AdventWord 2018, Day 18 – “wash”
Racing through the days until we celebrate god born human, I felt people in church today lean in to Luke’s gospel when Mary greets Elizabeth. The mothers knew not only because of their piety but because mothers know these things. Elizabeth and Mary knew, and Luke’s gospel tells us that John leaped in Elizabeth’s womb.
These humble women knew that their children were special but remained humble. They knew that they were blessed, that they had God’s favor upon them, but Mary also understood and says that her blessing of “great things” is part of the promise made to God’s people.
This humility extends throughout Jesus’ life. He is laid in an animal’s food trough as a newborn. He washes the feet of his disciples and teaches them that no person is so great as to be above doing this for another. As he is brought to a painful human death, he forgives his captors and executioners.
Lord, make us instruments of your peace. Where there is hatred, let us sow love; where there is injury, pardon; where there is discord, union; where there is doubt, faith; where there is despair, hope; where there is darkness, light; where there is sadness, joy. Grant that we may not so much seek to be consoled as to console; to be understood as to understand; to be loved as to love. For it is in giving that we receive; it is in pardoning that we are pardoned; and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life. Amen.
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