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| Image by Russell McNeil |
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Second Day of Christmas
A GREETING
The Lord is my strength and my shield; in God my heart trusts; so I am helped, and my heart exults, and with my song I give thanks.
(Psalm 28:7)
A READING
I said, ‘O Lord, you spoke at the beginning of creation, and said on the first day, “Let heaven and earth be made”, and your word accomplished the work. Then the spirit was blowing, and darkness and silence embraced everything; the sound of human voices was not yet there. Then you commanded a ray of light to be brought out from your store-chambers, so that your works could be seen. ‘Again, on the second day, you created the spirit of the firmament, and commanded it to divide and separate the waters, so that one part might move upwards and the other part remain beneath.‘On the third day you commanded the waters to be gathered together in a seventh part of the earth; six parts you dried up and kept so that some of them might be planted and cultivated and be of service before you. For your word went forth,
and at once the work was done.
(2 Esdras 6:38-43)
MUSIC
A MEDITATIVE VERSE
Listen to me in silence, O coastlands; let the peoples renew their strength.
(Isaiah 41:1a)
A POEM
The Word became fire, and now
burns within us – warming
hearts kindling the
thought that love becomes us – our
skin glistening hope.
The Word became dirt, and now
dwells below us – holding
us up, soul on soil, gracing
our grasses, grains, gardens;
all our eating now holy.
The Word became wet, and now
rains upon us, now
baptismal bath, now
living spring, now
we are sated with sacred
surging, pulsing, raging.
The Word became air, and now
fills our sails, our souls, our lungs
enlarging; this Word waits
upon us serving us breath, death
abated until the day our flesh fades into
a memory, a word, a poem.
The Word becomes us, making
us fit; it suits us, dressing us
with holy splendor, bending us
back again to our origin:
in the beginning, Word.
- "The Word Becomes Fire" by Rev. Dr. Allen Jorgenson
found on his blog, stillvoicing.
VERSE OF THE DAY
For your steadfast love is before my eyes, and I walk in faithfulness to you.
(Psalm 26:3)
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| "Snow Magic" by Mary Wrinch (1918) |
How do we hold on to the experience of joy, fulfilled by the birth of Jesus? How do we live into the promise that such joyful news offers us, when as we expected, the troubles of the world are not gone when we wake up on Boxing Day? These are some of the emotions that may confront us as we settle into the ‘day after’. The quiet stillness of expectation and wonder and mystery subsides into the silence of post-celebration, when we are returned to our own thoughts and are processing what we have understood and known. It might be a coming to rest in contentment, a gratitude for the unexpected pleasures that came our way on Christmas day. It may also be a space marked by disappointment and sadness, when we realize and accept more fully what we have not been able to have or do. Sometimes joyful celebration brings forward more sharply our losses, what we are missing. It is easy to just keep going in what has already fulfilled us, to continue in activity of celebration to sustain or try to manifest for ourselves our sense of being merry. It has been a hard year and we deserve that after all. But a new kind of silence awaits us if we can make space for it. There can be peace in the post-celebration hush too, and even among disappointments. If you have taken a winter walk in the woods and heard the sound of feet crunching on snow alongside your own puffing breath in cold air, you are familiar with this feeling of the contented and yearning silence. The word ‘hush’, which comes to us from Middle English, can be both a verb or a noun. It means specifically the silence that comes after there has been a lot of noise. How can we ‘hush’ our feasting hearts and minds in order that we might still hear God, still be on the journey out of the night in Bethlehem? In these twelve days that mark the period of time between the birth of Jesus and the arrival of the Magi, we have the opportunity to rest in new life. We are given the chance for the hush of expectation to make way for the hush of adjustment and even the hush of a hopefulness that is more deeply grounded in a desire to make a better world. In his poem, Allen Jorgenson imagines the expansive ways in which the incarnation lives in God’s world and in Jesus, the Word, finding a home in us. How can you make space today for a long gentle walk in a quiet place? Or if moving the body is challenging, how can you find a retreat of the mind? How can you hear God encouraging you into a knowledge that the silent and wondrous night has given way to an eternally hopeful day?
Go here to experience an immersive walk in snowy woods.
LC† Longing for Renewal is a project of Lutherans Connect, supported by the Eastern Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada. Join us on Facebook, follow us on Instagram and on Twitter. Lutherans Connect invites you to make a donation to the Ministry by going to this link on the website of the ELCIC Eastern Synod and selecting "Lutherans Connect Devotionals" under "Fund". Devotions are always freely offered, however your donations help to support extended offerings throughout the year.
Thank you and peace be with you!
