Month: December 2023
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Christmas Day
Luke 2: 20 The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen, which were just as they had been told. Advent is over, but I hope you will allow me this postscript to the series today reflecting on that last phrase of the last of Luke’s first 100…
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Advents 22
Luke 2: 8-9 And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. This journey through Luke’s first 100 verses closes similarly to the way it opened,…
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Advent 21
Luke 2:6 While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. All is set. All is in place. By force of circumstances – so it seems – Mary and Joseph are in Bethlehem, and Jesus will be born here. Symbolically, the everlasting…
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Advent 20
Luke 2:1-3 In those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world. (This was the first census that took place while Quirinius was governor of Syria.) And everyone went to their own town to register. Luke, the historian, carefully timestamps his narrative, albeit the reference to…
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Advent 19
Revelation 1:7 “Look, he is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see him, even those who pierced him; and all the peoples of the earth will mourn because of him. So shall it be! Amen.” Today we take a detour from Luke’s gospel account of the first coming of Jesus to consider his…
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Advent 18
Luke 1:76 “And you, my child, will be called a prophet of the Most High; for you will go on before the Lord to prepare the way for him…” Having announced the arrival of the Messiah, Zechariah now turns to the mission of his own son. Rightly or wrongly, I imagine in a normal scene…
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Advent 17
Luke 1:68 His father Zechariah was filled with the Holy Spirit and prophesied: “Praise be to the Lord, the God of Israel, because he has come to his people and redeemed them.” Those gathered at John’s circumcision ceremony have just witnessed Zechariah’s sudden ability to speak after being struck dumb in the temple nine months…
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Advent 16
Luke 1:63 [Zechariah] asked for a writing tablet, and to everyone’s astonishment he wrote, “His name is John.” Zechariah has had nine months to ponder Gabriel’s words to him in the temple. And for the last three Mary has been staying in his house, so he must have heard the details of her encounter with Gabriel…
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Advent 15
Luke 1:53 “He has filled the hungry with good things but has sent the rich away empty.” Mary’s response to Elizabeth is a beautiful song of praise, the Magnificat. It may be less immediately familiar now than in the days when it was a regular inclusion in church services. Still, Wikipedia lists almost 200 composers…
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Advent 14
Luke 1:41 When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the baby leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. After several days’ journey Mary arrives dusty and travel weary. It seems likely to me that, despite being related, this perhaps no more than 15 year old wife of a builder from Galilee has…
Thoughts for the Day 