I left the office at 12:37am this morning after spending some time alone after our Vision Dinner and went down into the train. I walked to the front of F Line headed to Queens. As I reach the end of the platform, a man who wouldn’t tell me his name but said he had a place to stay for the night wrapped his swollen bleeding legs with fresh gauze. The blood was fresh and streaming as the fluid had collected in his lower legs and stretched the skin. Merry Christmas, we say but do we know just how Merry it is?
The Hebrew people more than 2000 years ago were waiting with fervent expectation for the coming of a Savior. The city that baby Jesus entered was not occupied by the 99% but instead by Roman soldiers who held all power and privilege, oppressing the Jewish people in their own land. So when the wise men heard the “Good tidings of great joy” there was good reason to celebrate not because they would get to go to heaven one day but because Heaven had come down! God was not afar off but instead had come near and would establish a kingdom where there would be no more pain, weeping or sickness and all of creation would be reconciled to the God who spoke peace to chaos. The Jewish people and those Gentiles who would choose to believe rejoiced because a child has been born that was no ordinary child. A man who had lived and laid down His life was no ordinary man. He was the Word made flesh, King Jesus. They gave thanks and praise because the image of the invisible God had been made visible in Christ.
And, I like them, can’t wait! There won’t be any homeless in that Great City. There won’t be human trafficking, greed and inequality in the place that He has for us. There won’t be any death where we’re going because Jesus has won the victory. Like the Jews waited for His coming, my hope lays in His return when all things will be made new.
Poem: Waiting…
In the morning, it’s in the back of my mind…by mid-day it’s in the middle and by nighttime it’s all I see with my eyes closed or open, because I don’t want to miss it —
the moment when the east sky cracks and all that was taken is given back
by He who made and gave it all away and gives and gives every good and perfect gift to us every single day –
to the faithful and the faith-less — to hands held back and those extended —
to the priests and to the paupers, the mockers and the scoffers –
to all He did come and is coming again and I can’t wait…
to the ones who have been bombed and the one who dropped them, to those hard and guarded and those who hearts are soft and longing for His coming—
so I’m praying for grace and patience that we might praise Him in the rain…
and not run to the clubs or comforts and addictions, to not color reality with uppers and downers or things that keep us from feeling –
but instead run to the rock of our salvation, cling to the hem of His garment and say give me strength til I can see the days of revelation when every tribe and nation will praise you in the heavenly places —
oh lord my God give us strength in our waiting, so that youmight reclaim pieces of your kingdom that the enemy has taken.
Messiah, you are coming but the time is not yet so give us faith trust that our train has not left us behind and somehow we missed it –
because In the morning, it’s in the back of my mind…by mid-day it’s in the middle and by nighttime it’s all I see with my eyes closed or open, because I don’t want to miss it —
the moment when the east sky cracks and all that was taken is given back by He who made and gave it all away and gives and gives every good and perfect gift to us every single day — I don’t want to miss it, and I just can’t wait.
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