First Sunday of Advent (Year B, RCL)

Does Jesus hide from the wild beasts? Hurl rocks at them? Mark doesn’t say.

Jesus speaks of end things as a way of contextualizing all the other things in life that feel like endings.

Keep awake, Jesus says, for God’s new world is coming.

My Grandma Violet was the black sheep of our family. I think of her when I pray.

Advent amid the rubble of 2020

In Advent, we expect the unexpected.

Can we sense the Holy Spirit’s presence as God’s face shining upon us?

Climate science is apocalyptic: it reveals fundamental truths.

During Advent, the cry of Isaiah should be our cry.

The Gospel reading speaks of the world ending. For some people in the pews, it is.

I eschew the danger of the river, but I know that it is where God leads me.

No one likes the thought of an angry God. It's hard enough to deal with an angry person.

I entered parish ministry with a fair amount of idealism, particularly liturgical idealism. Inconveniently, the liturgical proclivities I picked up in seminary were not especially popular with my first congregation.

This became clear as a sleigh bell during our first Advent season together.

Patience is not one of my virtues, as those closest to me know. I want answers now, clarity now, unresolved issues settled now, anxiety lifted now.

Bring it on, commerce.

Isaiah refuses to pretend anymore.