God is in the Manger

I’m not into the early Christmas stuff, but there is one thing that many of us do when it comes to Christmas, and we do it early: we begin to think of what to read during Advent.

Many of you are wondering, in down moments, what you will preach about or teach about or even do during Advent this year. Knowing that pastors and church leaders plot their Advent services well in advance, I want to call to your attention a set of Advent meditations by Jana Riess: God Is in the Manger: Reflections on Advent and Christmas.

The distinctive feature of this book is that it is Christian reflections through the lens of clipped lines from Dietrich Bonhoeffer, so you could say this is a Dietrich Bonhoeffer Advent book.

Jana says it’s a devotional book; most of it from the last two years of his life, while he was himself in prison and separated from his fiance, Maria von Wedemeyer.

Four themes are developed:

Waiting

Mystery

Redemption

Incarnation

Twelve Days of Christmas and Epiphany