As we enter Advent Lord remind us that our calling is to take up our cross and follow you. Keep us safe in these hours of driven consumerism from idolizing either money or goods. Fill our hearts with your Spirit that we may be generous to our neighbor in their need. Amen.
Advent is the season when the church year reboots and renews itself and the story of Christ and his Body the Church starts all over again. Renewal is a constant theme within the lives of Christians and the life we live within the Church. It is a renewal that constantly moves us from sin and death into life, a life that is lived by completely different standards than the world. As John's Gospel says we are in the world but not of the world.
The Body of Christ has amazing ways of renewing itself in new and unexpected ways. I have already shared with you the changes within my own denominational body as we elected for the first time a woman as the Presiding Bishop of our national body. All Things Made New.
In the same manner the Roman Catholic church is undergoing amazing renewal under the teaching and leadership of Pope Francis. Again and again he has challenged the church to understand and acknowledge the ways in which it had become distracted from and lost in relation to its primary mission of being an evangelical witness to the teachings and ministry of Jesus Christ.
I have been noting for weeks that Francis has been boldly addressing aspects of the church and kicking the shins of some among its leaders and thus regularly trying to capture the attention of all involved. The Pope is leading the church to return to its core and to acknowledge that we the saints have not been the best stewards of our calling. He recognizes that the church had become reductionist in its ministry and focus.
Pope Francis has challenged us to realize that when faith becomes ideology it loses its real and vibrant power to hold others with compassion because we are too consumed by who is right and who is wrong. The Pope recognizes the danger in wanting to be right on all doctrine when it leads us away from holding the broken, the outcast and the needy in Christlike agape, in love, that is willing to risk something of itself for the sake of the other.
Pope Francis has created wonderful public images of the simplicity with which he desires to live his life. However, more than the images he, also, has been willing to risk a renewed vision of ministry and outreach. He has gone to unexpected places to touch and hold the most vulnerable in society. Reports are that he has done this not just when cameras are around but, also, in the darkness of the night he has left the security of the Vatican chambers to walk the streets among the homeless and the most vulnerable. Francis wants us to know that this is simply what Christians do no matter who is or isn't watching.
I can only pray that I continually learn and grow more and more in such service and care of those around me and within the reach of our ministry here in central Pennsylvania. And in watching Pope Francis and as we start Advent once again I realize that all things are possible and I, too, am renewed once again in Jesus Chirst. I, too, can rise up in the freshness of my baptism this morning. Rise up with my eyes open to see Christ not just in the Pope but in the addict, in the homeless, and in every believer and non-believer who crosses my path. Broken saints or healing sinner God loves us all.
No matter what our denomination or confession, Pope and priest, Roman Catholic and Lutheran, pastor and laity let us take up our cross and follow the leader, Christ our Lord.
Advent is the season when the church year reboots and renews itself and the story of Christ and his Body the Church starts all over again. Renewal is a constant theme within the lives of Christians and the life we live within the Church. It is a renewal that constantly moves us from sin and death into life, a life that is lived by completely different standards than the world. As John's Gospel says we are in the world but not of the world.
The Body of Christ has amazing ways of renewing itself in new and unexpected ways. I have already shared with you the changes within my own denominational body as we elected for the first time a woman as the Presiding Bishop of our national body. All Things Made New.
In the same manner the Roman Catholic church is undergoing amazing renewal under the teaching and leadership of Pope Francis. Again and again he has challenged the church to understand and acknowledge the ways in which it had become distracted from and lost in relation to its primary mission of being an evangelical witness to the teachings and ministry of Jesus Christ.
I have been noting for weeks that Francis has been boldly addressing aspects of the church and kicking the shins of some among its leaders and thus regularly trying to capture the attention of all involved. The Pope is leading the church to return to its core and to acknowledge that we the saints have not been the best stewards of our calling. He recognizes that the church had become reductionist in its ministry and focus.
Pope Francis has challenged us to realize that when faith becomes ideology it loses its real and vibrant power to hold others with compassion because we are too consumed by who is right and who is wrong. The Pope recognizes the danger in wanting to be right on all doctrine when it leads us away from holding the broken, the outcast and the needy in Christlike agape, in love, that is willing to risk something of itself for the sake of the other.
Pope Francis has created wonderful public images of the simplicity with which he desires to live his life. However, more than the images he, also, has been willing to risk a renewed vision of ministry and outreach. He has gone to unexpected places to touch and hold the most vulnerable in society. Reports are that he has done this not just when cameras are around but, also, in the darkness of the night he has left the security of the Vatican chambers to walk the streets among the homeless and the most vulnerable. Francis wants us to know that this is simply what Christians do no matter who is or isn't watching.
I can only pray that I continually learn and grow more and more in such service and care of those around me and within the reach of our ministry here in central Pennsylvania. And in watching Pope Francis and as we start Advent once again I realize that all things are possible and I, too, am renewed once again in Jesus Chirst. I, too, can rise up in the freshness of my baptism this morning. Rise up with my eyes open to see Christ not just in the Pope but in the addict, in the homeless, and in every believer and non-believer who crosses my path. Broken saints or healing sinner God loves us all.
No matter what our denomination or confession, Pope and priest, Roman Catholic and Lutheran, pastor and laity let us take up our cross and follow the leader, Christ our Lord.
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