Prepare for the Journey

Tuesday, February 24, 2009 -- Week of Last Epiphany, Year One
St. Matthias the Apostle
Shrove Tuesday / Mardi Gras

Today's Readings for the Daily Office (Book of Common Prayer, p. 948)
Psalms 26, 28 (morning) 36, 39 (evening)
Deuteronomy 6:16-25
Hebrews 2:1-10
John 1:19-28

John the Baptist tells the people that his job is to call them to preparation. From the wilderness he cries, "Make straight the way of the Lord." Right now, he tells them, he is baptizing with water. He is calling people to transform their lives, to purify themselves. His is a baptism of repentance and forgiveness. Another baptism is coming.

We begin this day on the cusp of Lent, the church's journey into the wilderness. We are preparing. For forty days we will prepare for the transforming gift of resurrection -- new life, empowered by God's Spirit. Tomorrow we will "make a right beginning" on a day of penitence -- Ash Wednesday. We will make a serious confession of our sins and hear the comforting words of absolution. We will be reminded of our deaths even as we make straight the way of the Lord on the road to repentance. We will prepare through fasting, prayer and almsgiving. The gift is coming. Get ready.

Hebrews talks about this amazing gift. The gift is Jesus, "who for a little while was made lower than the angels." Who suffered death with us and for us. Now he is "crowned with glory and honor." He has tasted death for everyone so that we might be freed from it. We are invited into the same pilgrimage. We have been created "for a little while lower than the angels," so that we may follow the example of Jesus through our own suffering and be brought to glory with him.

Deuteronomy reminds us that we are always just one generation away from extinction. We must teach our children about the gifts God has given us. God has loved us so greatly. We must pass along the story to the children. Once we were slaves -- oppressed, compulsive, driven, trapped, stuck, miserable. Then God "displayed before our eyes great and awesome signs and wonders" -- the Exodus; the Resurrection. We are invited into a new land. It is the land of freedom, given to us out of love.

We are about to embark again on that journey from bondage to freedom. The path is through the wilderness, where we face ourselves and our own undisciplined, destructive ways. We will have to learn to trust God for our food and substance. We will have to learn to become intimate with the divine. We will be given food for the journey. But we will have to die. All that is still stuck in the slavery of Egypt will have to be stripped away and sacrificed. But the promised land, the life of glory, is just over the horizon. Spirit-filled new life is beckoning to us from the future. It's time to walk.

Lowell

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Audio podcast: Listen to an audio podcast of the most recent Morning Reflections from today and the past week. Click the following link: Morning Reflection Podcasts

About Morning Reflections
Morning Reflections is a brief thought about the scripture readings from the Daily Office of Morning and Evening Prayer according to the practice found in the Book of Common Prayer of the Episcopal Church.

Morning Prayer begins on p. 80 of the Book of Common Prayer.
Evening Prayer begins on p. 117

An online resource for praying the Daily Office is found at www.missionstclare.com
Another form of the office from Phyllis Tickle's "Divine Hours" is available on our partner web site www.ExploreFaith.org at this location -- http://explorefaith.org/prayer/fixed/index.html


The Mission of St. Paul's Episcopal Church
is to explore and celebrate
God's infinite grace, acceptance, and love.

Visit our web site at www.stpaulsfay.org

Our Rule of Life

We aspire to...
worship weekly
pray daily
learn constantly
serve joyfully
live generously.

Lowell Grisham, Rector

St. Paul's Episcopal Church
Fayetteville, Arkansas