There is something about Advent that asks us to sit with holy discomfort. While the world is already singing carols, stringing lights, and racing through to-do lists, here in the church the tone is different. Advent is slower. Advent is spacious. Advent is honest. It asks us not only to remember that Christ came long ago, but to prepare our lives and hearts for Christ’s coming now — and Christ’s coming again. Last week, we heard Jesus in Matthew 24 speak unsettling words: Two will be in a...

There are weeks when the lectionary readings feel uncomfortably close to home—like a “ripped from the headlines” TV episode. When Jesus talks about the destruction of the temple, the collapse of kingdoms, wars and uprisings, earthquakes, families divided, people betrayed—it can feel painfully familiar. There’s war and unrest. Political tension and distrust. People struggling to buy groceries or navigate a healthcare system that so often feels impossible. Families stretched to the limit,...

When I dropped Mac off for daycare on Friday, Halloween, I have never met a room of more joyful 3- and 4-year-old boys in my life. This was because on this day, the boys weren’t just boys, but instead they were the Hulk, Spider-Man, Captain America, Batman, and a Ninja Turtle. The amazement with which they all took each other in—recognizing their favorite characters in the faces and on the bodies of some of their best buddies—was  so  joy-filled, so wonder-filled. The way they looked at each...