“Hey Don, I don’t think I can come. My car won’t start.” My friend Isadore’s voice was strained with frustration. After phone calls to the dealership, and various failed attempts to dislodge the seized ignition tumbler, he was giving up. The fact that he had also just lost his full-time job days earlier did not help his mood. “I can’t afford to fix it. I might as well just give it back”, he moaned. We agreed that it was worth one more trip to the dealership. Driving from … [Read more...]

Sports and religion have long been connected. As a kid I remember being told about the religious convictions of Eric Liddell who, at the 1924 Paris Summer Olympics, withdrew from the 100m race, his best event, because the race was to be held on a Sunday. When I first heard of Eric Liddell I was somewhat confused. Plenty of professional Christian athletes play sports on a Sunday and even more Christian fans pay to watchthem do it. Why would Liddell be so firm about something that was not core … [Read more...]

There is perhaps nothing I like less over Christmas than hearing "Happy Christmas" by John Lennon. I dislike this because it is about a world where war is inconceivable because love is inconceivable. This having been said, it is not as if Lennon is speaking outside longstanding Christian tradition. From the angels' declaration, through Milton's nativity ode, through Tennyson's pallid " I heard the bells on Christmas day," the theme of peace resonates through Christendom and its remnants. But the … [Read more...]

As an Anglo-Saxonist, I am keenly aware of the way that the transfer of gifts reflects the norms that underlie a society. And so I got thinking about what the way we do gift-giving might tell us about ourselves. In particular, gift-giving is oriented toward the receiver rather than both parties. In a book I have been reading recently, Stanley Hauerwas suggests that the American myth of democracy is that we are living out the narrative we would have chosen had we freely chosen it prior to … [Read more...]

There is a part of us that avoids exile; there is another part of us that is attracted to it. We are attracted to it because it has a way of shattering our illusions. As Jesus puts it in yesterday's Advent reading, people did not go out to the wilderness to hear John the Baptist on account of his fashion sense or because he was society's yes-man — they went out because he was a prophet and would, much like the harsh wilderness, destroy their illusions without mercy. We like this because it is … [Read more...]

Today is Gaudete Sunday, the day set aside for emphasizing the more joyful aspects of apocalypse and Christ’s return. The name comes from the Latin opening of one of the readings for the day, “Rejoice in the Lord always; I will say it again, rejoice.” It is the reason we light a pink candle today for the Advent wreath. “Gaudete,” for me, is a hard saying; I am not good at rejoicing. But I would like to share today some of what I have learned about joy as I have wrestled with it over … [Read more...]

For me, there are two classic films that epitomize the Christmas season: It’s a Wonderful Life, and the Alistair Sim version of Dickens’ Christmas Carol. You should go out and watch them both. But for the moment, I would like to compare them and suggest that the Christmas Carol is more Christian than Wonderful Life. Neither of course tells the Christmas story directly, but I think the Christmas Carol is the better parable. To be sure, the idea suggested in Wonderful Life, that God puts … [Read more...]

One of the most popular of Christmas traditions is critiquing its commercialism. Yet I worry that many of us in our hipster self-righteousness throw the baby out with the bath water, so to speak. I read an article suggesting that the problem with advertising is not the human desires it appeals to, but the distortions thereof. And I worry that some of us forget this in our more cynical than thou approaches to Christmas. Christmas in both its high and more vulgar forms appeals to certain basic … [Read more...]