Whenever people gripe to me about my insistence that Advent is a season centered on the second coming of Christ not his first and whenever they tell me they want to “hurry up already and get to the Christmas story,” I think to myself: Have you freaking read it— the Christmas story? I’m not sure…
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It’s tempting to suppose that the New Testament presents us with a choice— a contrast— between two ways. The way of Pilate or the way of Jesus. The way of the kingdoms of this world versus the Kingdom not from this world. The way of the Principalities and Powers against the way of the Prince of Peace. …
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I recently saw Jim Bakker (yes, that Jim Bakker) on TV hawking flood buckets filled with freeze-dried food so that lucky purchases could be prepped for the great and terrible tribulations that will ocassion the End Times. Perhaps when we celebrate this season of the second coming with a theme like Advent Begins in the…
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A nativity is up already in the narthex, strewn with artful straw and friendly beasts, shepherds and the maker of the world, measuring in inches and ounces, laying in a manger. It’s a testament to St. Luke’s skill that we know his story and its characters so well— the dumbfounded, dung-covered shepherds, the angels bearing…
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Every year I try to remind Christians that at Advent we do not mimic those believers between the testaments who waited for the Lord’s first coming. We wait— wearied by this world we’ve made in our own image, we long— for his second Advent. In this season we locate ourselves not at the top of…
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It took less than an hour for an Iowa jury to find a 28-year-old Iowa father guilty of murder after his 4-month-old son was found dead in a motorized swing last year. Zachary Koehn was convicted of first-degree murder and child endangerment causing death. On Aug. 30, 2017, authorities arrived at the home of Koehn…
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