Blog

Often times personal lament and confession overlap. There are moments we see ourselves amid the ashes and we complain, confess, speak out our part in the wrongness of things. Reading the lament Diana offered, this one phrase haunted me relentlessly: “And sometimes, the betrayer is me.” I love my brown brothers and sisters. Yet as I scour my own upbringing, I see how my words and actions have betrayed otherwise. It is a systemic wrong, but also a personal one…

Everyone wants to deck the halls with blaring reds and shining silvers, eager to rush into celebration. We love the Christmas music, old and new, the blow-out sales and conjuring of merriment. We say the season is laced with magic and miracles amid the snow and woolen scarves. We don joy. But Advent is the season of purple hues and dark blues. It is the cool colors, the chill before the celebrations of good cheer. In this season of hush…

Four hundred years of waiting for a Messiah who never came. Malachi said the day is coming… but no one arrived to save Israel. The prophets were quiet in those long years, as if the Spirit had nothing more to say. But wars raged in and around Israel’s borders. Revolts, martyrs, bloodletting in the streets. Screams marked the days; lament for the lost ones left the countryside limp. Jerusalem cried herself to sleep. So maybe the years weren’t so silent…

  [caption id="attachment_510" align="alignleft" width="150"] via Creative Commons[/caption] Some moments generate such momentum that song spills out naturally. Right in the middle of Les Miserables I became a gushing spring - singing aloud, waving my arms so caught in the moment and held captive by a Kingdom-size dream. In a unique way song allowed my voice to climb and try to keep pace with my soaring spirit. No wonder Mary turned to song when the angel announced the conception of…

  ‘Jesus is the reason for the season.’ Growing up in the church and a series of other concentric Christian circles over the years, this is an oft-quoted truism during this season.  Jesus is the reason for Christmas, the reason we celebrate; He is the reason we carve out this holy time on our annual calendar.  Christmas is about Jesus, not about lavish consumption and consumerism.  Absolutely true. And yet… it rings incomplete for me.  Jesus is the reason for…

When you attend the local Christmas pageant this year, I doubt King Ahaz will make the cast of familiar characters. But for today we will begin our story with this leader from the pages of Isaiah. King Ahaz finds himself between a rock and a hard place, as two neighboring countries want to oust him from leadership and invade the southern kingdom of Judah. He’s frightened. Isaiah tells him to ‘stand firm in faith.’ But he continues to cower. Next…

                    Advent speaks to deep places in me. Each year I eagerly await the season known for anticipation and preparation, for hushed tones and flickering candlelight. I savor reflections on Christ coming near. Emmanuel songs whet my appetite more than Christmas trees. These weeks awash in blues and purples lure me into the mystery of it all. My heart is expectant and light. Except for this year. I don’t feel the…