Advent
Like A Whore In Church
Like A Whore In Church Isaiah 1.21-31 “How the faithful city has become a whore! She that was full of justice, righteousness lodged in her – but now murderers!” There’s a reason that Isaiah 1.21-31 doesn’t appear in the Lectionary. When we think of Advent we conjure up in our minds the Chrismon…
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Like It or Not, God’s Redemption
Jeremiah 33:14-16; Luke 21:25-28 “There will be signs in the sun, moon, and stars, distress among nations, roaring of the sea and the waves. People will faint from fear of what is coming upon the world, for the powers will be shaken. Then they will see ‘the Son of Man coming in a cloud’ with…
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Love is like a Plague of Locusts
Being a pastor is a lot like having a family member who is constantly in the tabloids. I mean— here I am with this public relationship with someone who routinely shocks and outrages a reliable percentage of the population. While I can only guess what kinds of questions relatives of Donald Trump and Harvey Weinstein…
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We are the Reason for the Season
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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Apocalypse Chow
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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Missing from the Manger
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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Christians Come First
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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Welcome to Advent in the Dark
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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