Visitors from the East

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Next Sunday is the The Epiphany of the Lord. You can read a complete commentary on the Sunday Gospel here.

1 When Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea, in the days of King Herod, behold, magi from the east arrived in Jerusalem, 2 saying, “Where is the newborn king of the Jews? We saw his star at its rising and have come to do him homage.” 3 When King Herod heard this, he was greatly troubled, and all Jerusalem with him. 4 Assembling all the chief priests and the scribes of the people, he inquired of them where the Messiah was to be born. 5 They said to him, “In Bethlehem of Judea, for thus it has been written through the prophet: Continue reading →

Villains and Innocents

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The video above is a classic Christmas song known as the Coventry Carol. The carol was traditionally performed in Coventry in England as part of a mystery play called The Pageant of the Shearmen and Tailors. The play depicts the Christmas story the Gospel of Matthew, chapter 2. the carol itself refers to the Massacre of the Innocents, in which Herod ordered all male infants under the age of two in Bethlehem to be killed. It is a lament that is imagined having been sung by the mothers of the children lost to Herod’s cruelty. It combines the sound of their weeping with the gentle cadences of a lullaby. The lullaby is known as “Lully Lullay.” The account of the Holy Innocents is today’s gospel.

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End of Watch

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Preparations, Christmas Eve, Christmas Day followed immediately by the Feast of the Holy Family; a long stretch. Serve in the military and at some point you will “stand watch” as we would say in the Navy. Each branch of the service has its own name. The experience is the same. I think anyone who has ever stood sentry, stood watch, served during the “dog watch”, been on duty during the long hours of the night as others sleep – we all remember the dilation of time as it seemed to slow and stretch forever. Biding time. Scanning for the first glimmers of light through the long shade of night. The tiring body, the yawns, talking to one’s self… and then the morning star pushed the first light over the horizon, slowly glowing, pushing back the night, and painting the world with a new day. At last, duty is done and one reports in to command, “Lord, now let your servant go in peace; your word has been fulfilled…” Continue reading →

What makes a family holy?

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Is your family holy? What makes a family holy? Most often when we think of families, we think of what makes them healthy – and that too is a good question, a good goal, and something worth time and energy to ensure. A family should want to be a place where its members feel welcomed, warm, embraced, safe, supported, loved and so much more.  But do all those things – as good as they are – make a family holy? Continue reading →

Thinness of Attention

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There is an idea in Celtic Christian thought about the “thin veil,” that the presence of God is there before us, behind us, all around us – veiled by only the thinness of our attention. It has been that way since the Spirit of God hovered over the primordial waters and brought forth life.

“In the beginning was the Word,and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came to be through him, and without him nothing came to be.”

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My two cents worth

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And the Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us, and we saw his glory, the glory as of the Father’s only Son, full of grace and truth. (John 1:14; New American Bible) The phrase “made his dwelling among us” is translated several different ways: (translation, Bible)

  • “made his dwelling” NAB, NIV
  • “lived among us” NJB, NSRV, GNT, ISV
  • “dwelt among us” ESV, NASB, NKJ, ADV, DRB
  • “made his home” NLT
  • “lived here with us” CEV

Heres my two cents worth: “pitched his tent among us.”  The word used is eskēnōsen from skēnoō, “to dwell in a tent” – and it associated word skēnōma meaning “tent.” (Ref: Balz, Horst Robert, and Gerhard Schneider. Exegetical dictionary of the New Testament 1990: 252, 253)

I like my translation (however unqualified). It is graphic and telling just how “down in the dirt with us” is the Son of God. And that is love. Just saying…

Ways of the World

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“Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary your wife into your home” (Matthew 1:20)

I really looked forward to my first Christmas in Kenya. I thought this was gonna’ be so different.  It was different from the start – even the precursor signals that let us know Christmas is coming were very different.  Certainly the slum in which I lived was devoid of any of the commercial excess.  There were no malls, no black Friday, none of the things we just accept as part of our background and routine.  Occasionally, you could hear Christmas carols, traditional and tribal, float out of one of the dwellings or tin sheds that passed for stores.  As for my traditional Christmas expectations about the season or weather were different – the days were growing a little longer and warmer – such is life below the Equator. Continue reading →

What will this child be?

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Our readings for today increasingly act as heralds for the coming of the Messiah as well as pointing to the one who would herald the coming of Jesus. The first reading from the prophet Malachi (whose name means “my messenger”) proclaims that God’s promises are true, but are fulfilled in God’s time, not ours. The reading announces: “Lo, I am sending my messenger to prepare the way before me” (Mal 3:1)  and he identifies that messenger: “Lo, I will send you Elijah, the prophet” (Mal 3:23)  This oracle is several hundred years after the time of Elijah. In 2 Kings 2, Elijah is turning over the mantle of the prophetic office to Elisha but in that scene Elijah departs by boarding a fiery chariot and ascends into heaven. But the tradition in Judaism was that Elijah would return and so several traditions and rituals leave a chair empty and ready for Elijah. Continue reading →

Bills turns 105

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You probably don’t know Bill Monfort. He turned 105 years old yesterday. A Navy veteran who lived through the attack on Pearl Harbor and just about every naval battle in the Pacific during World War II. He wears a baseball cap. It reads “Kamikaze WWII Survivor” in capital letters. At 103, Monfort contracted COVID-19. He was living alone, his wife having passed away years earlier. It was July 2020, and vaccines were not yet available. He spent three weeks in the hospital. He recovered, and after spending time in a rehabilitation center, moved back to his apartment in an assisted-living complex. In between all that he and his wife were founders of a local organization where people with disabilities could live in a homelike setting. Today, the charity, Angels Unaware, boasts eight campuses and is the longest-running group home in Tampa Bay. His daughter’s disability was the source of his passion and mission.

Thank you for your service.

photo credit: LUIS SANTANA | Tampa Bay Times