In the Monday of the fourth week of Advent, we hear from the prophet Isaiah who writes:
A shoot shall come out from the stock of Jesse,
and a branch shall grow out of his roots.
The spirit of the Lord shall rest on him,
the spirit of wisdom and understanding,
the spirit of counsel and might,
the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord.
His delight shall be in the fear of the Lord.
He shall not judge by what his eyes see,
or decide by what his ears hear;
but with righteousness he shall judge the poor,
and decide with equity for the meek of the earth;
he shall strike the earth with the rod of his mouth,
and with the breath of his lips he shall kill the wicked.
Righteousness shall be the belt around his waist,
and faithfulness the belt around his loins.
The wolf shall live with the lamb,
the leopard shall lie down with the kid,
the calf and the lion and the fatling together,
and a little child shall lead them.
The cow and the bear shall graze,
their young shall lie down together;
and the lion shall eat straw like the ox.
The nursing child shall play over the hole of the asp,
and the weaned child shall put its hand on the adder’s den.
They will not hurt or destroy
on all my holy mountain;
for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord
as the waters cover the sea. (Isa. 11: 1-9).
Israel waited; it waited for the Lord. Israel longed for the restoration of the kingdom, but God had a much bigger plan! God’s plan was to restore all creation, not just Israel, but all of humanity. The Messiah, the anointed one, the long expected one did not arrive with great fanfare and in full armor, but in humility and in vulnerability, as a babe. Moreover, this babe was and is Emmanuel, which means “God with us”. God himself took on our very vulnerability as humans and became like us in every way, even death. When we read the words from the prophet Isaiah, we can see Jesus in those words.
You and I must look for Jesus not only in days past, but in our present, as we look for him to come again. Today, remember to look for Christ. Look for Christ this week. Jesus will be where you least expect him.
Let us pray: Purify our conscience, Almighty God, by your daily visitation, that your Son Jesus Christ, at his coming, may find in us a mansion prepared for himself; who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
THANKS TO ALL OF THE WONDERFUL CHEFS WHO HAVE BEEN MAKING BREAKFAST! Thank you to Jo and Jim Bremer who started the ball rolling again with our breakfast fellowship on Sunday mornings. The recent breakfasts have been, well, nothing short of spectacular! Thank you to Pat Tate and her crew, Melva Pope and Liz Mack, who did a wonderful breakfast with grits that were out of this world; to Carol and Joe Hogan and Peggy Tuthill whose breakfast rivaled the Galvez, and to the Lidstone Family who made from scratch biscuits and gravy, hash browns and topped it all off with eggs with sausage! Thank you so very much for your ministry!
CALENDAR REMINDERS
Christmas Eve Eucharist Rite II at 5:00 p.m. on 24 December.
Feeding of the volunteers at William Temple: St. Augustine will feed about 30 volunteers on the week that the workers will be helping us with the Community Garden. This will take place the first week of January. I will obtain the final details from the Diocese of Texas Episcopal Disaster Relief coordinators.
16 January 2010: the Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church, the Most Rev. Dr. Katherine Jefferts Schori, and the Rt. Rev. C. Andrew Doyle will be at St. Augustine.
PLEASE REMEMBER EVERYONE ON OUR PRAYER LIST, especially Cindi, Carol, Lee, John, Bob, Peggy Moore Elliott and the family of the Rev. Janet Gilmore.
Your servant in Christ,
Fr. Chester J. Makowski+
St. Augustine of Hippo Episcopal Church
Galveston, Texas 77550
A shoot shall come out from the stock of Jesse,
and a branch shall grow out of his roots.
The spirit of the Lord shall rest on him,
the spirit of wisdom and understanding,
the spirit of counsel and might,
the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord.
His delight shall be in the fear of the Lord.
He shall not judge by what his eyes see,
or decide by what his ears hear;
but with righteousness he shall judge the poor,
and decide with equity for the meek of the earth;
he shall strike the earth with the rod of his mouth,
and with the breath of his lips he shall kill the wicked.
Righteousness shall be the belt around his waist,
and faithfulness the belt around his loins.
The wolf shall live with the lamb,
the leopard shall lie down with the kid,
the calf and the lion and the fatling together,
and a little child shall lead them.
The cow and the bear shall graze,
their young shall lie down together;
and the lion shall eat straw like the ox.
The nursing child shall play over the hole of the asp,
and the weaned child shall put its hand on the adder’s den.
They will not hurt or destroy
on all my holy mountain;
for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord
as the waters cover the sea. (Isa. 11: 1-9).
Israel waited; it waited for the Lord. Israel longed for the restoration of the kingdom, but God had a much bigger plan! God’s plan was to restore all creation, not just Israel, but all of humanity. The Messiah, the anointed one, the long expected one did not arrive with great fanfare and in full armor, but in humility and in vulnerability, as a babe. Moreover, this babe was and is Emmanuel, which means “God with us”. God himself took on our very vulnerability as humans and became like us in every way, even death. When we read the words from the prophet Isaiah, we can see Jesus in those words.
You and I must look for Jesus not only in days past, but in our present, as we look for him to come again. Today, remember to look for Christ. Look for Christ this week. Jesus will be where you least expect him.
Let us pray: Purify our conscience, Almighty God, by your daily visitation, that your Son Jesus Christ, at his coming, may find in us a mansion prepared for himself; who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
THANKS TO ALL OF THE WONDERFUL CHEFS WHO HAVE BEEN MAKING BREAKFAST! Thank you to Jo and Jim Bremer who started the ball rolling again with our breakfast fellowship on Sunday mornings. The recent breakfasts have been, well, nothing short of spectacular! Thank you to Pat Tate and her crew, Melva Pope and Liz Mack, who did a wonderful breakfast with grits that were out of this world; to Carol and Joe Hogan and Peggy Tuthill whose breakfast rivaled the Galvez, and to the Lidstone Family who made from scratch biscuits and gravy, hash browns and topped it all off with eggs with sausage! Thank you so very much for your ministry!
CALENDAR REMINDERS
Christmas Eve Eucharist Rite II at 5:00 p.m. on 24 December.
Feeding of the volunteers at William Temple: St. Augustine will feed about 30 volunteers on the week that the workers will be helping us with the Community Garden. This will take place the first week of January. I will obtain the final details from the Diocese of Texas Episcopal Disaster Relief coordinators.
16 January 2010: the Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church, the Most Rev. Dr. Katherine Jefferts Schori, and the Rt. Rev. C. Andrew Doyle will be at St. Augustine.
PLEASE REMEMBER EVERYONE ON OUR PRAYER LIST, especially Cindi, Carol, Lee, John, Bob, Peggy Moore Elliott and the family of the Rev. Janet Gilmore.
Your servant in Christ,
Fr. Chester J. Makowski+
St. Augustine of Hippo Episcopal Church
Galveston, Texas 77550
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