by David Anderson
John the Baptist is usually caricatured as a street preacher wearing some apocalyptic sandwich board in Jerusalem’s city square. In fact, the man steered clear of streets and city squares. “John the baptizer appeared in the wilderness,” Mark’s gospel says, “preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.” He wasn’t on the street […]
by David Anderson 6 Comments Filed Under: Advent
We’re taught to believe that the more choices we have, the more freedom we have. Plenty of studies have demonstrated that too many choices are actually problematic, paralyzing. Still we imagine that we’re better off if we don’t foreclose on any option and keep our choices open. The problem is, each day we’re presented with […]
by David Anderson 10 Comments Filed Under: Advent
In the weeks just before Advent, as the church year draws to a close, we hear stories of the ending of the age and warnings for the unprepared. One that always rattles my soul is Jesus’ parable of the Ten Virgins (unmarried women). They are bridesmaids or torchbearers who are to light the procession into […]
by David Anderson 5 Comments Filed Under: Advent
“Are you the one who is to come, or are we to wait for another?” The questioner who is so confused he doesn’t know if Jesus is the messiah, the man who’s being eaten alive by doubt and misgiving is none other than John the Baptist. What turned the fiery shouter into a doubter? He’s […]
by David Anderson 13 Comments Filed Under: Advent
“A shoot,” says Isaiah, “shall come out from the stump of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of his roots.” That oracle was delivered to a people in exile who had lost everything. Yet Isaiah is not afraid to trust, to envision a future possibility that no one else can see. In January, 1987 […]
by David Anderson 4 Comments Filed Under: Advent, Uncategorized
Saturdays are poem days in this Advent series. Advent Credo by Daniel Berrigan It is not true that creation and the human family are doomed to destruction and loss— This is true: For God so loved the world that He gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have […]
by David Anderson 5 Comments Filed Under: Advent
In the Sunday school chapel at Saint Luke’s Parish, my former congregation, there was a Calendar of the Church Year, a giant clock with colored segments marking the different seasons and a hand that swept around that clock, ticking off the 52 Sundays of the year. Twelve o’clock is blue Advent, then a tiny white […]
by David Anderson 3 Comments Filed Under: Advent
“In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God.” When I was in graduate school many years ago, I spent whole days at my desk. One day a squirrel skittered across the porch roof, peered in my window, then rushed away. I was fascinated by […]
by David Anderson 5 Comments Filed Under: Advent, Uncategorized