Purify our conscience... Let your conscience be your guide. Ever heard that before? Sounds good if my conscience is clean. But what if it's not? Then where does that leave me? The collect for the 4th Sunday of Advent starts out by asking God to purify our conscience... Daily! I don't know about you but there are plenty of things that can mar and spoil and tarnish my conscience. And it seems no matter how hard I try it's impossible for me to clean and polish it up! Yet the prayer is an invitation for God to do the work. But what's all the fuss about anyway? Jesus is coming! And the simple “hut” of a life that I call home is being transformed into a mansion suitable for him to live in. It's as if God has his own home improvement company, and he's picked your house and mine to do some serious renovation. Jesus isn't just coming as a guest; he wants to take ownership of the home. And he will make it fit for a king! I wonder what might happen if you and I walked through the lives we call our “homes” and made a punch list of everything that needs to be fixed, improved or replaced. What might show up on our list? Now, imagine handing that list over to God as the general contractor and letting him get to work. There might be some rooms that we are eager for him to get working on. There may be some doors that we are hesitant to let him open. Even here we need not worry. God is tender and gentle, even when he's at work on renovating us. The truth is that he already knows the punch list (including the things we've left off). The work is his to do, but don't be surprised if he hands you a pair of work gloves and a broom and invites you to join him in the work. Blessings,
Matthew+ Purify our conscience, Almighty God, by your daily visitation, that your Son Jesus Christ, at his coming, may find in us a mansion prepared for himself; who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen. (BCP p. 212) | 
