Lenten Reading Group
Lent is one of my favorite seasons in the traditional Christian calendar. In early Christian communities, new converts to Christianity were often baptized on Easter Day. Lent was the 40-day season before Easter when they learned more about their faith and faith communities. Like many people, I have often thought of Lent as a time to give something up – like chocolate. The idea of sacrifice or giving something up helps us to let go of things that may stand between us and a closer relationship to God. Now I like to take on something...
read moreBirthing: an Advent Reflection
The final article in my four-part series on Advent from the perspective of pregnancy. As I think about Christmas and the birth of Jesus, I can’t help but to think about the process of giving birth. Here I reflect on both spiritual and physical birth as I try to imagine Mary’s experience with Jesus. Birth is messy and unpredictable. And yet this is the message of the gospel. That we cannot predict who or how God will call us be in the world. And we don’t know how things will end. See full article here Bookmark on Delicious Digg this...
read moreJourneying: An Advent Reflection
The third in my four-part series on Advent from the perspective of pregnancy. I draw on the Advent theme of Journeying thinking of the scriptures that discuss Mary’s visit to her cousin Elizabeth, the expectant mother of John the Baptist. The tradition makes the visit of Elizabeth and Mary about the men. It tells of how the babies leapt inside their wombs. It describes the faith or faithlessness of the fathers. It discusses how the baby-naming broke from tradition: John and Jesus, the prophet cousins. I think there’s more to the...
read moreAccepting: Reflections on Advent
The second in my four-part series on Advent for the religion website Patheos.com. I’m writing about the time when we anticipate Jesus’ birth from the perspective of pregnancy. This second article is following the theme: Accepting “I was not a young mother, but I was a young minister. No bushes burned and no angels descended. There were no declarations saying that I was highly favored or part of a grand regal legacy. I had no ideations of marriage or children in my immediate future. I was no Mary. Yet like Mary, I felt that...
read moreAdvent: Pregnant Waiting
I’m writing a four-part Advent Series for the religion website Patheos.com. The first article is out today. “The church year begins with a pregnant woman. Christian traditions have called her theotokos. Bearer of God. Mother of God. But that’s not Advent. Advent is not about Mary the mother; it’s about Mary, the pregnant woman. Advent is about the journey to the birth of Jesus. Advent is about pregnancy, and pregnancy is about waiting. In both pregnancy and the spiritual life, waiting can be tiring, frustrating, and...
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