Robert Southwell (1561-1595) was a Jesuit priest from England who was martyred in 1595. During Advent I like to ponder his poem “The Burning Babe.” It is a strange, extended metaphor in which the baby Jesus is likened to a smelting furnace.Here’s how it starts…”As I in hoary Winter’s night stood shivering in the snow,ContinueContinue reading “The Christ child is on fire!”
Category Archives: Advent
Not everyone can wait…
July 2010 … Mt. Sinai (Waiting for the new day)Not everyone can wait, says German theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer, writing from a German prison in 1943… “The only ones who can wait are people who carry restlessness around with them and people who look up with reverence to the greatest in the world. Thus Advent canContinueContinue reading “Not everyone can wait…”
Read the Scripture, exit this world, and go to a place
In the 1939 musical fantasy “The Wizard of Oz,” the good witch Glinda tells Dorothy to click her heels together and think to herself, “There’s no place like home.”As she repeatedly chants “There’s no place like home,” suddenly she is back home with her Auntie Em and Uncle Henry. Dorothy tells her auntie and uncleContinueContinue reading “Read the Scripture, exit this world, and go to a place”
There’s only one person who can help Tiger
After Tiger Woods had hit it big about a dozen years back, the first Nike ad emerged with young children saying, “I am Tiger Woods.”I was talking with a pastor friend of mine about that time who told me about a young girl he knew that contracted a fatal disease and was dying. The disease caused herContinueContinue reading “There’s only one person who can help Tiger”
Show me your credentials!
One of my favorite guys is John Sanford, retired physics professor at Iowa State University in Ames, Iowa. Here’s his take on credentials needed during the Advent season …For a very important job, we look for someone with experience and proven ability. But the person chosen for the most important job in the history ofContinueContinue reading “Show me your credentials!”
Two visits, One prayer
Two visits, one prayer…Visit one: “Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the reign of King Herod. About that time some wise men from eastern lands arrived in Jerusalem, asking, “Where is the newborn king of the Jews?” We saw his star as it rose, and we have come to worship him.” Matthew 2:1-2VisitContinueContinue reading “Two visits, One prayer”
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