MONDAY, September 20 (John Coleridge Patteson and his Companions)

Luke (1:1-4); 3:1-14. The voice of one crying out in the wilderness: “Prepare the way of the Lord.”

Notice the slight difference in Luke’s quotation from the original in Isaiah. It has to do with what takes place “in the wilderness.” Isaiah had written (40:3): “In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord”—the wilderness was where the divine highway was to be built. But Luke modifies it so that the wilderness is where the messenger cries out to prepare the way of the Lord.

There is truth in both versions of the saying. It is not just within the warm and friendly environment of our little circle of friends that we are to build the Lord’s highway, nor is it only there that we are to speak in the Lord’s name. Our calling—both to do and to speak—is in the wilderness, in the hard places, amidst the tensions and traumas of daily living.

Where is your wilderness? In a children’s hospital where a little boy is dying of AIDS right before his parents’ eyes? On the streets of the city where you live? In a small town that has been going downhill for years? In your own living room? Name your wilderness. That is where you are called to do and to speak in the Lord’s name. (1994)

PRAY for the Diocese of Hpa-an (Myanmar)

Ps 80 * 77, [79]; Esther 4:4-17 or Judith 7:1-7, 19-32; Acts 18:1-11

View the daily Lectionary Readings at Satucket.com.
Or view the Bible passages at Biblegateway.com.

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