Due to heavy snows in the Spokane area — and due to poor accessibility on west central neighborhood streets — tonight’s 7pm service has been canceled.

Please do plan to join us on Wednesday, December 24th for our Christmas Eve festivities! (see post below)

Come one and all to Holy Trinity on Wednesday, December 24th for our 4pm Christmas Eve festival eucharist to celebrate the birth of Jesus!

For four weeks, now, we’ve been retelling the great Advent stories of God’s promise to send us a ‘messiah,’ an anointed king, who is to deliver us from the world ‘as it is,’ into a new world — something more like the kingdom of God where, as the promise continues, the blind will see, the lame will walk, the mute will speak, and the deaf will have their ears opened — all that is wrong with the world will be made right — and it will be achieved by our sharing in the mission of ‘Immanuel,’ God-among-us in Jesus.

The angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you will name him Jesus.” …Then Mary said, “Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word.” Luke, ch.1

How would you respond?

God’s angels arrive to tell you that all your hopes and longings are soon to be fulfilled — God’s promise to set the world right is about to come true — and God will make it happen…through you.

The spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me; he has sent me to bring good news to the oppressed, to bind up the broken-hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and release to the prisoners; to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor, and the day of vengeance of our God;to comfort all who mourn… Isaiah, ch.35

The great hope of Advent — upon which we wait with joyful expectation — is the hope of experiencing more fully the presence and activity of God in our lives, both as individuals and as communities. And we perceive signs of that presence — just as we perceive signs of life in the budding fig tree — whenever we see signs of the fulfillment of God’s promises for us — God’s love for us. And what does that love look like?

prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight. Mark, ch.1

During this season of hopeful expectation, it’s helpful to know what the Bible says we’re waiting for — and we get a very good clue this week as we’re reintroduced to John the Baptist, who has come to “prepare the way of the Lord.”

The clue, of course, has to do with answering the question — both then as now — who is your ‘Lord’? Is it the ‘Messiah,’ the promised liberator king who has come among us to deliver us from sin — both personal and systemic — or is it some ‘lord’ of this world?

O come, O come, Emmanuel, and ransom captive Israel that mourns in lonely exile here, until the Son of God appear.

As with all things, familiarity breads contempt — and so too with our own Good News!

How often have we sung this familiar tune with images in our head of someone else’s problems — someone else’s exile — in a different time and different place? And how often have we sung it imagining a smiling infant Jesus showing up to warm our hearts and tell us ‘everything will be okay’? Either way, the song’s Good News is either too foreign or too domestic — too far or too near to one’s own heart.

[ December 24, 2008; 4:00 pm to 5:30 pm. 10:30 pm; ] Join us for the 4pm service at Holy Trinity (immediately preceding the dinner table feast) and for the 10:30pm service at St. John’s Cathedral (12th & Grand on the south hill).