Ambrose, Bishop of Milan

O God, you enabled your servant Ambrose to humble the pride of princes, to win the learned, and to teach the simple: Grant that we in our turn may walk humbly before you and resist iniquity in high places, glad to sing your praises before the whole assembly of your people; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns in you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen
(Horace Finn Tucker)

5For he will hide me in his shelter in the day of trouble;
he will conceal me under the cover of his tent;
he will set me high on a rock.
6Now my head is lifted up above my enemies all around me,
and I will offer in his tent sacrifices with shouts of joy;
I will sing and make melody to the Lord.
7Hear, O Lord, when I cry aloud,
be gracious to me and answer me!
8‘Come,’ my heart says, ‘seek his face!’
Your face, Lord, do I seek.
11Teach me your way, O Lord,
and lead me on a level path because of my enemies.
Psalm 27 - New Revised Standard Version

Readings for today from the Daily Lectionary
(click on underlined link to go directly to the reading)
Amos 7:1-9 - Revelation 1:1-8 - Matt. 22:23-33

If we listen closely, we can hear the labor pained cry of the whole creation in the howl of the coyote at a full moon on a clear winter night or in the hum of the hummingbird's wing on a still summer day.
If we listen closely to the restlessness within ourselves, we will hear it there.
All these cries are in essence the same cry for that which only God can provide - that which goes by names like wholeness, healing, redemption and salvation.
Each Advent, we sit in the pregnant tension between what we groan for and the hope of its coming that we cannot yet see.
Take some time today to patiently sit within this tension. What does God want to birth anew in you this season?
Rev Mark Sloss, Christ Lutheran, Kokomo, IN.