Stir Up Your Power

This is a dramatic time. Advent is in full swing, rose Sunday is today, and we're awaiting the Nativity of Our Lord right around the corner. The readings are dramatic. The readings from Isaiah have been pointing towards God's promise of sending a savior to the world. Adding to the drama, John the baptist features prominently today in both the Sunday Church readings.

In the Daily Office, John the Baptist appears with Jesus in the countryside at Aenon near Salim. They were baptizing there because "water was abundant there." (Neat that they went to the water, which sends a simple message that the water is necessary. You can't just say you're baptized; you have to actually get baptized, with real water.)

John is proclaiming that Jesus is the one. It's an exciting time in the lectionary, and an exciting time in the world.

Let's conclude with the collect of the day for the third Sunday in Advent. It's excellent:

Stir up your power, O Lord, and with great might come among us; and, because we are sorely hindered by our sins, let your bountiful grace and mercy speedily help us and deliver us; through Jesus Christ our Lord, to whom, with you and the Holy Spirit, be honor and glory, now and forever. Amen.