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From the Darkness Comes a Great Light
In the sharing the Christmas story, we’re invited to begin with what we’d avoid. We begin in darkness so we can see how bright the light is. preparing the whole story Christmas I | Luke 2:1-14(15-20) Tonight we gather at the setting sun like our Celtic ancestors did long, long ago. They would gather at…
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New Birth – Christmas as Catalyst for Change
I gave up New Year’s Resolutions years ago. But every year, I face the same routine of looking at my life through the lens of aging. Always. We get to midnight on New Year’s Day and by 12:01 am, I’m trying on the new year’s number with the fascination of a time traveler. How did we…
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I’m having a good Christmas!
I walk into Starbucks. Set my bag on a chair and remove the lid from my refillable cup and set it on a tall table to save my spot. Then get in line. There, I fumble with my phone to bring up my membership app. I want to be ready to pay for my iced…
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And Darkness Did Not Overcome It
In the beginning was the Word When we read these words on Christmas morning, they feel like a counter to the words we hear the evening before. We gather on Christmas Eve and hear the birth story from Luke, with its familiar moments of a baby born, swaddled, and laid down for bed in a…
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The Song of the Flesh
This Advent several of us gathered Sunday evenings to eat together, to talk, to explore the birth stories of Jesus, and to pray. We marked this season by focusing on the story of our savior rather than the clutter and noise of the world. It’s a fitting reminder that Jesus is born into a noisy…
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The Thing About Christmas
The thing about Christmas is we can’t force joy. No matter how much eggnog and spiced lattes we drink, cookies we decorate, presents we receive. Joy isn’t forced upon us. We don’t wake up with Christmas Spirit because the calendar pages turn. Joy just happens. This is what separates joy from happiness. As The Oatmeal…
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Overwhelmed by Joy
The Evangelist tells a story which resonates so fully with the Hebrew story of oppression and enslavement under Pharaoh. Herod is the new Pharaoh! Judah has become Egypt! Overcoming darkness and restoring the world Christmas 2C | Matthew 2 In the Beginning The Hebrew story begins in creation, in GOD bringing forth everything into the…
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Fear and Loathing in San Francisco
The Christmas story is an immigrant’s story San Francisco’s Chinatown was designed to look older than the oldest parts of China. Why? Fear of immigrants. [bctt tweet=”We are always immigrants. All of us. Forever.” nofollow=”yes”] More than a century ago, blatant, nefarious racism against the Chinese was normal. But disaster made the racism even worse.…