Just listened to an outstanding Advent sermon (12/15/2013) from Rich Nathan at Vineyard Columbus, Ohio.Nathan preached on suffering from Romans 8, explaining that as we wait for the final Advent, where there will be no more suffering, no more waiting, still (even to this very hour):…the creation groans…we groan… and yes, even the Holy SpiritContinueContinue reading “The Final Advent … more poignant than grief!”
Category Archives: Christmas
On the 11th day of Christmas (January 5), my true love gave me … This??
1. Here is the reading for the 11th day of Christmas, January 5th:Matthew 2:16-18 (New International Version, ©2010) 16 When Herod realized that he had been outwitted by the Magi, he was furious, and he gave orders to kill all the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity who were two years old and under, in accordance withContinueContinue reading “On the 11th day of Christmas (January 5), my true love gave me … This??”
The Christ child is on fire!
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!”
The great and coming day of the Lord can make us happy!
When the Church historically spoke of the coming again of the Lord, it always thought of the the great day of judgment.During Advent it is good to spend time thinking about God coming in the midst of evil and in the midst of death. He judges the evil in the world, and he judges itContinueContinue reading “The great and coming day of the Lord can make us happy!”
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”
The wonder, the mystery of Christmas
Augustine wrote in the 5th century…Oh food and bread of Angels, the Angels are filled by you, but where are you for my sake? In a mean lodging, in a manger. He who rules the stars, sucks at the breast; he who speaks in the bosom of the Father, is silent in the Mother’s lap.ContinueContinue reading “The wonder, the mystery of Christmas”
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