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<DIV><FONT size=4>Today's cosmologists put up fascinating & compelling
scenarios (scary, too!) for the way things may one day end. In a frontispiece to
his 'God & the New Physics' (reprinted in Penguin, '90) Paul Davies quotes
Einstein's saying: 'Religion without science is blind. Science without religion
is lame.' Those of us who preach do well to take that on board, and with it the
'signs' such physicists read in those same skies Jesus talks of. </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4><A
href="http://www.angelfire.com/journal2/laterallyluke/LLK212538ADV1.html">http://www.angelfire.com/journal2/laterallyluke/LLK212538ADV1.html</A></FONT></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>Brian McGowan</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>- - - - -</FONT></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>Justice and Righteousness show up in all manner of guises.
Here we are faced with an image of Jesus on a cloud with Power and Glory [a
reference to Moses and Elijah from Mt. Transfiguration?]. Another way to speak
of this would be one who appeared with energy to do something about which one
has a perspective. Even though the Greek has these both to be feminine nouns, we
might yet translate them as Justice and Righteousness.<BR></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4><FONT size=4><A
href="http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2006/12/first-sunday-of-advent-c4.html">http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2006/12/first-sunday-of-advent-c4.html</A></FONT></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>Wesley White, 2006</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>- - - - -</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4><FONT size=4></FONT></FONT> </DIV><FONT size=4>
<DIV><FONT size=4>Today, at the start of the Liturgical Year the church invites
us to set out on a great journey - to follow the footstep of Christ in all of
his mysteries so that we can live as he lived. St. Luke gives us the last
address of his public ministry where Jesus is clearly fretful about the future
as he paints a bleak picture of the end of the world. There is talk of nations
in fear and of people dying in agony. Yet Jesus' advice is "Stay awake, praying
at all times for the strength to survive all that is going to happen." In Jesus'
view there is a far side to disaster. The good news is that final liberation and
resurrection comes out of the disaster. <BR></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>Like the prophets before him Jesus is painting a grim view of
the future in order to influence the present. He does not want to paralyze them
with fear but to energize them into action. The real purpose of speaking about
the last days is to affect the present ones. Be awake, look reality in the eye
and then act accordingly.<BR></FONT></DIV></FONT>
<DIV><FONT size=4><FONT size=4><A
href="http://www.bible.claret.org/liturgy/daily/sundays_pierse/cycleC/C_1stSunAdv.htm">http://www.bible.claret.org/liturgy/daily/sundays_pierse/cycleC/C_1stSunAdv.htm</A></FONT></FONT></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>Gerry Pierse</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>- - - - -</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>
<P style="MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0in">"Christmas is coming!" What is your reaction when
those words come from the mouths of children? Do you see the joy of the season?
Or do you see the red of mounting debt? (Honestly, most of us see both!)...When
Jesus pointed to his coming, he realized there would be anxiety. But he wanted
anticipation. He wanted his people to stand tall and raise their heads. He
wanted them to have hope.</P></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4><A
href="http://www.word-sunday.com/Files/c/1Advent-c/A-1Advent-c.html">http://www.word-sunday.com/Files/c/1Advent-c/A-1Advent-c.html</A></FONT></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>Larry Broding</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>- - - - -</FONT></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>We live in between the first coming of Jesus Christ and his
second coming, and most of us feel a lot better about the first one. Christmas
is about a baby, after all, and that makes everything easier. We know about
babies, and so we know how to domesticate Christmas. </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4><></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>If you are a woman in modern India (it doesn’t matter what
caste you belong to) and your husband or fiancé doesn’t think your family has
come up with a big enough dowry, and if he locks you in a closet for three
months or calls up his buddies and threatens to have them rape you and then kill
you -- I say, if you are a modern Indian woman in such a predicament, you want
redemption from wicked sexism, and you want it with every fiber of your
being.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4><></FONT></DIV>
<DIV>
<P><FONT size=4>According to a story that Os Guinness tells, 220 years ago the
Connecticut House of Representatives was in session on a bright day in May, and
the delegates were able to do their work by natural light. But then something
happened that nobody expected. Right in the middle of debate, there was an
eclipse of the sun and everything turned to darkness. Some legislators thought
it was the second coming. So a clamor arose. People wanted to adjourn. People
wanted to pray. People wanted to prepare for the coming of the Lord.</FONT></P>
<P><FONT size=4>But the speaker of the House had a different idea. He was a
Christian believer, and he rose to the occasion with good logic and good faith.
We are all upset by the darkness, he said, and some of us are afraid. But "the
Day of the Lord is either approaching or it is not. If it is not, there is no
cause for adjournment. And if the Lord is returning, I, for one, choose to be
found doing my duty. I therefore ask that candles be brought."</FONT></P>
<P><FONT size=4>And men who expected Jesus went back to their desks and resumed
their debate.</FONT></P></DIV>
<DIV><A href="http://www.religion-online.org/showarticle.asp?title=2020"><FONT
size=4>http://www.religion-online.org/showarticle.asp?title=2020</FONT></A></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>Cornelius Plantinga Jr., 2000</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>- - - - -</FONT></DIV>
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