Setting Up a Tent Among Us
The true power of the Christmas story is that the Word of God, that creative spirit of God through whom all things were made, the Wisdom of God, the Self-Revelation of God—that Word should become flesh and dwell among us.
Posts
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In a Dream
If there be a lesson for us this Advent and Christmastide, let it be that we have been given a dream: a vision of a world of peace, justice, love, and hope. A world in which the love of God reigns. God’s angel comes to us with this dream and bids us to wake and claim the Christ child as our own.
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In the Reign of the Emperor Tiberius
We are often impressed by power. The Roman Empire was one of the greatest empires ever to span the earth. A dread power in the world. Feared. Hated. The great beast of the Book of Revelation. Roman military might was accompanied by economic, political, and cultural might. A network of roads running from Spain to Syria on both sides of the Mediterranean. An army so disciplined that it could defeat foes who outnumbered it two to one. One of the greatest powers to ever stand on the earth. But Rome is no more. But the Gospel remains.
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The Resilience of Hope
But every year, we light that candle. Every year we begin the process anew of waiting, of expectation, of hope. For in the declaration of hope, we find a resilience we did not expect.
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Thanksgiving
For if we choose to live lives of gratitude for what God has already done, we make ourselves open to the possibilities of what God can do in our lives.
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Out of Our Poverty
The witness of Mark’s gospel is clear: self-sacrifice, commitment, and perhaps even suffering are part of discipleship. They are what it means to be a Christian—to follow in the footsteps of the one who sacrificed everything for the sake of God’s kingdom.
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Seeing
Faith is like a light we shine on the world. And the light we shine helps us to see the world not as it is, perhaps, but as God intends it to be.
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What Must I Do?
We can comfortably rely on that grace and that empowers us to live lives that transform the world. When we follow in the path of discipleship, our work becomes the witness not the requirement. It becomes the fruit of salvation not the necessary step for it. And it becomes the visible sign of God’s love and grace in the midst of a broken and hurting world.
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Those Against Us and For Us
But Jesus’ statement does the opposite: it declares that whoever isn’t against us is for us, making friends of all those who do not profess enmity.
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A Mind on Human Things
If we would be a community that has its mind on God’s things rather than human things, then our calling is to avoid those things that distract from the mission.