Economic Persecution?
In The Story of God, The Story of Us there’s a character who starts coming around an early Christian community to hear its story. The man is a merchant, curious about this strange group of friends who...
View ArticleCelebrating Carols Part 1: Midnight Clear
As my friends on Facebook and Twitter know, I am a huge fan of Christmas carols. At least, certain ones on my special list… Ok… yeah, that’s right… I really like both of them. In honor, then, of this...
View ArticleCelebrating Carols Part 2: Ave Maria
Today’s rendition of Dancin’ to the Carols looks to Ave Maria for its inspiration. I love this song for a number of reasons. As Protestants, we still give far too little airtime to Mary. Christmas is a...
View ArticleAdvent Love
I’m not sure who invented this whole advent wreath thing, but we need to have a little conversion. Today, thanks to said Christmas tradition, I was in charge of leading an Advent discussion on love....
View ArticleMatthew’s Christ is Coming
With Christmas coming on Saturday, I thought I’d do a few posts this week on the Jesus of the birth narratives. What do we learn from Matthew and Luke about who Jesus is? Matthew has a particular...
View ArticleCelebrating Carols Part 3: Canticle of the Turning
In this, the third installment on the wonder of Christmas carols, I turn to “Canticle of the Turning.” The lyrics are a paraphrase of the Magnificat: God is great, and yet even as the great God this...
View ArticleSimeon’s Prayer, Eyes of Faith
The season of Advent called us to look in two directions at once: transporting ourselves into the ancient story, we entered the season of waiting for the first advent of the Messiah. But our own...
View Article“Joy to the World”
Long time readers of my blogservations about the world will know that Joy to the World is one of the two approved Christmas carols. It is a song that celebrates the arrival of the great king that the...
View ArticleChristmas Contagion
Jesus came with more than his fair share of surprises. Among these was his power to reverse contagion. “Contagion” is a fancy way of talking about something being contagious. In particular, we talk...
View ArticleChristmas 1
Sorry. This is awkward. But the life of the pastor often is. Everyone else is living in the Sunday-by-Sunday rhythm, but pastor has to be thinking about the next week even if it blurs the seasons. So…...
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