Four of the best new resources for individuals, congregations, and families
Advent
Each December we pray for the key of David to come. What does it lock and unlock?
That anger might make people feel uncomfortable, but listen to it. Use your emotions as fuel to work as hard as you can. That emotional energy indicates love for your church and your calling. It will sustain you.
When I read the annunciation story, I picture Mary as Clara.
A new family skipped a lot of our holiday activities—and got me thinking.
If we are to understand the delivering power of Jesus’ coming and presence on the earth, we must un-domesticate the Jesus story.
We need the prophets to unmask power’s seductions.
As I lifted the chalice, the baby began to play soccer under my ribs.
It's Advent. What are we waiting for?
This year, as I meditated on my longing, my pregnant hope, I located it on that table, somewhere between the salad and the ravioli, when our imperfect lives came together.
Christmas is a great time to resist the lure of the western Christian tradition that domesticates the story of Jesus so much so that it is no longer an unsettling force and reality in our society.
It is extraordinary to hear a song reverberating off stonewalls and then dissipate into thin air. The soaring beauty of ephemeral art! Sometimes I find myself holding my breath as the soloist hits a high note or that incredibly awkward person tells his testimony. Do we appreciate that moment? Because many of us are conductors of that symphony, curators of beauty and we don’t realize the importance of our position.
My words feel small. Like I’m trying to beat back the ocean with a stick. I could command the waves to stop, but the sea will keep pounding the sand. Recent world events have generated a lot of fodder for preachers and writers, and yet I have nothing to say.
I was raised in an ecumenical church community affiliated with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. When I later joined a Mennonite church, where many members were not raised with the church calendar, I became a bit of an Advent purist. Maybe a lot of one.
I, like many people of faith, am reeling from Jerry Falwell Jr.’s proclamations to his student body. Falwell encouraged the students of Liberty University (there are more than 100,000 of them) to arm themselves against Muslim terrorists. His rhetoric reminded me of a bumper sticker I see here in Tennessee: “Only a good guy with a gun can stop a bad guy with a gun.”