Posts Categorized: featured

Song of Solomon 2:3 “As the apple tree among the trees of the wood, so is my beloved among the sons”. The anonymous 18th-century carol “Jesus Christ, the Apple Tree” offers a simple yet profound vision of Advent hope. Its imagery reaches back to Eden, where humanity’s first longing for knowledge led to separation from… Read more »

Psalm 96:11-13 Let the heavens be glad, and let the earth rejoice; let the sea roar, and all that fills it; let the field exult, and everything in it. Then shall all the trees of the forest sing for joy before the Lord; for he is coming, for he is coming to judge the earth…. Read more »

Psalm 96:1, 4, 13b O sing to the Lord a new song; sing to the Lord, all the earth. … For great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised; he is to be revered above all gods. … He will judge the world with righteousness, and the peoples with his truth. (NRSV) Children’s voices… Read more »

Luke 2:15-18 When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let us go now to Bethlehem and see this thing that has taken place, which the Lord has made known to us. So they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the child lying in… Read more »

He shall tend his flock like a shepherd. Isaiah 40:11  This beautiful song from Handel’s Messiah is familiar to us as an image of Jesus as a shepherd, feeding his flock and caring for the lambs. “Come unto Him, ye that are heavy laden,” the song assures us, “And He will give you rest.” Rest… Read more »

Isaiah 40:9-11 Get you up to a high mountain, O Zion, herald of good tidings; lift up your voice with strength, O Jerusalem, herald of good tidings, lift it up, do not fear; say to the cities of Judah, “Here is your God!” See, the Lord God comes with might, and his arm rules for… Read more »

Matthew 2:9 “After they had heard the king, they went on their way, and the star they had seen when it rose went ahead of them until it stopped over the place where the child was.”   Who were the Magi? No one really knows. They were wise. They studied the Heavens and understood that… Read more »

“Jesus, your king, is born! Jesus is born! In excess gloria!”  Luke 2:1-20 Jean de Brébeuf, a French Jesuit missionary, went to Canada in 1625 to minister to the Huron people. At some point, he wrote a Christmas carol which we call the Huron Carol. It’s the classic Christmas story, with angelic announcements, a baby… Read more »

Micah 5:2 But you, O Bethlehem of Ephrathah, though you are small among the clans of Judah, out of you will come for me one who will be ruler over Israel, whose origins are from of old, from ancient times. Micah 5:2 offers a message of hope amidst despair. During Micah’s time, Israel faced significant… Read more »

Isaiah 40:1-2 The moment most people remember from the ending of A Christmas Carol is Scrooge throwing open his bedroom window and calling jubilantly to a street urchin, learning that it is indeed Christmas Day. Often, they recall him tossing down coins so the boy can purchase the large goose in the butcher shop window… Read more »