I’ve had a unique Advent experience this year. In the past I’ve written blog posts and preached sermons in which I leveraged the themes of Advent for whatever agenda I thought I was supposed to be pushing. It’s a season of waiting, so patience is an easy, evergreen message. But it’s also a season of…
Read MoreThis coming sabbath marks the third Sunday of Advent when the lectionary forces us to hear a song that should tighten our collective sphincters. When Mary reaches the home of her cousin Elizabeth, herself pregnant with John the Baptist, the Mother of God exclaims: “My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God…
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Tatiana took out her sketch pad. Jack sat across the table, wondering what she was feverishly sketching. After some persuading, Odessa, another name by which Jack knew the mysterious new friend, turned the art work around to reveal her subject. It was him. Jack was startled by its accuracy. Never mind that it did look…
Read MoreWhen I was counselor at a United Methodist summer camp, we sometimes had to sing with the kids that song “I’ve got the joy, joy, joy, joy down in my heart.” You know the song? I hate that song. Especially this time of year. It’s always been hard for me to feel at peace during…
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hereDo you ever feel like an orphan in the world? Do you feel like the circumstances of your life – some of your doing and some of others – have conspired to place you in a situation where no one really cares what happens to you? It’s best not to indulge these self-defeating feelings but…
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In 1850, Harriet Beecher Stowe, author of Uncle Tom’s Cabin, wrote a story called “Christmas” wherein the main character gripes, “Christmas is coming in a fortnight, and I have got to think up presents for everybody! Dear me, it’s so tedious and wasteful!” To which, her Aunt responds, “…when I was a girl presents did…
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Waiting is a dirty word, at least to the ears of most Christians (in America). After all, we are a people of action. We are not comfortable to sit idly by while something could be taken care of. In the world of United Methodism, this is inherently part of our DNA as John Wesley is…
Read MoreStanley Hauerwas writes in his collection, Without Apology, that Advent is a season in which Christians play at waiting. That is, Advent is a time when we pretend to be waiting, recapitulating Israel’s exilic longing as our own. Despite the readings from the prophets, the purple sentinel-like candles, and the melancholy minor key hymns, Christians,…
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Since her “Let it be with me according to your word” makes Mary not only the mother of Jesus but Christ’s first disciple, I often wonder if Mary was among the riff-raff gathered to hear her boy’s sermon on the mount. Clearly, she had to have been present for some of his teaching and preaching,…
Read MoreJohn Garland is the pastor of San Antonio Mennonite Fellowship in downtown San Antonio. In a recent essay in Christianity Today, Garland describes Semillas (Spanish for “seeds”), which is his church’s ministry to refugees who’ve made the long and dangerous journey across the border. Their exodus from Central America can take as long as a…
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