Today, Christmas Eve, marks the official end of Advent.  With brothers and sisters around the world, I have spent the last 4 weeks thinking a lot about waiting and longing.Tonight we will read the Christmas story and go from waiting and longing to wonder and hope.Alongside the news that I already have read today --Continue reading "Moving from Advent to wonder to hope by telling ourselves the truth of what God said!"

Keep smiling, friends!

Some people know that I read the New York Times almost every day, especially the obituaries.  I've done it for years.  You can't read a major newspaper like the Times without reading every day about turmoil, pain and suffering in the world.  I try to be a hopeful person, but I never pretend that thereContinue reading "Come Lord Jesus"

Imagining the kind of father Joseph must have beenRecently I've been preaching at a little country church 45 miles from Champaign-Urbana.  Yesterday after the services I was standing at the front of the sanctuary looking at the beautiful tree and the nativity set adorning the stage in the 100-year-old church.One of the elders of theContinue reading "What kind of father was Joseph? … What kind of father am I?"

But when the time arrived that was set by God the Father, God sent his Son, born among us of a woman, born under the conditions of the law so that he might redeem those of us who have been kidnapped by the law. Thus we have been set free to experience our rightful heritage.Continue reading "At Christmas Jesus stands at the door of our heart knocking: “Please come home!”"

22 When the time came for the purification rites required by the Law of Moses, Joseph and Mary took him to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord 23 (as it is written in the Law of the Lord, “Every firstborn male is to be consecrated to the Lord”), 24 and to offer a sacrifice in keeping withContinue reading "Oh the piercing of the soul during Advent…"

"Nine months of awkward explanations, the lingering scent of scandal–it seems that God arranged the most humiliating circumstances possible for his entrance, as if to avoid any charge of favoritism. I am impressed that when the Son of God became a human being he played by the rules, harsh rules: small towns do not treatContinue reading "The small town in which Jesus was raised…"