AdventJourney - Day 4

Reflection

The best part of my work at St. John’s is having the opportunity to visit with folk and gather them to the table. Relationship is everything, it is life-transforming. Our church community is built on relationships with people, and the heart of those relationships is our relationship with God. It is God who knows us, understands us, loves us, and accomplishes God’s purposes in the world through us, as co-creators.

It is my hope this Advent that we who serve God remember that it is we who join with God in service, and not the other way around. It is God who works through us to heal this world, and that healing begins with the spreading of the Gospel.

Advent Prayer written by Caryl Micklem (very slightly adapted)

Lord God, we adore you because you have come to us in the past. You have spoken to us in the Law of Israel. You have challenged us in the words of the prophets. You have shown us in Jesus what you are really like.

Lord God, we adore you because you still come to us now. You come to us through other people and their love and concern for us. You come to us through those who need our help. You come to us as we worship you with your people.

Lord God, we adore you because you will come to us at the end. You will be with us at the hour of death. You will still reign supreme when all human institutions fail. You will still be God when our history has run its course.

We welcome you, the God who comes. Come to us now in the power of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

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Image credits:

AdventJourney photo: Morning mystic - Casey Horner on Unsplash 

The Last Supper - John Swanson, from Art in the Christian Tradition, a project of the Vanderbilt Divinity Library, Nashville, TN. https://diglib.library.vanderbilt.edu/act-imagelink.pl?RC=56552