Advent 4, December 24, 2017

Jesus does not belong in a manger.

Perhaps this seems obvious.  I mean NO BABY belongs in animal feeding trough.  It’s disgusting and unsanitary.  And this detail in the Christmas story, provided by Luke’s Gospel, is there not to set the stage for Jesus’ birth or to inspire beautiful Renaissance style crèche figures like these, but to describe the abject poverty into which Jesus was born.  Mary laid her newborn son in a manger because as a homeless refugee, she had no other choice.

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Advent 2, December 10, 2017

I don’t know how long it’s been since you played “Hide and Seek,” but I bet you remember what the seeker announces after hiding his face and counting to ten and before he begins to look for his hidden friends.  He says:  “Ready or not, HERE I COME!”

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Advent 1, December 3, 2017

Filmmaker Steven Spielberg, director of such blockbuster hits as ET and Raiders of the Lost has his own distinctive and very influential style.  One of the features of his movies is what many observers have named, “The Spielberg Face.”  This is where he shows us the expression on the faces of actors who are seeing something amazing for the first time without actually showing us the amazing thing they are seeing.

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