Here is the Gospel text that illuminates this week’s calendar readings. In verses four and five it concentrates our salvation story into a single sentence that burns like the tungsten filament...

What kind of sign is this? A celestial encounter between angels and shepherds leads to a baby wrapped in a simple cloth. Luke leaves all kinds of clues lying in plain...

For me, Christmas day is filled with the sound of feet. Little feet, eager feet, can’t-sleep-anymore feet dance down the hall searching for a tree or happy things in boxes. These...

The sea is roaring the bass line; the descant of the morning stars soars above the melody line of the mountains. The trees are dancing, roots and all, as they reach...

God’s grace has appeared, offering salvation to all. It trains us to reject godless ways and worldly desires and to live temperately, justly, and devoutly in this age as we await...

It’s almost impossible to read these words in the King James translation and not hear Handel. His oratorio turns this text back to its original form, a song. Isaiah reassures those...

This meditation is being written as two branches of the government in the United States argue over the deadline for the 2020 Census. Questions about its purpose and accuracy have dogged...

The season of Advent takes us back to the time before Jesus was born. We imagine ourselves with Israel still waiting for the promised Messiah. There is hope but also lament....

At Advent time, we’re reminded of Mary’s role in the redemption of the world. She is the human through whom God the Son was birthed into the world. She is the...

The royal announcement of the gospel creates a new way of being in community together: a holy people. This holy people group is collected together not by ethnicity, economic status, gender,...