In the bleak mid-winter, frosty wind made moan,earth stood hard as iron, water like a stone…snow had fallen, snow on snow,in the bleak mid-winter long, long ago. Some days seem darker than others. Some days seem colder. The shortest, darkest day of the year was only a few days ago. Although the days gradually lengthen…

This is the Sunday of Christmastide when we begin to consider what God has done in the birth of Jesus. In some homes by now the tree has been taken down, perhaps decorations put away. Stores are advertising year-end sales. Some people have already bought presents and cards for next year at significant savings. In…

O Little town of Bethlehem,The hopes and fears of all the years are met again this year in you.Has it always been so? It was certainly so ten years ago. Some ten years ago, a tourist reflected in this way about his surprising visit to Bethlehem: My adolescent daughter and I were with a small…

We are not allowed long to linger at the manger. Here we are, only the day after Christmas, and we already are beginning to deal with the implications of the birth of Jesus. The lofty and majestic prologue from the Gospel of John captures the awesome and wondrous meaning of the Incarnation, the birth of…

About a year and a half ago, in a restaurant in Austin, Texas, called the Green Mesquite in the booth next to us sat a family. If you ever go there and you like barbecue, try it. At the booth next to us was a family of three, a little girl, her father and mother….

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made, and without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of all people. The light…