This Sunday brings the Church Year to a close. Our readings this week all remind us of our broken relationship with God. But despite the fact that we declared ourselves enemies of God through our sin and disobedience, our Old Testament reading declares us to be His “treasured possession!” Paul in Colossians 1:13–20 tells us, Christ became one of us to make peace with His broken Creation! And in our Gospel lesson, Jesus promises a return to a restored Paradise, even as He was suffering for us upon the cross.
