Tuesday, January 20, 2009

Today’s text

Mark 1:14-15

After John had been arrested, Jesus went into Galilee. There he [Jesus]proclaimed the gospel from God saying, 'The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is close at hand. Repent, and believe the gospel.'

Reflection

Enlarge my vision, Jesus. Stretch sight beyond the narrow range of anxious self. Transform my seeing.

Your kingdom lies at hand, laboring present in this moment. The first order of repenting is to change how we see, looking for signs and snippets of your own sweet self in the selves around us and the temper of the times.

For your rule is here in the lives of our souls and the soul of the world, laboring to burst the thick crust of resistance to the truly new and free. Your reign is the making new of what is tired and old, making young our hearts so that we again know the joy of being alive, beloved and free to be whatever sort of vessel you have made us.

So let us see you in beauty and in faces of dignity, in smiles of care and in committed hearts living in ways that make your loving justice real and now.

Strip away all doubt of the nearness of your rule that I may see you and rejoice that I live a life not forsaken, but shot through with the holy nearness of a love I can at which I can only wonder.

A love that will be forever and day, always and every place full. This is your rule.

Pr. David L. Miller