Acts 17:11
Consider this
Our Advent meditations take us on a journey of faith through the stories of four women whose names we do not expect to find in the lineage of Jesus, as recorded in Matthew 1. At Christmas we easily see the beauty and significance of Mary’s faith in her obedient submission to the announcement that she would bear the child who would take away the sins of the world. She too is named in Matthew, but contrary to the other women, Mary lived to see the results of her faith…
“One of my favorite Christmas carols is “O Come, All Ye Faithful.” I just love the invitation in there. I love the words, O come, all ye faithful, joyful and triumphant, and those are descriptors that I don't normally think to label myself, especially in mid December. I think of myself as frazzled, exhausted, drained. But that carol is an invitation to worship the Lord …”
“It's really nice, if you feel like someone has something to say to you, to be quiet for a minute and listen. Advent's a way of doing that. And you do that by listening to the Scriptures of the season. So pray the collect. Don't take my word for it. Try it yourself, and see that it doesn't do something to you. Pray that collect. It's found in the prayer book…”
“The one Christmas carol that stood out for me, and not only musically, but certainly the words, is ‘Holy Night,’ or ‘O Holy Night.’ One particular verse that is in it ... In fact, I wrote it down here, ‘The King of Kings lay thus in lowly manger in all our trials born to be our friend. He knows our need, to our weakness no stranger…’”
Our Advent meditations take us on a journey of faith through the stories of four women whose names we do not expect to find in the lineage of Jesus, as recorded in Matthew 1. At Christmas we easily see the beauty and significance of Mary’s faith in her obedient submission to the announcement that she would bear the child who would take away the sins of the world. She too is named in Matthew, but contrary to the other women, Mary lived to see the results of her faith…
“For me, the church calendar is something that's fairly new, I would say in the last few years, that's become something very meaningful to me on a private level. I'd actually like to incorporate it more into our family life. But I'll just say that Advent itself is a time of longing and it's an expression of our desire and ache for something that is, and isn't yet…”
