Dean's Letter to the Parish

December 2007
Episcopal Cathedral Church
of Saint John
Wilmington, Delaware

Dear Friends in Christ,

We are entering a new Church Year. The season of Advent is upon us and the celebration of the Incarnation awaits us. Advent is a time of expectation and preparation, and the Incarnation is what we are expecting and preparing for.

I can remember that as a child, by the time the First Sunday of Advent arrived, I had all but memorized the toy section of both the Sears’ and the Montgomery Ward’s catalogues. I was definitely prepared, not for the Incarnation, but for the trip to Santa Land at the several department stores in Baltimore. I was expecting to meet Santa Claus and I had a lot to tell him. That I met him four times, once in each of the stores, was all to the good. Telling my story four times, meant it had four times the chance of being heard and understood.

Now that, at least chronologically, I am no longer a child, I find material for expectation and preparation, not in the toy section of department store catalogues, but in the words of the Bible and the faith story of the Church. The yearly revisiting of those words and that story increases the intensity of their interface with the words and story of my life.

Isaiah’s assertion never grows old or outdated:

For out of Zion shall go forth instruction, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem. He shall judge between the nations, and shall arbitrate for many peoples; they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.

The promise for the wholeness of God’s creation never loses its appeal:

The wolf shall live with the lamb,
the leopard shall lie down with the kid,
the calf and the lion and the fatling together,
and a little child shall lead them.
The cow and the bear shall graze,
their young shall lie down together;
and the lion shall eat straw like the ox.
The nursing child shall play over the hole of the asp,
and the weaned child shall put its hand on the adder's den.
They will not hurt or destroy
on all my holy mountain;
for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the LORD
as the waters cover the sea.

The admonition of James remains ever relevant:

Be patient, therefore, beloved, until the coming of the Lord. The farmer waits for the precious crop from the earth, being patient with it until it receives the early and the late rains. You also must be patient. Strengthen your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is near. Beloved, do not grumble against one another, so that you may not be judged. See, the Judge is standing at the doors! As an example of suffering and patience, beloved, take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord.

Matthew’s rendering of the story is always fresh:

Now the birth of Jesus the Messiah took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been engaged to Joseph, but before they lived together, she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit. Her husband Joseph, being a righteous man and unwilling to expose her to public disgrace, planned to dismiss her quietly. But just when he had resolved to do this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, "Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife, for the child conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will bear a son, and you are to name him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins." All this took place to fulfill what had been spoken by the Lord through the prophet:

"Look, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall name him Emmanuel," which means, "God is with us."

All the above and more will greet us and feed us as we move through Advent reading and reflecting upon the words and story that speak to the enduring love and compassion of God. So, be prepared as you live in expectation, or as Paul so elegantly puts it:

You know what time it is, how it is now the moment for you to wake from sleep. For salvation is nearer to us now than when we became believers; the night is far gone, the day is near. Let us then lay aside the works of darkness and put on the armor of light; let us live honorably as in the day, not in reveling and drunkenness, not in debauchery and licentiousness, not in quarreling and jealousy. Instead, put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires.

Prayers and best wishes for a blessed Advent,
William B. Lane

DEAN'S DIRECTORY:

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Cathedral Call Letters

• 2008: January | March
• 2007: September | October | November | December