Touchpoints on Isaiah
Stumped
“In a strange way, my two favorite seasons of the church year are Advent and Lent. I’m not sure what that says about me, but I think I like them because, for me, they are the most honest. They ask me to take a hard look at my life and my world. They don’t let me skim over or pass by the pain in my life or the lives of others. They call me to an honest accounting of myself and my society. And they call me to get back to the source, the root of life. And bear life-giving fruit.”
Getting Rid of the Bubble Wrap
“This is a text to read when it feels like the world is crashing down around us, when our minds are too jaded and our spirits too discouraged to see how God may be present in our current darkness. This is the passage to read when we come face to face with the mess we as humans have made of our relationships and of this world, when we recognize how profoundly broken and how incapable of fixing ourselves we are. For it is in this place of helplessness and disorientation that hope emerges.”
The Light
“You know, we think that it is on Good Friday, on the cross, that God sacrifices God’s self. But actually, it’s at Christmas, in the incarnation, that the Divine is sacrificed. Think of the words we most often use to describe God. All-knowing, All-powerful, All-present. But here, at Christmas, in the incarnation, God sacrifices all of that to be at-one with us. God sacrifices it all to live and dwell amongst us. God sacrifices it all to bring the light to us.”