the example of love
lection reflection for 10 Dec 2019 / reading the bible daily with the church
In this week's collect, we implore God to stir our hearts and enable us to serve him in response for the great mercies he has shown us in Christ Jesus. Today's Epistle reading (1 Jn 4.7-16) extends this idea to loving and serving each other. But St. John does not simply exhort us to love each other because it is nice, it is . . .
Posted in: adventreflections
the second Sunday in Advent
contemplating collects
Stir up our hearts, O Lord, to make ready the way of Thine Only-begotten Son, so that by His coming we may be enabled to serve Thee with pure minds; through the same Jesus Christ, Thy Son, our Lord, Who liveth and reigneth with Thee and the Holy Ghost, ever One God, world without end. Amen.
-- Common Service Book . . .
sacrificing joy
lection reflection for 4 Dec 2019 / reading the bible daily with the church
I didn't write on yesterday's readings because I have been fighting a raging sinus infection which put writing about as far away from my mind as is possible. This, really, pales in comparison to the struggles of several people close to us. Within 24 hours of Monday's post on deliverance and rest, a friend going through a . . .
Posted in: adventreflections
advent: learning to wait in an impatient culture
why we desperately need the training ground of advent
(this is an updated version of a post I originally wrote in 2017)
In a letter to his fiancee Maria von Wedmeyer from prison in December 1943, Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote:
Celebrating Advent means being able to wait. Waiting is an art that our impatient age has forgotten...Whoever does not know the austere blessedness . . .
deliverance and rest
lection reflection for 2 Dec 2019 / reading the bible daily with the church
Today's readings (Gen 3.1-24 and Mt 11.25-30) expand on the petitions of this week's collect, in which we pray rescue from our sins and God's mighty deliverance. They flesh out these requests by teaching us and reminding us of our need for redemption (from Genesis) and the benefits of God's salvation in Christ (from . . .
Posted in: adventreflections
the first Sunday in Advent
contemplating collects
Stir up, we beseech Thee, Thy power, O Lord, and come; that by Thy protection we may be rescued from the threatening perils of our sins, and saved by Thy mighty deliverance; Who livest and reignest with the Father and the Holy Ghost, ever One God, world without end. Amen.
-- Common Service Book of the Lutheran . . .
Christmas quote of the day
"Joy to the world!" Anyone for whom this sound is foreign, or who hears in it nothing but weak enthusiasm, has not yet really heard the gospel. For the sake of humankind, Jesus Christ became a human being in a stable in Bethlehem: Rejoice, O Christendom! For sinners, Jesus Christ became a companion of tax collectors and . . .
