Illuminating everything on the album even when the light is dim is Stevens’s Christian faith and his unerring musicality, which shines as brightly as it ever has in spite of — or maybe because of — how spare this music is. Mostly, it’s just the sound of a guitar and a beautifully tender voice grievingContinue reading “Album of the Year: Sufjan Stevens’ intimate masterpiece”
Author Archives: Chaplainmike
He will come to us
RJS had an excellent post this week as part of her ongoing discussion of J. Richard Middleton’s book, A New Heaven and a New Earth: Reclaiming Biblical Eschatology. In it, she examines six scriptures that support Middleton’s contention that “the redemption and restoration described in Scripture is a holistic redemption of all of creation,” and that “Christians areContinue reading “He will come to us”
Please…confront me with the strangeness of Christmas
The story of Jesus has no bite. A tame “baby Jesus” makes his annual, heart-warming appearance, and leaves us largely un-bothered and un-changed. Yet when I read the two Gospel accounts, I am struck by how strange these narratives are, unsettling and fantastical at every corner. • W. David O. Taylor • • • ThankContinue reading “Please…confront me with the strangeness of Christmas”
Welcome to the mess
Very little of my faith has involved leaving and arriving. The vast majority of it has involved wrestling, meandering, stretching, struggling. As the saying goes, it’s a work in progress. My spiritual GPS has yet to chirp, “ You have arrived.” • Rachel Held Evans • • • I encourage you to go to Rachel Held Evans’sContinue reading “Welcome to the mess”
Mondays with Michael Spencer: December 28, 2015
From a 2006 post, “True Confessions of an Egg Nog Addict” • • • There is a category containing foods over which I have no ability to reason or resist. Should you wish to make a fool out of me, these are the foods that will facilitate the process. If you want to see a grownContinue reading “Mondays with Michael Spencer: December 28, 2015”
Christmastide I: Various Christmas sermons of note
Pope Francis, Urib et Orbi Message Dear brothers and sisters, Happy Christmas! Christ is born for us, let us rejoice in the day of our salvation! Let us open our hearts to receive the grace of this day, which is Christ himself. Jesus is the radiant “day” which has dawned on the horizon of humanity. AContinue reading “Christmastide I: Various Christmas sermons of note”
Saturday Ramblings: December 26, 2015
Santa is enjoying a well-deserved rest, but we’re back on the road and rambling! We’ll spice our journey today with some tweets we unwrapped on Christmas morning, gifts from Funny or Die and The Church Curmudgeon. First, here is one practical reason why “contemporary” churches don’t do liturgy… Second, people have no idea how stressful it is forContinue reading “Saturday Ramblings: December 26, 2015”
Merry Christmas, from all of us at Internet Monk
Randy Thompson: That We Might Be Happy Together
Sometimes at Christmas we get so caught up with the magi, shepherds, and the barnyard animals around the manger that we forget about the birth that the birth of Christ set into motion. Sometimes, the familiar nativity display so dominates our imagination that we forget the purpose of the One who was born. The OneContinue reading “Randy Thompson: That We Might Be Happy Together”
Jan Richardson: This Luminous Darkness – Searching for Solace in Advent and Christmas
Note from CM: One of my favorite sites on our blogroll (listed as “J Richardson”) is Jan Richardson’s The Painted Prayerbook. Her art is evocative and profound, her love for the seasons of the Christian Year instructive, and her writing talent remarkable. She maintains several different sites, including a blog for Advent called, “The Advent Door: EnteringContinue reading “Jan Richardson: This Luminous Darkness – Searching for Solace in Advent and Christmas”
The Internet Monk Archives 