Meditation: Other Gifts to Give In addition to the gift of time, another great gift we can all give is friendship. A little girl said once, “I don’t have any gifts, I can’t sing, I can’t paint, and I know I can’t write poetry. I just don’t have any gifts!” “Yes, you do-it shines out all over you,” her mother said quickly. “You have one of the best gifts of all-the gift of friendship. You
We tend to engineer life more than just live it. We are all overstimulated and drowning in options. We are trained to be managers, to organize life so as to make things happen. This is what has built Western civilization. It is not all bad, but if you transfer that to the spiritual life, it is pure heresy. It doesn’t work. It is not Gospel. We might be economically rich but not usually spiritually fertile.
Meditation: Gifts to Give for Christmas and Every Day We Christians give gifts at Christmas in humble imitation of the Gift that God gave-His only Son, our Lord Jesus. For the Christian the emphasis is on giving, not receiving. A man told what happened to him one Christmas Eve when he was a boy, after the Christmas story had been read. After he and his brothers and sisters had opened all their presents, his father
By Hierodeacon Herman Majkrzak In many European cultures, and in America too, singing and listening to carols is a well-loved Christmas tradition. And many Orthodox communities in the West have admirably incorporated some of the best of these carols into their Nativity celebrations. Often, though, for Orthodox and non-Orthodox alike, our knowledge of this rich repertoire does not extend much beyond the first couple verses of a dozen or so of the most famous carols.
Meditation: Where is Bethlehem? Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea. Where is Bethlehem? Did the Son of God come to be born in a tiny hamlet in far-away Palestine? Or was He born there that He might come to be born somewhere far closer? If Christmas is the time that God chose to come close to us, then Bethlehem must be somewhere very close to us. Where is Bethlehem? It is not far at
In more ways than one, we are waiting in darkness. Isaiah prophesied Jesus’ birth, saying, “The people walking in darkness have seen a great light” (Isaiah 9:2). Yet, the darkness will never totally go away. I’ve worked long enough in ministry to know that moral evil isn’t going to disappear, but the Gospel offers something much more subtle and helpful: “the light shines on the inside of the darkness, and the darkness will not overcome
Meditation: You Shall Call His Name Jesus The Gospel of Matthew begins with a long list of Hebrew names that give the family tree of Jesus on the human side. As we read these names some two thousand years of history pass in review. At the end of the list we find the name above every name, the name of Jesus. The procession passes through the centuries and comes to rest at Bethlehem. “Joseph, son
Meditation: The Danger of Busyness When God came into the world at Christmas, people didn’t have time. They were too busy. There was no room for Him in the inn. “He came unto his own, and they that were his own people received him not.” And it seems that still today we have no room. We crowd Him out with so many things, especially with our busyness. In Luke 14:16-24, the Lord Jesus tells a
Meditation: Why Did He Come? This Word who now becomes flesh is the very same God before Whom the Seraphim in the vision of Isaiah covered their faces with their wings and exclaimed in fear and trembling: “Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord Sabaoth!” The creature did not dare to look up. Such was the overpowering greatness of God. No man could see God and live. It is this transcendent, unapproachable, unfathomable, mysterious Word who
God’s revelations are always pointed, concrete, and specific. They are not a Platonic world of ideas and theories about which you can be right or wrong, or observe from a distance. Divine Revelation is not something you measure or critique. It is not an ideology but a Presence you intuit and meet! It is more Someone than something. All of this is called the “mystery of incarnation”—enfleshment or embodiment if you prefer—and for Christians it
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