O come, Emmanuel, and guide us through our wilderness. Psalm 80 is a communal lament. Commentators are not certain about when this psalm was written. It could have been from the...

O come, Emmanuel, and show us the path that we are to follow. Today’s passage describes new rules for discipleship that Christ has ushered into the world. God no longer desires...

O Come, Emmanuel, and fill our world with peace. The prophet Micah lived in Judah in the eighth century b.c.e. Israel was under assault from the invading Assyrians, and its army...

O come, Emmanuel, and free us from our fear and despair, busyness and distraction. These days I find myself yearning for the coming of God-with-us. I long for the one who...

Yesterday we meditated on the first half of this passage, John the Baptist’s prophetic call for repentance. Today we turn to verses 15–18, in which Luke presents John as giving witness...

The Gospel readings for the Second and Third Sundays of Advent have for centuries been dedicated to John the Baptist as the one who prepares the way for Christ to come,...

This is the perfect Advent passage. Paul invites us to rejoice, but, as we said yesterday, not in a naïve manner. His is an “already/not yet” worldview. In the present age...

The Third Sunday of Advent is traditionally known as Gaudete Sunday. Gaudete is the Latin imperative, “Rejoice.” In its early development, Advent was more like Lent, a time of preparation for...

In the place of a psalm, the lectionary for the third week of Advent substitutes an oracle from the opening chapters of Isaiah that resembles the form and function of thanksgiving...

In yesterday’s meditation on Zephaniah, we noted the change of verb tense in the oracle. Today we want to attend to a different shift in perspective. In the first five verses,...