RCL, Advent 1, Nov. 28, 2021. God is all in. Are We?

For many, the first Sunday in Advent is a time to talk about hope. What kind of hope will sustain us in our present? The troubles in the world and in our lives are real. God’s hope is also real. I come alongside individuals, groups and communities in the context of natural and unnatural disasters.… Read More

11th Hour Preacher Party – Thanksgiving and Advent edition

Over here in Scotland, it is Thursday morning – it isn’t Thanksgiving where I am – but I do know lots of my sisters and colleagues will be celebrating today – not how they would have originally planned. but still, finding ways to give thanks in this weird and crazy year. For me, today’s recording… Read More

11th Hour Preacher Party: Ready or Not, It’s Advent!

Are you ready? It seems that, no matter how well I plan, something always takes me by surprise when the old year gives way to Advent.  It might be in the liturgy, or the decorations, or the way the first Sunday in Advent can’t seem to decide if it belongs in November or December. But… Read More

The Pastoral Is Political: Be Alert this Advent

Yesterday we entered the season of Advent, a time in the church calendar where we are called to slow down and simplify our lives as we wait and prepare for the coming of Jesus, the One who came to us in the flesh as a refugee baby 2000 years ago and who will one day… Read More

Narrative Lectionary: Waiting in Hope

Habakkuk 1:1-4; 2:2-4; 3:[3b-6] 17-19 We enter the season of Advent in the Narrative Lectionary with a perhaps unfamiliar holiday companion, Habakkuk. It is a bleak passage, describing a difficult passage in the history of Israel. We can imagine some difficult passages when we read the news today too. Children facing tear gas when seeking… Read More

Narrative Lectionary:Fiery Furnace

The Narrative Lectionary takes us to Daniel 3:1, 8-30 for the First Sunday of Advent. The commentary at Working Preacher is here. Text Week is here. This is my first year to encounter Daniel during the season of Advent, and I confess that his story doesn’t fit as neatly into the “Advent 1–let’s talk about apocalypse”… Read More

Tuesday Prayer

God, I’ve always had a complicated relationship with hope. On the days in which I’ve had too much and circumstances disappointed me, hope was the knife that twisted itself into my soul. Through the months in which I’ve had too little hope and couldn’t see well through the fog into the future, hope’s bright light… Read More