Christmastide 2

Lord and Father,

You have always remembered your people. In Egypt, you heard, you saw, you knew. Their affliction, their oppression, their slavery, came up to you, and you met them with your covenant, your promise, your salvation.

And in his ministry on earth, your Son, our Savior, knew, too, what was in men. Yet he like Moses was one drawn from waters. Sown to certain death, he was raised by baptism and by your power, in a life he freely laid down and took up again. He is vindicated, proved, washed in innocence. And with him, our feet too are set on dry ground, that we may pass from the realm of sin and death into a new home.

Let his zeal for your house consume us. Let us passionately pursue holiness and proximity to you. He who has seen the sin within us and ransomed us from it, he who turns filthy water into jubilant wine, he who does not entrust himself to us but to you, he who delights in your habitation where your glory dwells: let him lead us heavenward, homeward, in the way of integrity. Let us bless the Lord. Hallelujah!