All Recordings from The Episcopal Church of the Redeemer | The Episcopal Church of the Redeemer

Dec 07, 2021 |

Tuesday, December 7, Morning Prayer, Rite II

| The Rev. Melanie W. J. Slane

Tuesday, December 7, Morning Prayer, Rite II

Join us this morning, Tuesday, December 7, for online Morning Prayer led by the Rev. Melanie Slane.

To assist you in following along you may use your Book of Common Prayer (BCP) beginning on page 80. If you do not have a BCP at home, use the buttons below to use the online version or download a pdf version.

Our worship services are all available here and in our Online Worship podcasts. Subscribe now on Apple podcast, Stitcher, and Spotify or ask Alexa, Google, or Siri to play the podcast “The Episcopal Church of the Redeemer Online Worship

Dec 05, 2021 |

Already Here

| The Rev. Philip DeVaul

Already Here

I want to be clear, I don't actually have a problem with New Year's resolutions. I think they're great if they work for you and if they don't, that's also fine. Some of us, we're going to actually try to do things to make ourselves better and some of us are just going to be like, yeah, that’s just not going to happen. I just want to say that this text is for you, because the presence of God that John the Baptist is proclaiming, is not actually about you, it's about God. It's not about you making it happen. At first, it sounds like that because he says prepare the way of the Lord, make his path straight. And you're like, ah, good, I needed some duties. Thank you for giving me some clear concrete steps that I'll avoid. But then we start to think if I don't make the world exactly what it's supposed to be, God's not going to show up. We begin to think that it's on us to improve ourselves and improve this world or else this won't be the kind of world that Jesus wants any part of.

Like, somehow, we have to make ourselves our hearts, our souls, our lives, our communities, perfect or else God will not love us. But we know the story of Jesus, right? Like when he shows up, does he show up and go, oh man, you guys have been preparing such a great way for me, thank you so much. And everyone's like, see the road we made it straight for you. Is that what happens or does Jesus show up into an absolute bloody mess? Jesus shows up into deeply complicated lives and impossible situations, into the uncertainty of occupied Israel in a place where everything is falling apart. That's where Jesus shows up. And the prophets tell us this, both John the Baptist, and Isaiah, whom he quotes. Every valley shall be filled in every mountain and hill shall be made low; we heard it in our reading from Baruch as well today. And guess who does the leveling out? Guess who makes things just in this world. You? No, God. Guess who is at work to make love apparent, manifest, obvious, clear in this world, God.