Mark 13:24-37
Advent 1B
Long about the time most people are switching all of their Christmas lights on to celebrate the holiday, the Gospel reading for the first Sunday in Advent brings us straight to a text that points forward to a great and coming day when all the lights will go . . . out. Try turning […]
Mark 13:24-37
Advent 1B
Comments and Observations: Long about the time most people are switching all of their Christmas lights on to celebrate the holiday in 2014, the Gospel reading for the first Sunday in Advent brings us straight to a text that points forward to a great and coming day when all the lights will go . […]
Hebrews 10:5-10
Advent 4C
[…] to wonder where the inventors of the Revised Common Lectionary got their ideas for the choices they made. I mean, here we are, 5 days away from Christmas, surely one of the most pregnant times in the church calendar. The other readings for this Fourth Sunday of Advent are clearly about the impending birth […]
Matthew 1:18-25
Advent 4A
[…] teeth and lips. Immanuel is God-with-us when the pink slip comes and when the beloved child sneers, “I hate you!” Immanuel is God-with-us when you pack the Christmas decorations away and, with an aching heart, you realize afresh that your one son never did call over the holidays. Not once. Immanuel is God-with-us when […]
Luke 1:39-45 (46-56)
Advent 4C
[…] righteousness that would landscape the whole earth. Mary could see it clear as day. The Advent question that is so properly bracing for all of us as Christmas comes once again five days after this Fourth Sunday in Advent is: “Do we still see this, too?” Textual Points It is interesting to note that […]
It’s a Wonderful Life (1946)
[…] Stewart, Donna Reed, Lionel Barrymore, Thomas Mitchell, and Henry Travers. 130 mins. Rotten Tomatoes: 94%. It’s a film that supposedly everybody knows, and loves, hauled out each Christmas ad infintum in ever-so-boring bleached out copies. It’s an easy sentimental rush, though familiarity has by now even made that harder to achieve. It has pretty […]
Psalm 126
Advent 3B
[…] ultimate restoration of Zion came through that final Son of David who is Jesus Christ the Lord. That is what we finally celebrate in Advent and at Christmas. But if we are honest, then despite all the good cheer we try to crank up over the holiday season, we also still live well short […]
Psalm 98
Easter 6B
[…] praising God, not only in what we sing and say, but also in what we do? Illustration Idea Most Christians don’t think of Psalm 98 as a Christmas psalm, even though it’s the appointed lectionary psalm for Christmas Day. Yet it’s the inspiration for Isaac Watts’ beloved Christmas carol, “Joy to the World.” That […]
Matthew 1:18-25
Advent 4A
[…] teeth and lips. Immanuel is God-with-us when the pink slip comes and when the beloved child sneers, “I hate you!” Immanuel is God-with-us when you pack the Christmas decorations away and, with an aching heart, you realize afresh that your one son never did call over the holidays. Not once. Immanuel is God-with-us when […]
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