The week of love...stream of consciousness ramblings from the second week of advent

Many of you got the email I sent about the family from St. Paul's. Cody, Travis, Keegan, and Kelli were friends. Their grandmother brought them to church, often making the long drive just so they could go to church. Antonina taught them in Sunday School and Sharon helped me with the youth group for a little while. Kelli died. She was just a kid. She was trapped in a house fire that the boys got out of. But Kelli didn't make it. Sharron, Bob, Larry, Emily, Cody, Travis, Keegan. We mourn with you.

How do we deal with this kind of thing especially at this time of the year?

I was visiting Tilly, a 90 year old shut in from our church. Her son is a business prof. at Ashland and was a superb basketball player at WVU. I asked her if she had any grandkids. She said "No, and I'm glad I don't." I inquired at this seemingly strange assertion and she told me, "when I look at the world and what those kids would have to go through, I think I'd rather not have them go through it."

I reflected with her about the love of God the Father who knew what the world would put the Son through. Knowing what must come, God became one of us anyway. The incarnation is incredible in itself, but in light of the cross it is so much more incredible. What love the Father has lavished upon us!

This weeks lectionary texts included Malachi's imagery of purity as a refiner's fire and a launderer's soap. We think alot about the imagery of refiner's fires. There are two men at my church who retired from steel mills where they worked in a blast furnace. The purifying work of Christ is powerful and dangerous. But it is also loving. A launderer's soap is gentle and soft. It is intimate and close. It evokes images of a mother who works endlessly trying to get every spot out of a child's grass stained jeans. Christ's coming brings about our purity, if only we will follow John into the waters of repentance. His purity is powerful, but it is always loving!

Peace be with you all this Advent season. May Christ bring purity into your life.