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Keeping Advent 7: Bringing in the Harvest

December 6/First Saturday of Advent When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were troubled and abandoned, like sheep without a shepherd.  Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is abundant but the laborers are few, so ask the master of the harvest to send out laborers for his harvest.” ~ Matt 9.36-38 However one…

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Keeping Advent 6: Touch and Go

December 5/First Friday of Advent Then he touched their eyes and said, “Let it be done for you according to your faith.” And their eyes were opened. ~ Matt 9.29-30 A very wise mother I know once told me that when her daughter was a teenager and conversation grew fraught, the only form of communication she attempted was a brief…

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Song 27: Something Wicked This Way Comes

April 4/Fourth Friday of Lent   The LORD confronts the evildoers, to destroy remembrance of them from the earth. The LORD is close to the brokenhearted; and those who are crushed in spirit he saves. ~ Ps 34.17, 19 Does God really “confront the evildoers”?  Or in the concrete Hebrew expression, is “the face of the LORD against” those who…

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Keeping Advent 8: Whence Cometh Our Help?

December 8/Second Sunday of Advent  I am confident of this, that the one who began a good work in you will continue to complete it until the day of Christ Jesus. ~ Phil 1.6  The market for self-improvement in the United States remains robust – workshops and seminars, personal coaching, and a proliferation of self-help books that bring in hundreds…

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Advent Reflections 2024

Friends, Again this year, I will be offering Advent reflections by email.  These brief meditations are accompanied by a prayer, a musical offering, and a link to the day’s lectionary readings.  The reflections will begin on the first Sunday of Advent, December 1, and will conclude on Christmas Eve.   The sign-up form is located in the righthand corner of the…

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Songs for Lent, Uncategorized

Song 26: Taking a Knee

March 18/Fourth Thursday of Lent Our fathers made a calf in Horeb and adored a molten image;They exchanged the glory of God for the image of an ox that eats grass. ~ Ps 106.19-20 We may not regard ourselves as susceptible to bowing down before a molten image (the literal meaning of the Hebrew word translated “adored” is an infrequently-used…

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Song 8: Giving a Hand

February 25/First Thursday of Lent Your right hand saves me.  Your kindness, O Lord, endures forever; forsake not the work of your hands. ~ Psalm 138.7-8 Years ago, at a fraught time in my life, a sympathetic friend noticed at dinner one night that I had tucked my thumbs firmly into my clenched hands, and gently asked why I was…

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Keeping Advent 8: Memento Mori

December 6/Second Sunday of Advent Since everything is to be dissolved in this way, what sort of persons ought you to be in leading lives of holiness and godliness?  ~ 2 Peter 3.11 The daily recording of the COVID-19 death toll has forced upon us an acute awareness of mortality.  In the absence of a vaccine — now, thankfully, on…

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Keeping Advent 7: Bringing in the Harvest

December 5/First Saturday of Advent When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were troubled and abandoned, like sheep without a shepherd.  Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is abundant but the laborers are few, so ask the master of the harvest to send out laborers for his harvest.” ~ Matt 9.36-38 However you…

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