A miracle

December 13, 2022

Friends,

Below is a poem written in the 1930s by the English poet W. H. Auden. It was a reflection on Advent within a larger work about Christmas. The middle two verses are especially difficult, but pay close attention to the 1st and 4th verses.

The first verse describes our lives, full of sin in a sinful world. That scene in the Garden of Eden where Adam and Eve hid from God sets the stage for the whole history of the world to follow.

The cure for our sickness and rescue from sin – these things require a miracle, the miracle called for in the fourth verse. Nothing less, nothing within the realm of possibility, nothing short of an utter miracle will do. And so God became man and dwelt among us. Jesus took our flesh and suffered and died for our sins. He rose on the third day, the truly impossible now a fact of history.

Amazing! Ponder these things as we make our way through the rest of Advent and on to the celebration of Christmas. Let us rejoice with the shepherds and wise men at the birth of our Lord, the king who comes to save us!

Alone, alone, about a dreadful woodOf conscious evil runs a lost mankind,Dreading to find its Father lest it findThe Goodness it has dreaded is not good:Alone, alone, about our dreadful wood.

Where is that Law for which we broke our own,Where now that Justice for which Flesh resignedHer hereditary right to passion, MindHis will to absolute power? Gone. Gone.Where is that Law for which we broke our own?

The Pilgrim Way has led to the Abyss.Was it to meet such grinning evidenceWe left our richly odoured ignorance?Was the triumphant answer to be this?The Pilgrim Way has led to the Abyss.

We who must die demand a miracle.How could the Eternal do a temporal act,The Infinite become a finite fact?Nothing can save us that is possible:We who must die demand a miracle.

God bless and keep you,

Pr. Buchs

COMING EVENTS: Choir Practice – Wednesdays, Nov. 30, Dec. 7 & 21 @ 6pm Midweek Advent Services – Wednesdays, Nov. 30, Dec. 7, 14, & 21 @ 7pm Family Night – Wednesday, Dec. 14 @ 5:30pm Sunday School Christmas Program – Sunday, Dec. 18 @ 11am Christmas Eve Divine Service – Saturday, Dec. 24 @ 7pm Christmas Day Divine Service – Sunday, Dec. 25 @ 9am