Scars.

It’s been almost two years since the Great Ice Storm of 2009, but there is hardly a tree that doesn’t bear its scars.  As the cover of summer leaves have fallen, these trees have dramatically revealed the damage still wrought within.  The brilliance of fall that so distracted from the breaks and scars has disrobed, leaving its wounded occupant naked and exposed to the world.  When the pretty colors finally fell, they took with them the layers of security they provided for these poor trees.

Winter has come, and has revealed all.

There is now no hiding the awkward, broken forms within. Winter has stripped away the outer mask of concealment, and has left in its wake reminders everywhere of the trauma that once occurred.

In the same way, the whole earth bears the scars of one great traumatic event.  The day sin entered, every living thing was shaken to its core.  Everything broke, and no creature escaped the effects of such violence.  All shall perish, when the brightly colored cloaks of life are exhausted.  All will someday be stripped bear and vulnerable, having nothing left with which to hide the scars.

It can never be as it was.  Just as many of these trees will bear the scars of that great storm to the day they fall to the ground, we all carry within us a broken ugliness that is beyond repair.  Something is sick in the human soul.  Something has been broken since the first entrance of sin.  And try as we might to hide or disguise or forget or ignore it, the blemishes will forever distinguish our lives.

O come, O come, Emmanuel
and ransom captive Israel
that mourns in lowly exile here
until the Son of God appear.

Rejoice. Rejoice.
Emmanuel shall come to thee,
O Israel.

Almighty and everlasting God, whose will it is to restore all things in your well-beloved Son, the King of kings and Lord of lords: mercifully grant that the peoples of the earth, divided and enslaved by sin, may be freed and brought together under his most gracious rule; who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.  AMEN.

Proper 29

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