Mark 1:1-8 Dear Partner in Preaching, I don’t know about you, but I find myself, during these weeks leading up to Christmas, simultaneously filled by the joy and anticipation of the season and…running pell-mell from one activity to another, barely on top of what’s coming next. This was somewhat true when I was a seminary prof, more true as a sem. president, and is even more the case now that I’m back in a parish. (I trust I’m not alone in this experience and that you probably know just what I mean!) And while it’s easy to forget amid all our various responsibilities, this combination of joyful celebration and slightly frenetic...
Advent
posted by DJL
I am a big fan of W. H. Auden’s poem For the Time Being. It’s more than a poem, of course, it’s a dramatic narrative, a poetic play, formally called an Oratorio. In fact, it’s called a Christmas Oratorio. And while I’ve always thought it reads a little better after Christmas –...
For The Time Being
posted by DJL
W. H. Auden’s long narrative poem “For the Time Being” is subtitled “A Christmas Oratio” because it focuses on the birth of Christ. But I’ve always thought it reads better after Christmas, sometime during the long winter that stretches into February (or, if you live in Minnesota,...