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I have many favorite Christmas songs. But there is one that impacts me spiritually more than any other. And it is one that I find very few people are familiar with. So let me introduce you to it if you do not already know it. Here is this YouTube video of the Christmas song “Awake! Awake, to Greet the New Morn” written by Marty Haugen and sung by the St. Olaf Choir. I rarely sing this song that I don’t have tears in my eyes. It reminds me that Christmas changes everything. “

I got locked out of my car on my way to church last week.  I was 45 minutes from home.  Twenty minutes from the church and everything I needed (i.e. cell phone and key) was in the car.  It was 9:15 am and worship was at 10 a.m. I was at a gas station in the middle of nowhere trying to get gas.  I freaked. I saw two men standing by a snowplow and confessed my dilemma (stupidity).  There was lighthearted laughter and advice on how to avoid future situations. Meanwhile I tried t

“Prepare Ye the Way.” Advent is about getting ourselves prepared. Which, in my experience, is quite ironic as I don’t think anything truly prepares you for new birth. Perhaps others have felt prepared for parenting. I did not. I mean, we had a several year long adoption process, so we had done adoption classes, read several parenting books, and had a nursery all set up. But twenty-two and half years ago in a municipal building in Chongqing, China, when they placed a 10-month-

Something is on the Horizon There are a lot of wonderful words out there that can be used to describe what’s happening during Advent, but few are better than this by Jan Richardson: “The season of Advent means there is something on the horizon the likes of which we have never seen before ... What is possible is to not see it, to miss it, to turn just as it brushes past you. And you begin to grasp what it was you missed, like Moses in the cleft of the rock, watching God’s [bac

Take a Chance… “ What Would You Do with a Chance? ” is the title and opening line of a children’s book (but really for all ages) by author Kobi Yamada. I’m guessing many of you have read this book or one of his other two: “ What Do You Do with an Idea? ” and “ What Do You Do with a Problem? ” Sermon possibilities abound with all three. The first book is a wonderful reminder that chances are all around us but sometimes we let them float away because of fear of failing, or fear

When I wrote a couple weeks ago, I promised to come to an additional point of the Washington DC “Love Knows No Boarders” Conference Minister’s Advocacy Days. This is the fulfillment of that commitment. What I wanted to speak a little more about are the impacts that are happening to refugee resettlement. Here in New Hampshire, many of our churches have participated in refugee resettlement programs. This is, of course, true across all of the United Church of Christ. One of the