Nativity of the Lord (Year B, RCL)

An odd, charming gospel account that draws from dozens of sources

And how will we know it’s Christmas?

The prophetic power of a candle in the window

Our happiness is incomplete.

Preachers who value their pulpit would be wise to avoid Isaiah 9 this Christmas Eve.

Why should God get to sleep, like parents who have finished wrapping presents?

Mary gives us permission to pause and ponder what we hear.

I understand the people who only show up once a year, just to hold a candle of their own.

Luke has some sense of how a baby can change everything.

Our busyness at Christmas hides God's busyness for us—but Luke's Gospel reveals it.

One of the gifts of the lectionary is that a biblical text wears different vestments depending on when it shows up for Christian worship.

There are many ways we receive the gift of Jesus badly.

What do these words from Isaiah ben Amoz mean for us?

My first instinct is to meditate on Isaiah 9 in light of its historical situation, which is bound up with the geopolitics of the late 8^th century BCE.