During this Christmas Season, Don’t be Stupid

Last updated on: December 20, 2024 at 5:15 pm By Vance Morgan

In December of 1942, Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote a Christmas letter to a number of his friends, relatives, and colleagues—people with whom he had been involved for the previous decade in various escalating behind-the-scenes and increasingly dangerous attempts to undermine the rule of Adolf Hitler and the Nazi party. This letter has come to be known as “Ten Years After.” As his fellow conspirators waited to see if the latest of numerous attempts to assassinate the Fuhrer would finally be successful,... Read more

My Advent Wish for You

Last updated on: December 16, 2024 at 5:44 pm By Vance Morgan

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For many reasons, Advent is my favorite liturgical season. The “Postlude” of my forthcoming book tells one of my favorite Advent stories, which I tell below. I was raised in a version of Christianity that had no sense of the liturgical year. I have often described the landmarks of my Baptist youth as Christmas, Easter, and everything else. I knew nothing of Advent until my twenties, and loved its energy, its carols, its texts–it still is my favorite liturgical season... Read more

Why Faith Can’t Avoid Being Political

Last updated on: December 14, 2024 at 11:13 am By Vance Morgan

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I’ve been steering away from politics here ever since last month’s election and intend to continue doing so for the foreseeable future. Except for today. With the understanding that the incoming administration has put “doing something about immigration” at the top of its to do list, I am thinking today of a controversial nativity scene from five years ago. When Claremont (California) United Methodist Church unveiled its annual outdoor Nativity during that Advent season, it caused a stir that made... Read more

How to be Hopeful

Last updated on: December 13, 2024 at 7:14 am By Vance Morgan

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Herodotus is considered to be the first true historian in the contemporary sense of the word; historian or not, he’s a great story-teller. He records page after page of anecdotal tales about strange and distant lands, stories often based more on second-hand rumor than direct observation. Consider, for instance, his description of a certain Thracian tribe’s practices at the birth of a baby: When a baby is born the family sits round and mourns at the thought of the sufferings... Read more

He Is Like a Refiner’s Fire

Last updated on: December 8, 2024 at 1:14 pm By Vance Morgan

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The reading from the Jewish scriptures for last Sunday’s Second Sunday of Advent was from the prophet Malachi: But who can endure the day of his coming, and who can stand when he appears? For he is like a refiner’s fire . . . and he will purify the descendants of Levi and refine them like gold and silver, until they present offerings to the Lord in righteousness. This text is set brilliantly to music in the early, Advent portion... Read more

Well Done, Good and Faithful Servant

Last updated on: December 8, 2024 at 1:19 pm By Vance Morgan

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I was saddened to hear a couple of days ago that Fr. Wilfred Thiesen died this past week at the age of 95. He was a son of Minnesota who spent the majority of his years as a member of the Benedictine community at Saint John’s Abbey on the campus of St. John’s University in Collegeville, Minnesota. He professed simple vows as a Benedictine monk in 1950, followed by final profession in 1953. Subsequently he completed divinity studies at St.... Read more

Conversations with God

Last updated on: December 5, 2024 at 5:56 pm By Vance Morgan

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I was raised by a father who claimed to have regular conversations with God. My father regularly dropped phrases such as “God told me that . . .” or “The Lord said this to me . . .” into normal conversations. God seemed interested not only in what my father was reading or doing, but also gave him assistance when ordering breakfast at his favorite diner. This was disconcerting for someone who never heard God say anything at all. Was... Read more

Beauty for Ashes

Last updated on: December 1, 2024 at 2:29 pm By Vance Morgan

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On a beautiful, crystal clear June afternoon in 2002 I sat in an alpine meadow at the foot of the spectacularly majestic Grand Tetons in northwestern Wyoming. A handful of family was gathered to pay final respects to and spread the ashes of my father, who had died a few months earlier. On the porch of my brother’s house that morning, I had considered what scripture text might be appropriate to read as we honored a man who had memorized massive... Read more

A Brief Introduction to Advent

Last updated on: December 1, 2024 at 10:22 am By Vance Morgan

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Today is both the first Sunday of Advent and the first Sunday of the new liturgical year (Year C in the lectionary for those who are following along. Advent is my favorite liturgical season, partially because it was the first new liturgical season I encountered after encountering the Episcopal church for the first time in my middle twenties in a high desert long ago and far away . . . let me take you there with a few introductory paragraphs... Read more

What Are You Thankful For?

Last updated on: November 25, 2024 at 6:58 pm By Vance Morgan

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Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday, for lots of different reasons. It is the least commercial of all the major holidays in this country, neatly nestled between two of the most commericial: Halloween and Christmas. It is the reason for the longest break I get during the Fall semester. Most important, it has been my family’s favorite holiday for the last thirty-seven years because on the day before Thanksgiving in 1987, my sons and I met Jeanne at my parents’ condominium,... Read more