Poet and Mizzou Professor Scott Cairns reminds me in his poem “Christmas Green”* that Christmas offers us the chance to become new. He describes the birth of the baby Jesus like this: “Just now the earth recalls His stunning visitation. Now the earth and scattered habitants attend to what is possible. That Read More...
The season of Advent always reminds me of my maternity years. When I was pregnant with my first child, I had a quarter-time church job in Lawrence, as I was wrapping up my degree at KU. There were a number of expectant mothers in the congregation at the time, and I often Read More...
When I was in elementary school we lived for a year in a big old farm house that was heated by a wood stove. That Autumn was spent preparing for the artic blasts we knew would come. We split and stacked wood. We rounded up blankets and quilts. We arranged bed rolls Read More...
The day after Thanksgiving, my mom, Scott and I piled in the car on a mission to visit as many antique stores as possible. (We leave the big box stores to braver souls.) We found our way to a new little antique store not too far from home and quickly realized we Read More...
When the Gospel writers finally got around to putting all those stories about Jesus down on paper (ok, papyrus), only two of them bothered to tell of his birth–Matthew and Luke. And what different versions they tell! There is one thing, however, upon which they agree–every time an angel is sent forth Read More...
When you ask your brother about his favorite Christmas memory from your shared childhood, you end up down a rabbit hole of nostalgia. You discover that his memory is way more vivid than yours, with details like the year you got the Cabbage Patch Kid and he got the Knight Rider Cutoff Read More...
Eleven months into my husband’s 14-month unemployment, my family was coming undone. My sons grew quiet and retreated. Our marriage was ragged raw. I was scared and angry, especially at God. One evening, I went out onto the dark porch, sprawled flat on the swing, and cradle-rocked myself. Some place between a Read More...
When I think about this year’s advent theme, I think of the meaningful comforts of seeing a single light or candle lit as one arrives at their destination. It can be as simple as a lamp in a window or a porch light that establishes you are right where you are supposed Read More...
We were their only grandchildren. My sisters and I were the brightest spots in Mimi’s and PawPaw’s lives. Every Christmas morning, they would rise long before dawn, dress as if they were going to church, and drive over to our house and wait. They waited in their car for us to wake Read More...
I love clear winter nights when I can get away from the city lights and gaze up into the heavens. You know those nights when the stars beyond the stars are so faint they appear as shimmering dust? As a farm boy, I am always reminded of those shepherds in our Christmas Read More...
As a child it was our family tradition to see the Charles Dickens play, “A Christmas Carol”, EVERY year with our father on the night of Christmas Eve. It was such a special time, we would get dressed up and scramble to leave the house on time. We were excited to see Read More...
During high school, I was part of a choir that performed One Voice. Like many, music causes me to picture certain imagery or causes emotions to swell within me. I can’t explain why, but every time we sang - Just once voice, Singing in the darkness. All it takes is One Voice Read More...
The best Christmas was also the worst Christmas. I was nine and half months pregnant and expecting Connor’s arrival on Dec 26. Wringing my hands about all that still needed to happen before Christmas and childbirth, my husband encouraged me to sit down and write my Sunday sermon. “If you get the Read More...
Most commentators agree that the Gospel of Matthew seems to intend to address audiences that are mostly or solely Jewish, perhaps because he has the least association with non-Jewish people than any of the other Gospel writers or he wanted to confront the Jews who had rejected him as a tax collector. In his Gospel there are many hidden motifs drawn from the Hebrew Scriptures. Let’s take a look at the “Visit of the Magi” in Matt. 2:1-12. Magi were wise men and the East was the ancient source of wisdom, even prior to the Hebrew and Greek Cultures.
I have always found the timing of Advent confusing. I’m not referring to how shoppers and kids count down the days to Santa’s arrival, while the church calls it Advent, and not Christmas until December 25. I can live with that sort of confusion since as Christians we all live what one scholar calls hyphenated lives, living in the world of God’s doing and society’s too. I get that.
