A dear friend and mentor, Craig Hella Johnson, describes choosing music for a day like today as listening to “knockings” that happen deep inside. That is a very accurate picture of how certain selections seem to float to the top as the Christmas Festival takes shape in my head. Some results of those quiet voices need no explanation, but for a few, it might help to crack the door just a bit in order for us all to understand what we are hearing, and why. We begin this morning with an antique music box -— the 19th century [...]

Charles Dickens said it best in A Christmas Carol when he gave Timothy Cratchit the line, “God bless us, everyone!” Seen through the eyes of Tiny Tim, Christmas is a time of blessings and miracles. As children, we anticipate the coming of Christmas mostly because of the expectation of gifts, and of relatives, food and fun. As we grow older, and hopefully wiser, we see the true meaning of Christmas as a time of anticipation of the coming of Christ as well as gifts, relatives, food and fun! For the past 20 years, I have played an annual [...]

Love is patient, love is kind, it isn’t jealous, it doesn’t brag, it isn’t arrogant, it isn’t rude, it doesn’t seek its own advantage, it isn’t irritable, it doesn’t keep a record of complaints, it isn’t happy with injustice, but it is happy with the truth.  Love puts up with all things, trusts in all things, hopes for all things, endures all things. Love never fails. 1 Corinthians 13:4-8 On June 5, 1999, my wife and I stood trembling inside a church. We were getting married at the age of 20. Half the people there thought we were [...]

The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, as it had been told them. Luke 2:20 It’s better to be a shepherd than an angel. You remember the angels. They’re the glowing, larger-than-life mysteries who showed up in the middle of the night and scared a bunch of shepherds out of their pajamas. In a second, they formed the best choir that anyone ever heard. They sang, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth, peace!” They had news to share, news that would spread across the earth, news that would [...]

Long lay the world in sin and error pining, Till he appeared and the soul felt its worth. The thrill of hope, the weary world rejoices, For yonder breaks a new and glorious morn. These lyrics from my favorite Christmas hymn, O Holy Night, feel especially poignant this year. The world feels so full of sin and so, so weary. Shootings, wildfires, hurricanes, and earthquakes have delivered devastation to a countless number of communities and families this year. I’ll admit, there are days when it feels like a dream I cannot wake up from—so real and yet so [...]

Come back in time with me. Hear Burl Ives singing, “He sees you when you’re sleeping. He knows when you’re awake. He knows if you’ve been bad or good, so be good for goodness sake.” I was probably five years old when I first heard this song. I was in a department store, Christmas shopping with my mother. The words struck home because I really wanted Santa to bring me an electric train for Christmas—a Lionel train with a switchbox to make the train go forward and backward and “smoke tablets.” You dropped those white aspirin-like tablets in [...]

My name is Henry Quillin. I am 14 years old, and I was lucky enough to be a part of delivering poinsettias to our Friends at Home members last year with Student Ministries. We delivered to the folks living in long-term care facilities. Since some of the senior members of St. Luke’s are unable to come to the Sunday services, my group and I drove to where our Friends at Home lived and gave them beautiful poinsettias so that they would know that they are loved by St. Luke’s. Though it is such a simple act of kindness, [...]