This is a season all about light: getting ready for light, celebrating light. The remarkable thing is that at this same time the world is getting darker and darker as we approach the winter solstice and we tilt back towards the sun. And in the midst of that we are pushing back against the darkness with more and more light with each passing day. This is more than just the literal lights that we are lighting, it is what we were meant to do by people who follow Christ, the one who is the light. We are to bring light, to bring our light into the midst of the darkness.
Repentance: Preparing Our Hearts for Jesus
It’s Advent, that wonderful, delightful time to prepare for Christmas. And there are all kinds of ways we do that: we might light candles on an Advent wreath, put up a tree, decorate the home, hang some boughs, put up some lights outside to light up the world, baking, shopping for presents, shipping gifts, sending Christmas cards. But who among you reflects on the fact that you are a “brood of vipers?” I don’t see a single hand going up. It’s not the usual Advent preparation we think about, but it is the one that John the Baptist calls us to today. We usually think about repentance as part of our Lenten preparations for Easter, but it is a part of these Advent preparations. It is a minor note, but it is here: “You brood of vipers. Bear fruit worthy of repentance.”
Listening for God in Advent
A Thanksgiving Reflection
Giving Thanks in Hard Times
Finding Ourselves in the Bible
What are some of your memories of hearing the bible? Was it a story in Sunday School? Were there bright pictures, a felt board, crayons and a coloring page? Or Maybe grandparents, parents, or a beloved neighbor read to you from a children’s bible, comfortable in a stuffed chair, snuggled on a lap, special attention just for you. How about Charlie Brown’s Christmas special when Linus explains the true meaning of Christmas? For me, it was the story of Moses parting the Red Sea and then parting it ourselves in the parish hall, each of us taking turns raising Moses’ staff as the others kicked and tossed a sea of red balloons and streamers. After Moses and a few Israelites made it through, Pharaoh’s army followed and we got to throw the balloons, some of us bopping a few soldiers on the head as they collapsed on the seafloor. And then we all changed roles, parting, passing, and balloon bopping again. It was great fun and a great story. A moment for me to fully embody a part of the bible and take it into myself.
The Trial of God
gives the book of Job such broad appeal is its stark treatment of two claims that seem on the surface to be irreconcilable with one another: (1) that there is a just God who rules the world and upholds it, and (2) that human beings suffer, often so horribly that even the most heartless person would try to help, and yet God seems to do nothing.What gives the book of Job such broad appeal is its stark treatment of two claims that seem on the surface to be irreconcilable with one another: (1) that there is a just God who rules the world and upholds it, and (2) that human beings suffer, often so horribly that even the most heartless person would try to help, and yet God seems to do nothing.
