December 1/First Sunday of Advent “Brothers and sisters: You know the time; it is the hour now for you to awake from sleep.” ~ Rom 13.11 “So too, you also must be prepared, for at an hour you do not expect, the Son of Man will come. ~ Matt 24.44 The two-minute warning is a well-attested parenting technique for easing transitions…
Category: Keeping Advent
Advent Reflections Start December 1!
The Advent season is a time of hopeful expectation, as we prepare our hearts for the coming of the Christ Child. Again this year, I will be offering daily Advent reflections by email. These brief reflections are accompanied by a prayer and a link to the day’s lectionary readings. The reflections will begin Sunday, December 1 and conclude on Christmas…
Keeping Advent 23: O Come, O Come, Emmanuel
December 24/Fourth Monday of Advent Christmas Eve “You, my child, shall be called the prophet of the Most High, for you will go before the Lord to prepare his way.” ~ Luke 1.76 We are on the cusp of Christmas. The last Advent calendar window has been opened; the four candles on the Advent wreath have been lit; all the verses…
Keeping Advent 22: Why Me?
December 23/Fourth Sunday of Advent Elizabeth . . . said, “And how does this happen to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me?” ~ Luke 1.42 If there are any fashionable virtues these days — and sometimes it seems that the very concept of virtue is obsolete — we can be sure that humility is not among…
Keeping Advent 21: Devil’s Food
December 22/Third Saturday of Advent He has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts. ~ Luke 1.51 PEWSAGL. This nonsense word is the mnemonic, or memory device, that I created for the Seven Deadly Sins (Pride, Envy, Wrath, Sloth, Avarice, Gluttony, Lust) during my high school study of Chaucer, and it still occupies space in my brain from…
Keeping Advent 20: The Dark Night
December 21/Third Friday of Advent Fear not, O Zion, be not discouraged! The LORD, your God, is in your midst, a mighty savior; He will rejoice over you with gladness, and renew you in his love. ~ Zephaniah 3.16-17 On this sun-sparse day of the winter solstice, the dark night seems to be gaining the upper hand. Everywhere we look —…
Keeping Advent 19: Admissions Standards
December 20/Third Thursday of Advent Who can ascend the mountain of the LORD? or who may stand in his holy place? He whose hands are sinless, whose heart is clean, who desires not what is vain. ~ Psalm 24.3-4 A young couple in my neighborhood who are about to have their first baby are already worried about getting the child on…
Keeping Advent 18: Do You Hear What I Hear?
December 19/Third Wednesday of Advent But the angel said to him, “Do not be afraid, Zechariah, because your prayer has been heard.” ~ Luke 1.13 A young boy once prayed every night for his beloved first-grade teacher, who had breast cancer. After remission and then relapse, the teacher died a year or so later. “I guess my prayer wasn’t answered,”…
Keeping Advent 17: Listening in the Dark
December 18/Third Tuesday of Advent When his mother Mary had been engaged to Joseph, but before they lived together, she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit. Her husband Joseph, being a righteous man and unwilling to expose her to public disgrace, planned to dismiss her quietly. Such was his intention when, behold, the angel of the…
Keeping Advent 16: Skeletons in the Closet
December 17/Third Monday of Advent An account of the genealogy of Jesus the Messiah, the son of David, the son of Abraham. ~ Matthew 1.1 We look back at the tidy pattern of our family’s generational history, neatly delineated on the genealogy dot-coms, and it all looks so restrained, so civilized, so orderly. But as we start to probe into…