Another Advent Begins...

For the Advent season, a series of short meditations on the Daily Lectionary readings.  (Remember, you can put your e-mail in the  "Follow by E-mail" slot in the top right-hand column and we will show up in your in-box.)

Psalm 24 begins:

The earth is the LORD's and all that is in it, the world, and those who live in it...

Not a bad starting place. The earth doesn't belong to the retail monster, to the too-small paycheck, to the addiction or the disagreement that seems to expand until to swallows every moment of every day, every fiber of every relationship.

Our darkest secret, our most intractable problems, our most embarrassing failures…our most embarrassing successes…none of these is our starting point or our finishing point. None of this defines us.

The earth is the LORD's and all that is in it...

It's the only place to stand as we begin a new year as the people of God. We look for God's reconciling, redeeming activity from that perch. We exist, whether we acknowledge it or not, as God's own.

The earth is the LORD's and all that is in it, the world and those who live in it...