Luke, Isaiah, and ‘A Watered Garden’

Annas and Caiaphas were high priests, the word of God came to John the son of Zacharias in the wilderness. (Luke 3:2)
      Father, let your word come to men and women throughout this diocese.

      Father, let your word come to Bishop Bill as he meets with the House of Bishops this week.

And he went into all the region around the Jordan, preaching a baptism of repentance for the remission of sins, (Luke 3:3)
      Holy Spirit, send forth these men and women throughout this diocese preaching a baptism of repentance, a baptism of turning to Jesus, and then as those who repent turn to Jesus, baptize them with your power.

as it is written in the book of the words of Isaiah the prophet, saying:
      ”The voice of one crying in the wilderness:
      ’Prepare the way of the Lord;
      Make His paths straight.’” (Luke 3:4)
      Father, prepare our hearts to receive Jesus in a fresh new encounter with him.

      ”‘Every valley shall be filled
      And every mountain and hill brought low;
      The crooked places shall be made straight
      And the rough ways smooth; (Luke 3:5)
      Lord, there are so many rough places and hills and valleys to get past; make our way smooth before us. Thank you.

      And all flesh shall see the salvation of God.’” (Luke 3:6)
      Thank you, LORD, for your unending kindness to us. Help us respond with love for you and joy in you for all that you are doing among us.

How beautiful upon the mountains
Are the feet of him who brings good news,
Who proclaims peace,
Who brings glad tidings of good things,
Who proclaims salvation,
Who says to Zion,
“Your God reigns!” (Isaiah 52:7)
      Holy Spirit, move our hearts to proclaim the good news and glad tidings of salvation.

The Lord will guide you continually,
And satisfy your soul in drought,
And strengthen your bones;
You shall be like a watered garden,
And like a spring of water, whose waters do not fail. (Isaiah 58:11)
      Holy Spirit, let each parish in this diocese be a well watered garden where people can find strength for their bones and satisfy their souls from the drought.

Those from among you
Shall build the old waste places;
You shall raise up the foundations of many generations;
And you shall be called the Repairer of the Breach,
The Restorer of Streets to Dwell In. (Isaiah 58:12)
      Jesus, help us join you in repairing the breach and restoring streets to dwell in. Raise up many to do this in Hamilton Hill (in Schenectady) and Arbor Hill (in Albany). Thank you!

      A word received: Ask them what it means to be a steward.

      A word received: Call my people to a life of stewardship. Call my people to turn to me. They are to be stewards for me.

Monday: 80; * 77, [79]; Esther 4:4-17; Acts 18:1-11; Luke (1:1-4),3:1-14
Tuesday: 78:1-39; * 78:40-72; Esther 5:1-14; Acts 18:12-28; Luke 3:15-22

      Notes from the Front Line

*****             A Watered Garden, by W. B. Anderson, 1919
      I have a precious memory. It is the memory of a garden that I happened upon one tired midsummer’s morning, in the midst of a torrid plain in India. I was weary, and travel-stained, and thirsty, when over the drooping head of the horse, I saw a clump of trees on the far horizon. I hoped it might be a garden. It seemed ages until we should reach it. When we did arrive under the spreading branches of great mango trees, a cool zephyr, as grateful as the fanning of angels’ wings, rippled over my parched cheeks. It was still early in the day, when, swinging myself wearily from the hard seat of the springless yekka, I walked straight into the heart of the garden, down the shady aisle of mango and loquat trees. Before dawn there had been a shower of rain, and now the gardener was running the clear, cool water from the irrigating well all about among trees and shrubs. Everywhere leaves were green and flowers were bright. Parrots circled through the cloudless blue, swung upon the swaying branches, calling merrily to one another. The air was ladened with the intoxicating odors of roses and jasmine. The fountain sparkled laughingly in the shaded center of the garden. I stooped to bathe my hands and face in the cool waters of the fountain’s basin. Then, from its joyous spring I drank until satisfied. I sat for a few precious moments upon the marble edge of the fountain and reveled in the refreshment of a watered garden. The driver called, and I hurried out again across the stifling, heated plain. I had tarried for so short a time, but I was a new man. I carried away the song of the garden in my heart, and its echoes shall never die from my life.
      I was making the same journey in another year. The road was more uninviting than before, the weather was hotter, and I was not only weary, but ill. But I had a memory! For hours I looked and longed for the place of the garden of refreshing. At last we came to the shade of its trees. Wearily and weakly, but eagerly, I climbed from the seat of the torturing, springless cart. With unsteady steps I entered the door of the garden. The trees were gray with dust. The flowers drooped in the heat. The little water courses were parched and dry. The fountain was stopped. My soul sank with weariness, and I turned away sick at heart to finish the torturing journey unrefreshed. At the door I met the gardener. I asked him why his garden languished so. He explained with guilty look that he had been absent attending to affairs of his own for a week. I asked him if the raja would not be vexed at the neglect of his garden. He explained that the raja had gone to the mountains for a month. Then I knew that the garden had been neglected because the master’s orders had been disobeyed. He intended that every traveler might be refreshed; but his gardener had not been faithful.
      I have a precious memory. It is a memory of a friend. Sin-stricken and weary, and far from God, I was traveling one day when I came into his life. His whole life was wet with the dews of Heaven; his garments were redolent with the odors of Paradise; he just breathed the very life of God. I sat and communed with him, and from within his life there flowed into mine rivers of living water. I walked with him through lovely avenues of restful shade in his friendship, and saw heavenly vistas, and drank from life-giving springs. I went out to my life renewed and refreshed. I was a new man, and there rang through all my being a song of the memory of that blessed life. All through eternity shall the echoes of that friendship call from peak to peak for me.
      In time of need and anguish I came again to that friend. I ran to meet him as a shelter from my sore distress. I found him and entered into communion with him. But the fountains of his life seemed dried up. The refreshment seemed to have vanished. His own life seemed parched and drooping. His speech was as the speech of other men. I struggled back to my own life as I came. Later he told me that the King of his life was not being obeyed, and the garden of his heart was not being watered.. The trees and the walks of his friendship were still there, but they no longer soothed and strengthened. The fountain of his friendship was still there, but its waters had been hushed. The King had intended that this garden, this life, should be kept perpetually refreshing for the souls of all who might come to it, but the King had not been obeyed, and the living water had not been kept flowing, and I went away unrefreshed.
      Then I prayed, “Oh God, keep flowing into me, and within me, and from within me Thy rivers of living water for the health and joy of other men! Oh, King of life, make my life a watered garden!”

***** Date: Sun, 19 Sep 2010
From: Fr. Nigel Mumford+
Subject: The Welcome Home Initiative mentioned in the US Chaplians Association
      Please visit the following web site of the MCA Military Chaplains Association about the Welcome Home Initiative at: http://www.mca-usa.org/2010/09/17/the-welcome-home-initiative-is-looking-for-armed-forces-members-veterans/
Thank you, Be well, God bless you, Fr, Nigel+

Albany Intercessor

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