So, how is your year going so far? Is it the perfectly wonderful year you imagined on New Year’s Day? New Year’s Day. Just three short weeks ago, yet it feels like a universe away. Already my year has been visited by death, failure,...
One of the truths regarding religious faith is that it is full of paradox. At least, it is intended to be paradoxical. I sometimes wonder whether much of the turmoil we are experiencing in our world is related to the fact that we’ve lost...
As many people did, I traveled to be with family over the recent holidays. As is typical for us, we spent much of the week in Arkansas gathered in my mom’s kitchen, having wonderful conversations over meals and working jigsaw puzzles. We also took long...
Despite the fact that twice today I have dated a document as “December,” a new year has, in fact, begun. I spent part of my New Year’s Day taking down the Christmas decorations and storing the paper and bows, wreaths and angels, ornaments and nutcrackers...
When the song of the angels is stilled, When the star in the sky is gone, When the kings and the princes are home, When the shepherds are back with their flocks, The work of Christmas begins: To find the lost, To heal the broken, To feed the hungry, To release the prisoner, To...
This year is Calvary’s second annual promotion of the "RACK" campaign—Random Acts of Christmas Kindness. As we detailed in a blog post a few weeks ago, we started "RACK" as a way to engage our children in being a good neighbor—to family, strangers, people at...
This month at Calvary I have been doing a series of Advent sermons entitled Songs of the Season. Each Sunday we’ve been reading and reflecting on the initial reactions of some of the major characters in the story of Jesus’ birth. For example, Zechariah the...
December 5, 2019 Advent first, then Christmas? The theological concept of Advent is largely lost on America’s secular culture. Even among church-type folks, several denominations do not observe Advent. Like the rest of society, as soon as the turkey carcass has been tossed into the soup...
November 28, 2019 This week our nation pauses to celebrate our many blessings, but as with everything else about our country, no two people or families will celebrate Thanksgiving in exactly the same way. What are your particular traditions? Are you a stickler for dressing or...
One of my favorite things about the holidays is the traditions that we carry forward from one year to the next. For example, in my family, there is the tradition—not to be messed with—that the first music we listen to as we put up decorations...