shape. Embedded in the uterine wall of a Middle Eastern teenage woman It trusted to care for Its fragile knitting process.
What it says about a God who is willing to be this vulnerable is that God is willing to open Itself up to deeply connect with us. The real question is, are we willing to do the same?
~Scott Erickson, from Honest Advent: Awakening to the Wonder of God-With-Us Then, Here, and Now (2020)
