The Advent season reminds us of the three ways that Christ comes to us. The first is, of course, the birth of Jesus in Bethlehem many years ago. This season provides the opportunity to reflect on God’s bridging the divide between heaven and earth with the birth of the Messiah. The second coming is in… Read More »

When I was in college I volunteered to help tutor in a structured after school program for young children. I was terrible at it. I could never maintain discipline. So that I would improve my classroom, they had me shadow an experienced teacher to observe her techniques. What impressed me was how different her approach… Read More »

Everyone wants to know how the story comes out. Did the butler do it? Does the boy get the girl? And what exactly is Rosebud? The Bible tells us how the story of creation comes out. God will be all in all and we, the brothers and sisters of Jesus, are invited to eternal life.… Read More »

The bizarre (from our perspective) imagery in the Book of Daniel serves as a commentary on political and historical currents swirling during that time period. (Maybe the closest analogy would be Animal Farm by Aldous Huxley which operated in a similar fashion in the 20th century.) The point of the Biblical story is to find the… Read More »

A dear friend is a fisherman. Since I don’t get how enjoyable fishing is to him he explained that fishing helped him to be a better follower of Jesus. After all, his first followers were fisherman. He described three characteristics of fisherman that made them fit followers of Jesus. First, they go where the fish… Read More »

The expression in English “the writing is on the wall” has its roots in the story from the Book of Daniel. It means a warning of impending problems. Because of global warming the writing is on the wall about rising sea levels. Because of increasing partisanship the writing is on the wall about government inaction.… Read More »

“Teacher, when will this happen? And what sign will there be when all these things are about to happen?” Speculation about the end times goes back to beginning times. We want to know how the story is going to come out. But Jesus suggests that we resist such speculation. He wants us to live in… Read More »

The first reading for the last week of the Church’s year is from the Book of Daniel. This is not considered a prophetic book in the Hebrew Bible but one of the “writings.” The book is not a report of the actions of a historical prophet like Isaiah and Jeremiah but a novelistic reflection on… Read More »

All the history buffs out there will recall that the climactic battle of the War for American Independence occurred at Yorktown in 1781.  The upstart American army led by General George Washington trapped the pride of the British military forces and compelled them to surrender.  The rag-tag Americans were so ill equipped that many didn’t… Read More »

Jesus told us that God is God not “of the dead, but of the living, for to him all are alive.” As we come to the end of the month of November, the time to remember our beloved departed, that reminder provides consolation. Life is not merely a biological fact, a certain combination of chemicals and… Read More »