December 21/Fourth Tuesday of Advent For see, the winter is past, the rains are over and gone. The flowers appear on the earth, the time of pruning the vines has come, and the song of the dove is heard in our land. ~ Song of Solomon 2.11-12 Our soul waits for the LORD; he is our help and shield. Our heart rejoices…
Keeping Advent 23: Call and Response
December 20/Fourth Monday of Advent Then Mary said, “Here am I, the servant of the Lord. May it be done to me according to your word.” ~ Luke 1.38 What if she had said no, this unlettered peasant girl from an obscure Galilean village? After all, the message that God’s messenger Gabriel bore, swooping in (we imagine) on his magnificent wings, meant…
Keeping Advent 22: Why Me?
December 19/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 ~ Luke 1.42 If there are any fashionable virtues these days — and sometimes it seems that the very concept of virtue is obsolete — we can be sure that humility is not among…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: Exit Strategies
December 18/Third Saturday of Advent 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 Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary your wife into your home. For it…
Keeping Advent 20: Ordinary People
December 17/Third Friday of Advent The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham. ~ Matt. 1.1 Who are all these people? Upwards of fifty ancestors of Jesus are mentioned in Matthew’s extensive genealogy, and while a few of them are “boldface” biblical names whom we readily recognize — Abraham and Isaac, David and Solomon, Joseph the…
Keeping Advent 19: Free To Be Me
December 16/Third Thursday of Advent All the people who heard this, including the tax collectors, acknowledged the justice of God, because they had been baptized with John’s baptism. But refusing to be baptized by him, the Pharisees and the lawyers rejected God’s purpose for themselves. ~ Luke 7.29-30 During my mid-twenties, when I was in something of a spiritual wilderness, I…
Keeping Advent 18: Drum Majors
December 15/Third Wednesday of Advent At that time, John summoned two of his disciples and sent them to the LORD to ask, “Are you the one who is to come, or should we look for another?” ~ Luke 7.18 When I was seven or eight, after receiving a twirling baton for Christmas from an aunt, I briefly entertained the dream…
Keeping Advent 17: Actions > Words
December 14/Third Tuesday of Advent What do you think? A man had two sons. He came to the first and said, “Son, go and work in the vineyard today.” He answered, “I will not,” but afterwards he changed his mind and went. The man went to the second and said the same. He said in reply, “Yes, sir,” but did not go. Which…
Keeping Advent 16: Just Saying
December 13/Third Monday of Advent They discussed this among themselves. . . And they said to Jesus in reply, “We do not know.” ~ Matthew 21.27 The disingenuousness of our political discourse never ceases to amaze me. Even as they strike arch poses and take extreme positions, talking heads and congressional leaders profess that they are just “trying to get to…
Keeping Advent 15: In the Thick of It
December 12/Third Sunday of Advent The LORD, your God, is in your midst; he will rejoice over you with gladness, he will renew you in his love; he will exult over you with loud singing as on a day of festival. ~ Zephaniah 3.17 There have been times along the way when my connection to God simply dropped. Many years ago, for example,…