John the baptizer arrives to announce another arrival, yet to come--and we're given to wonder will it amount to eradication or redemption?
Here's a prayer of invocation, which may help prepare you for further reading.
God of impossible peace yet promised peace, we pray that during this season of Advent we may open ourselves to your impossible presence, your impractical call, your unworkable vision of what your reign will be—wolves living with lambs, cows and bears grazing together, nothing hurtful, nothing destructive. How can this be?
And yet we long for it. We long for a realm in which all that is ugly is redeemed, all that exploits is given rest and those exploited given restitution, all that foments conflict is becalmed—a straightening out, a making smooth.
We pray this as radical transformation. We pray this as incremental redemption. We pray that wickedness might be eradicated, and that it might be redeemed. Come as you will—of a sudden, or in gentle silence. Come, and make us yours, children of impossible, impractical, yet approaching, peace. In Christ, amen.
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