Category Archive

Merry Christmas to you all! I hope for you a long string of days of rest and beauty. And I invite anyone in town to join us Sunday, especially if you are one, like me, who can feel a little low on the 26th wondering what to do with all the longing and desire you got in touch with over Advent. We have been waiting in the darkness just before dawn for the past four weeks and now on Christmas Eve we slip into another liturgical moment as we are invited to ‘taste and see the goodness of God.’

Thankfully we have twelve holy days and twelve starry nights to grasp this mystery of the incarnation– God dwelling among us. It is a powerful moment which reminds us that it is good to be human, good to live on this earth, and good to have a body

Art Conspiracy was fantastic. Congratulations to Sarah Jane and all her co-conspirators. There was a strong CitC presence at the event, which felt good. Thanks for the opportunity to contribute, SJ. A couple of weeks ago, Courtney shared Advent Conspiracy as an alternative to rampant consumerism. This week, I have a couple of ideas in that vein. First, Changing the …

I’m listening to Christmas music as I write, trying to get in the spirit. Some of this stuff is awful. It’s trite and saccharin-sweet. When someone does try a fresh take, it usually goes horribly awry. (“Deck the Halls” on pan flute, anyone? A punk rock “It Came Upon a Midnight Clear?” No.) I have Sufjan Stevens (because I’m cool …

What started off as a “one time only” fundraiser has become one of the most anticipated annual art events in Dallas. On Saturday, December 12, starting at 7:00 p.m., Art Conspiracy will mark its fifth year of bringing artists and musicians together to “conspire” for good causes.

Art Conspiracy Details:
Date: 7:00 p.m., Saturday, December 12
Location: 511 W. Commerce, Dallas, TX 75208
Participants: 150 Dallas Artists, 4 Bands
Admission: $10
Benefiting: Resolana

So I’m falling in love with John the Baptizer this Advent season. His message seems as severe and wild as the desert he inhabits. I am hungry for a tradition that asks something of me as a practitioner-and I join in with the crowds, with the tax collector, with the soldiers asking ‘what then should I do?’

And the baptizer delivers. He demands radical re-orientation, metanoia, and a rupture in the routine of everyday life.

  This week we encounter the Advent mantra, ‘Prepare the Way of the Lord,’ in Luke’s gospel. What does it mean to prepare the way for God’s fuller movement into and through our lives?   Frequently I feel that I am wading in words, ideas, and emotions when I really long to be swimming in the Mystery. Yet I am …

So it is a good thing we have sweet little baby Marlie to celebrate on Sunday because the Gospel reading for this week is intense, and there is no glimpse of the teeny, tiny Jesus with the balled-up fists who often gets celebrated this time of year. Nope, this passage is more reminiscent of the visions we wrestled with during the All Saints Service from the book of Revelation and revisited last week during Christ the King Sunday.

What, more apocalypse? But this is Christmas-time. As we prepare for Christ’s birth why not focus on hope and celebrate all things sweetness and light?

I ate the last of my Granny’s pear preserves on a gluten free bagel today. I stood there at the counter and scraped every last bit out of the mason jar with my orange plastic kid’s knife from IKEA: every sliver of pear, every drop of that sweet syrup clinging to the walls. And I cried while I did it.

Ruth is a story over 2000 years old yet it carries themes that seem to speak into the heart of contemporary culture: questions of how to treat resident aliens from another land, how women use limited resources, including their bodies and sexuality, to procure protection for themselves and their kin, and how God meets us in the mundane and the messy corners of our lives.

 Home is not a place. Home is where your people are.   Ms. Maggie taught me this lesson last year as Richie, Coleman and I prepared to leave Boston after four years. Ms. Maggie was Coleman’s first teacher. She runs a home-based childcare in our former neighborhood, Jamaica Plain, and has been caring for children and families for over twenty …