show forth the glory of your God, which shines on you today.
Arise, your light is come! Fling wide the prison door;
proclaim the captive’s liberty, good tidings to the poor.
---Ruth Duck, 1974
We are so used to hearing the themes of Advent and
Christmastide that they ring almost common in our ears, feel a bit bland
rolling off our tongues…Light! Glory! Good tidings! When I stop and think about these things, they make
me glad --- I need some good
tidings, and some light, and a little glory to shine down on me! Yay,
me!
Then hymnist Ruth Duck uses the prophet’s message from
Isaiah to call my attention back to intention.
Yes, some of that God-glory falls on
me...but not to soak up and store. That glory, that light, those are pass-along
gifts from a God who has called us as
co-laborers in the life-work of lifting, reviving, nurturing, and restoring.
These gifts? They were never meant for me, for us, to get and keep. This glory,
this light, has always been destined for community.
And those, my friends, are mighty good tidings.
No comments:
Post a Comment