whose story?

What story are you in? Whose story? Are you in a story of fear or a story of joy?

Is this passage from Luke two stories:

one of fear, anxiety, and power;

one of joy, gratitude – and truth?

You could look at it that way – or you could look at it as one story –

one story of how the people of God move through times of uncertainty, anxiety, and fear; through temptations to greed, pride, envy, and all the rest;

to a place beside the birth site of Jesus,

to a time of joy, fulfillment, and peace,

that like God’s presence is already but not yet visible among us.

Advent after all is a time of joyful anticipation, expectation, and preparation for God’s presence yet to come…

but it is a time also to remind ourselves that

that presence has always been with us –

that the God who is to come, proclaimed by John and heralded by angels,

is already among us, already present.

The Hidden Christ –

the one seen in the face of a stranger, in an outstretched hand of welcome, -

is among us, waiting to be known:

to be newly born at Christmas,

surprisingly revealed in Epiphany, and

finally recognized on the Cross and in the glory of the Resurrection.

That Christ is present with us now.

Luke 3:1-6



Baruch 5:1-9
or Malachi 3:1-4
Canticle 4 or 16
Philippians 1:3-11
Luke 3:1-6