DeanRobin :: Ordinary and holy

This is Robin Walker's blog. I am the Dean of the Diocese of Brandon & Rector of St. Matthew's Anglican Cathedral, in Brandon, Manitoba, Canada. I have been in this ministry since January of 2003. My big interest is "preaching among exiles," to borrow a term from Walter Brueggemann. This blog is mainly devoted to my sermons, and the sometimes circuitous process by which I get to them, as well as current issues in church life as I experience them. I welcome constructive comment on the content of my personal posts. Comments on linked articles should be directed to the appropriate authors. Note that this is a moderated blog. I will not accept comments dealing with local and/or personal issues. The main page normally contains only material from the current week. Past articles are found in other categories.

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Ordinary and holy

by Robin Walker on Mon 18 Dec 2006 06:00 PM CST | Permanent Link | Cosmos

I took a day off yesterday Monday, Dec. 18. We had some Christmas preparations to do, sending off parcels, cleaning the house, putting up our tree.

The Gospel for the day is an odd one, Matthew 1:1-7,17, a few bits of the genealogy of Jesus as Matthew presents it. Its use in the last week of Advent seems clear, because it draws our attention to Jesus' human anscestry, particularly as it goes trhought the House of David. Nonetheless, it is one of those passages that make you scratch your head a bit when we call it "Gospel" -- where do we hear Good News in a list of names?

Perhaps it's just like my day yesterday -- occupied by the mundane and even tiresome tasks of housework and shopping, I still found myself feeling very satisfied at day's end. Much had been accomplished, even if what was done was not always exciting. Just so, God accomplished a great thing through something very ordinary, the chain of generations that led to the birth of our Saviour.

The ordinary becomes holy, because God uses the ordinary for holy purposes.

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Advent 2006