November 29, 2021
God’s promises call to us
An excerpt from 2 Peter 3:3-10 (NRSV):
But do not ignore this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like one day. The Lord is not slow about his promise, as some think of slowness, but is patient with you, not wanting any to perish, but all to come to repentance. But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a loud noise, and the elements will be dissolved with fire, and the earth and everything that is done on it will be disclosed.
Reflection from Meredith Potter:
The earliest Christians felt an urgency about the ”end time,” because they believed that it would come in their lifetime; and so it behooved them to live their lives as if each day might be their last. Now, over 2000 years later, we have become used to the Lord’s patience, and find it easy to be complacent about our need to repent. We are content to shrug our shoulders and dismiss “God’s time” as simply different from human time. And yet as I reflect on what the pandemic has done to our lives, on the effects we are experiencing of global warming, and on my own advancing age, the “end time” seems more and more real to me; and I am aware that I need to live each day as if it were to be my last day on this earth. And so these words from the Second Letter of Peter serve as a special reminder as we begin this Advent, this liturgical time of waiting, that today might be the perfect day – or even the last day – to turn to the Lord in prayer with a grateful and penitent heart.
Photograph of the Galapagos turtle by Dan Nicholas
For further study and prayer, the readings assigned for today are:
Psalm 90; Numbers 17:1-11; 2 Peter 3:1-18
Music:
“The Heavens are Telling”
from The Creation by J. Haydn
“The heavens are telling the glory of God,
the wonder of his work displays the
firmament!”
“Sing, sing, sing and rejoice!
All that hath life and breath sing and rejoice!
Clap your hands and make a joyful noise,
Oh sing alleluia, sing and rejoice!”