O Come, Emmanuel, and fill our world with peace. The prophet Micah lived in Judah in the eighth century b.c.e. Israel was under assault from the invading Assyrians, and its army...

O come, Emmanuel, and free us from our fear and despair, busyness and distraction. These days I find myself yearning for the coming of God-with-us. I long for the one who...

Yesterday we meditated on the first half of this passage, John the Baptist’s prophetic call for repentance. Today we turn to verses 15–18, in which Luke presents John as giving witness...

The Gospel readings for the Second and Third Sundays of Advent have for centuries been dedicated to John the Baptist as the one who prepares the way for Christ to come,...

This is the perfect Advent passage. Paul invites us to rejoice, but, as we said yesterday, not in a naïve manner. His is an “already/not yet” worldview. In the present age...

The Third Sunday of Advent is traditionally known as Gaudete Sunday. Gaudete is the Latin imperative, “Rejoice.” In its early development, Advent was more like Lent, a time of preparation for...

In the place of a psalm, the lectionary for the third week of Advent substitutes an oracle from the opening chapters of Isaiah that resembles the form and function of thanksgiving...

In yesterday’s meditation on Zephaniah, we noted the change of verb tense in the oracle. Today we want to attend to a different shift in perspective. In the first five verses,...

Zephaniah’s oracles fill up only three chapters—our reading for today is the conclusion to the book. Most of the book focuses on judgment against Judah coming on “the day of the...

Luke carefully locates John the Baptist in time, moving down through the line of rulers from the most powerful to the lesser powers. The word of God comes zipping into the...