In our Christmas morning lectionary reading, Mary is greeted by the angel Gabriel as “the favored one” or the blessed one, because Mary has been chosen to give birth to a son who will be a great savior to his people. Yet the story that follows is seemingly contradictory.[1] Mary becomes an unwed mother who was surely shamed within her culture. She gives birth in a barn among animals and is visited by shepherds, considered lowly members of society. In... Read more
Have you found yourself in such intense struggle you could barely find a path forward? All you could see were obstacles in your way? In Sunday’s lectionary passage, when John the Baptist says, “I am a voice crying out in the wilderness,” he is recalling a passage from Isaiah 40 when the prophet uses these same words. Isaiah spoke to Israel during a painful time of exile in Babylon. Led away as captives, they were forced out of their homeland.... Read more
{If you’d like to listen to this piece rather than read, click below on the photo/link to watch a video (~ 8 mins).} Something increasingly apparent to me in recent months is a lack of nuance in discussions of political positions or world events. Part of this is because the soundbites and snippets of social media can’t provide a full picture of what’s happening around an issue or in a certain part of the world. We feel pressed into amplifying... Read more
Arranging and sharing a Christmas playlist of the best faith-based Christmas songs in hopes they delights readers, brought me joy. I appreciated the challenge because I am picky about music, especially Christmas music! So here goes. Silent Night—Taylor Swift I begin with the inimitable Ms. Swift. Though she ranks at the top of pop artists, this song conjures her Americana days (think slide and acoustic guitar), with vocal stylings wholly Swift. “Silent Night” is among the most familiar Christmas songs,... Read more
“Advent,” which means the arrival or the coming, is my favorite liturgical season. And yes, part of what’s coming is Christmas, when we celebrate the birth of Jesus 2000 years ago. The rituals of this season build with anticipation and hope in a way both beautiful and centering—at an often busy time of year. Gradually, we light more and more candles, marking how Jesus came as ‘a light’ into the world. We decorate with evergreen boughs and trees, symbolizing the... Read more
{Perhaps my favorite thing about this season is reminding readers (and myself) how subversive are the Christmas stories. Before reading this column, I suggest you read Part One HERE.} The Christmas stories in Matthew and Luke[1] served as preludes, or overtures, to those gospels. They encapsulated in miniature the “good news” of the larger piece and are the lens through which to read it. For readers living under the weight of imperial violence, including systematic economic and religious oppression, spying,... Read more
Perhaps my favorite thing about the Christmas season—just a few days away—is reminding myself and others how subversive are the stories of Christmas. Among global literature, they stand out as baldly subversive and anti-imperial while at the same time being neutralized. The gospel writers of Matthew and Luke (the only canonical gospels with birth narratives) each in their own way set up a stark confrontation between Jesus and the Roman Caesars, of all things—something no first-century reader would have failed... Read more
In the earliest photo of us, I am concealed behind the bloom of Wren’s baptismal gown while they are ruby-faced, captured mid-scream. It’s an inauspicious snapshot of the relationship to follow. But leap-frog four years. I wait outside Wren’s preschool to pick them up. They’re travelling home with me and godfather Gilberto, my then husband, for their first sleepover. Wren spots me, hunches their shoulders and grins the way they might look at a baby bird. They’re so elated they... Read more
Celebrants press wall-to-wall into houses where we gather, forty to sixty people, night after night reciting the prayers and singing the songs of Las Posadas. Steamy windows emanate light into winter’s deepest dark. Posadas (translated literally as “lodgings”) take place each night from December 16 through Christmas Eve and reenact Mary and Joseph’s attempt to find lodging in Bethlehem. The tradition originated in Spain and was carried to Mexico. The uniquely Mexican version seems to have started in 1538, when... Read more
One of the main tenets of Christianity is the belief that we are transformed by God and made new; that we have been and continue to be forgiven (and this does not require a belief in ‘substitutionary atonement’). Forgiveness, along with justice for the oppressed (ie Luke 4:18), is part of what we call the ‘good news.’ So shouldn’t Christians be especially forgiving? In theory, yes. But Christians fail at forgiveness as much as anyone. Do we truly believe in... Read more
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