Christmas, for the Western church, is over. (Happy Christmas to Orthodox readers!) The Christmas stories are full of signs and so I’ve been thinking about signs- the ways God makes God’s self and God’s desires known to us. Sometimes God makes a “statement”. Pillars of fire. Parting seas. Obvious signs that we should pay attention. […]
Tag: christmas
Mary: Tough and Feisty
For protestants, Advent and Christmas are, in all honesty, the only time of the year we spend any time thinking about Mary. Often the words, meek, mild, obedient, and submissive, are used to describe her. People talk about how young Mary is. All those words paint a particular picture of Mary. But that’s not the […]
Talking to the Animals on Christmas Eve
When you were young, did anyone ever tell you that animals can talk at midnight on Christmas? I don’t remember who told me, but I do remember looking expectantly at the family Dachshund for several years. For the record he never said anything, at least not in a human language. A quick internet search […]
Advent:Season of Contrasts and Angels
This Advent we’re exploring the contrasts in the nativity stories. (Last week’s post will give you a short introduction) Many churches focus on four traditional Advent themes. Peace, Joy, Love, Hope. But we seldom wonder why those themes are important. Why do we lift these up as a focal point? I think it is because […]
Advent: Season of Contrasts
Today is the first Sunday of Advent*. As regular readers know, this is a time of year when I feel particularly disconnected from modern culture. The onslaught of “Christmas” that surrounds us in our culture tends to make me cranky rather than festive. Blogging my way through a few Advents has been helpful- at least […]
Christmas,Incarnation, Emanuel
Two weeks ago during Advent,we started thinking about the Incarnation as the way God shows us what we are supposed to be. In Jesus, God shows us what it is to be human. Now it is Christmas and Christmas is a good time to think about Jesus. There is a lot Jesus shows us about being human. […]
Happy Advent
It is not quite time to wish you a Merry Christmas. But Christmas is not too far away now. You probably don’t have time to read lots of new blog posts and I don’t have time to write them. So, this week I’m regifting (with minor edits)- a post from 2010. It is nearly Christmas, […]
