Fourth Monday of Advent
Originally posted Monday, December 24, 2012
Last night while wrapping gifts and baking cookies, LeAnn and I watched an old movie we’d never seen before: It Happened on 5th Avenue. It’s a 1947, black-and-white story about Aloyisius T. McKeever, a hobo who every year sneaks into the 5th Avenue mansion of Michael J. O’Connor, the world’s wealthiest man who has gone to Virginia for the winter.
Continue reading “Front Door People”Fourth Sunday of Advent
From Wilshire Advent Devotions 2011
“When I was a child, I talked like a child, thought like a child, reasoned like a child.”
I celebrated Christmas like a child, too, which is fine because there is a wide strand of wonder and excitement woven through the Christmas holiday tailor-made for children. It engages their senses, and with the right nurturing it connects them to the true meaning of Christmas in a way they can understand. The hope, of course, is that children will embrace that meaning—the gift of “God with us”—and the relationships we can have with each other through Christ.
Continue reading “Charity”Third Saturday of Advent
Originally posted Tuesday, January 5, 2016
For a few years at Christmas our church has hosted an interactive Bethlehem experience called “One Starry Night.” One of the small miracles that occurs each time is that after a year of planning and preparation, a full week of setting up, and three hours with hundreds of people in the marketplace, it takes just ninety minutes to put it all away.
Continue reading “The Real Work Begins”