the Fourth Monday of Advent
Scripture Reading for Today:
Genesis 25:19-28
19 This is the account of the family line of Abraham’s son Isaac. Abraham became the father of Isaac, 20 and Isaac was forty years old when he married Rebekah daughter of Bethuel the Aramean from Paddan Aram and sister of Laban the Aramean. 21 Isaac prayed to the Lord on behalf of his wife, because she was childless. The Lord answered his prayer, and his wife Rebekah became pregnant. 22 The babies jostled each other within her, and she said, “Why is this happening to me?” So she went to inquire of the Lord. 23 The Lord said to her, “Two nations are in your womb, and two peoples from within you will be separated; one people will be stronger than the other, and the older will serve the younger.” 24 When the time came for her to give birth, there were twin boys in her womb. 25 The first to come out was red, and his whole body was like a hairy garment; so they named him Esau. 26 After this, his brother came out, with his hand grasping Esau’s heel; so he was named Jacob. Isaac was sixty years old when Rebekah gave birth to them. 27 The boys grew up, and Esau became a skillful hunter, a man of the open country, while Jacob was content to stay at home among the tents. 28 Isaac, who had a taste for wild game, loved Esau, but Rebekah loved Jacob.
Psalm 113
1 Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord, you his servants; praise the name of the Lord. 2 Let the name of the Lord be praised, both now and forevermore. 3 From the rising of the sun to the place where it sets, the name of the Lord is to be praised. 4 The Lord is exalted over all the nations, his glory above the heavens. 5 Who is like the Lord our God, the One who sits enthroned on high, 6 who stoops down to look on the heavens and the earth? 7 He raises the poor from the dust and lifts the needy from the ash heap; 8 he seats them with princes, with the princes of his people. 9 He settles the childless woman in her home as a happy mother of children. Praise the Lord.
Colossians 1:15-20
15 The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. 16 For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him. 17 He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. 18 And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy. 19 For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, 20 and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.
NIV
Strange Imaginations: Peace
Matthew Church, a Ukrainian/Scottish settler from Treaty 6 homelands, has lived as a guest within the beautiful traditional territories of the WSÁNEĆ and lək̓ʷəŋən peoples, and has called Victoria, BC home for the past 11 years. He loves his small family, good coffee, and everything driftwood.
This poem is from a broader work called, Strange Imaginations: Advent Poetics 2021 - and it is meant for sharing! The booklet is helping to raise support for Water First who partner to create water security and sustainability with indigenous communities in Ontario, please consider giving generously. Always interested in hearing from you at matthewondering@outlook.com
This poem is from a broader work by Matthew Church called, Strange Imaginations: Advent Poetics 2021.
You can download the booklet HERE; it is meant for sharing. Republished here with permission.
***
We live in a world that can easily consume us with its catastrophes, commercials and cacophonies. These come at us from our larger world, or our smaller worlds; there is noise from every side vying for our attention, trying to prop up some image of what an ideal world or life should be. Here, we are often confronted by limited imaginations that fail to lift us up to see a truer horizon-line of the expansive potential in the universe, namely that it is filled with the presence of the triune God of Love. This reality gives us the ability and audacity to entertain strange imaginations - things not yet seen, or fully seen. In this we let our minds and hearts be filled with the very thoughts, hearts and imaginations that have been stirring in Creator from before the very beginning of all things. We are invited to behold these strange imaginations, letting them confront our small worlds with the grandeur of their scope and vision, alongside their earthy invitation for activist embodiment.
In a world with despair, catastrophic desecration of earth and life, it is strange to imagine hope.
In a world with discord, strife and conflict, it is strange to imagine peace.
In a world with sorrow, tragic loss, and endless human rights abuses, it is strange to imagine joy.
In a world with apathetic consumerism, neo-colonial politics, and race riots, it is strange to imagine love.
In a world with tribal gods, militant religious action, and secular elimination of Spirit, it is strange to imagine, God with us.
It may be strange to imagine, to push and prod at the edges of our own universes, but there are mysteriously expanding energies here, everything being made new. And invitations come to us from the spark and sparkle in Creator’s eyes, rousing us, astounding us, that we somehow could be caught up in these imaginations, enough to be part and parcel of their coming, enlivening this newness into the grit and grime of the everyday.
Shalom is a soiled way
It does not hover
detached from harsh realities
Though bullied by evil
It presses back in resistance,
breaks through rock
and hardened hearts
It stills the madness
of a world hurtling
towards cliff’s edge,
standing as signpost
to solid ground
It meets between
enemy lines,
beating in time
with the hearts
of all humanity,
seeking to inspire
strange imaginations
that all
could be
made well
again.
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