Today is New Year’s Eve. It is also the seventh day of Christmas. And, of course, New Year Day falls on the eighth day of Christmas. This “coincidence” is theologically significant. First of all, notice that Advent (the season immediately preceding Christmas) focuses upon the coming Day of the Lord – the End of Time, [...]
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Just a short little not here: This, December 26, 2009, is the second day of Christmas. Christmas is not over now, rather, it has just begun. I have noticed that most people I know (and certainly the advertisements I see) take the 12 days of Christmas to be the days leading up to the 25th [...]
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On the evening of December 11, Hanukkah began. And once again, I am reposting one of my all-time favoriate blog posts (that I have written) – it is about Hanukkah. The picture is of our menorah in front of our Christmas tree. That was on purpose. Both objects are about light and from my perspective (certainly [...]
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Happy Epiphany to you! An epiphany, of course, is a word having to do with God being revealed. The day Epiphany comes on January 6, the day after the 12th day of Christmas, and commemorates the coming of the Magi to worship Jesus. (If you are in an Eastern Christian tradition, Epiphany commemorates Jesus’ baptism [...]
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I am preaching and teaching about John 8:12 this Sunday; the section where Jesus says, “I am the light….” So I’ve been thinking a lot about light and what that metaphor means. It can stand for a lot of things and in John 7 and 8 probably helps to verify Jesus’ identity as both [...]
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The coming of Jesus means a new beginning – a Genesis, as the gospel of Matthew puts it (see Matthew 1:1 – but most English versions miss that point) – a new beginning for all people, in all times, in all the world. This Genesis – the Jesus event – changes everything. May Christmas day [...]
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These are the words to be said at the final lighting of an Advent wreath, on Christmas Eve: On the eve of our Christmas celebration, Jesus’ birthday, we light all of the candles of the Advent wreath. First we light the candle for HOPE because Jesus is our hope. Second, we light the candle for [...]
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I love Christmas music – not all of it by any means (99.9 here in the Phoenix area makes me nauseous, for example) – but real Christmas music I just love. One of my very favorites is Oh, Come, Oh, Come Emmanuel. A beautiful tune and wonderful words. I especially like that last verse. It is [...]
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On the evening of December 21, Hanukkah began. I am reposting one of my all-time favoriate blog posts (that I have written) – it is about Hanukkah. The picture is of our menorah in front of our Christmas tree. That was on purpose. Both objects are about light and from my perspective (certainly not from [...]
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These are the words to be said while lighting the fourth candle on an Advent wreath: Today we relight the first three candles of the Advent Wreath — the candles of HOPE, PEACE and JOY. Now we light the fourth candle of Advent. This is the candle of LOVE. Jesus demonstrated self-giving love in his [...]
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