January 11, 2017

In 2005, I attended a Sojourner’s conference in D.C. The theme was ending poverty, and the gathering was mostly young clergy, social workers and community organizers. My friends and I had a series of misadventures getting there–everything from terrible weather to airline incompetence–and by the time we arrived, we were soaking wet, a day late and SEVERAL dollars short, and had no clothes but the ones we were wearing. We rolled through our first day grumbling that no way was... Read more

January 9, 2017

Her Highness Meryl Streep preached a sermon at the Golden Globes last night. As she accepted the Cecile B. deMille award, she did not use her moment at the microphone to selfishly reflect on her career, or to thank her mama. As one of the most decorated performers of all time, she has had plenty of other occasions to do that. Instead, she took a moment to express her concern about the behavior and temperament of the incoming President; she called... Read more

January 5, 2017

You just can’t imagine what they must be going through. You don’t know what you could possibly do to help. You have no idea what to say. Thing is… No one does. There is no magic formula of care and concern, words and deeds that will make this terrible thing better for this person you love. The death of a spouse, the cancer diagnosis, the divorce, the job loss, the debilitating accident, the incarcerated daughter… You can’t fix it. Very often, not... Read more

December 21, 2016

Thanks to the magic of Facebook pop-up memories, I revisit the posts of Christmas Past on a pretty regular basis. The last few weeks’ flashbacks have shown me that, every year around this time, I have a viral blog post. Almost like clockwork, I write some clever ode to terrible Christmas music, a survival guide for clergy with young children, or a snarky diatribe about the so-called War on Christmas. According to the calendar, I am due for such a post... Read more

December 19, 2016

 Now the birth of Jesus the Messiah took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been engaged to Joseph, but before they lived together, she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit. Her husband Joseph, being a righteous man and unwilling to expose her to public disgrace, planned to dismiss her quietly. But just when he had resolved to do this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph, son... Read more

December 13, 2016

Guest post: by Rev. Allison Ruari When I was three, I learned the words to “Jesus Loves the Little Children.” After hearing “Red and Yellow, Black and White/They are precious in his sight,” I had to reconcile that I was none of those colors (nor was my Samoan father). Still, I knew Jesus loved me (and my father). So what did I do? I asked questions and made the music director change the words. The new words weren’t perfect, but... Read more

December 12, 2016

What were you expecting? If your childhood pre-dates the digital age and the magic of Amazon.com, then you have memories of spending December pouring over that sacred text, the Sear’s Wish Book. That’s how you KNEW for sure it was Christmas, when that thing showed up in the mailbox. These days, the retail world has other ways of getting our expectations up. They tell us to anticipate everything from diamonds to dazzling technology to a Lexus in the driveway with a... Read more

December 7, 2016

I guess it’s time to start thinking about Christmas cards. (sigh) This means coming up with a reasonably current picture of my whole family–all together in one place, all looking at the camera at the same time; preferably not in matching outfits, but also not looking like we just rolled out of bed or survived a minor struggle. For some families, this is no big deal. They schedule their professional family photo shoot for the same weekend every fall. They show up... Read more

November 30, 2016

One of the best parts of Christmas at my house is getting out the nativity sets. When I was a newlywed–with no children–I decided that I was going to be a collector of international nativities. My husband and I are both kind of minimalists in the home decor department. We don’t do knick knacks, we think less is more, and anything that has to be dusted is probably more trouble than it’s worth. However, I felt like nativity sets were the... Read more

November 29, 2016

Advent 1, Word #2 — shift.  I’m trying this thing again, where I blog every (week)day during Advent. The past few years I haven’t been able to do it, because I was completely overwhelmed with other things. Moving/transition things, kid things, stressful things, churchy things, you name it. All the things. I always try to be intentional about not letting December get away from me, but lately, I’ve failed miserably. This year, I might just pull it off. This year, we... Read more


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