2011 Advent Meditations from Myers Park Baptist

BY ANDREW DAUGHERTY.  British poet U.A. Fanthorpe was the first woman nominated as Professor of Poetry at OxfordUniversity. Her poem BC:AD captures the unremarkable circumstances surrounding the birth of Jesus. This was the moment when Before Turned into After, and …
Continue reading »

BY ELEANOR BRAWLEY. I am handed a candle as the crowd piles in, chatting of parties and wearing furs. A man enters torn jacket unshaven unwashed. After the fourth verse of Oh, Come All Ye Faithful we line up and …
Continue reading »

MARY KRATT. “Go through, go through…”  Isaiah 62: 10 Jericho and Jerusalem, Maginot and Mason-Dixon, Berlin, jails and borders, gated neighborhoods, razorwire, boulders of prejudice everywhere we are. Jesus  -  that  infant/boy/man  stands to dissolve  these walls, those spikes between …
Continue reading »

BY JENNIFER PARKER.  Luke’s beloved Christmas story is one heard often, with staging that seems it could have been written by aNew Yorkplaywright who sets the scene in an undulation of history that spotlights an ordinary couple’s midwinter journey to …
Continue reading »

BY STEVE SHOEMAKER. There is curious detail of the Adoration of the Magi by Fabriano from the fifteenth century. The cow is there, the donkey is just out of sight. The oldest of the magi is bowing before Jesus. Two …
Continue reading »

BY DIXIE PINSON. Forsaken; a desolate word, bringing to mind feelings of isolation and abandonment. In Advent the proclamation is “Not Forsaken.” Contemplate feeling “sought out, not forsaken.” These are life-giving words along with compassion, salvation, justice, and peace. Isaiah’s …
Continue reading »

BY JANET MILLER.  On a trip out of town last fall, I woke before sunrise. I left my husband sleeping peacefully and went in search of coffee and a good spot to read. The hotel lobby was empty, except for …
Continue reading »

BY CAROL REID.  It was 1988—the early days of glasnost and perestroika. At the end of an educational collaboration in Amherst the Soviets gave us Americans a quote with their signatures. It was a quote from the Austrian poet Ranier …
Continue reading »

BY TIM MARTIN.  The Apostle Luke describes the gift of the Christ child as a blessing, the ultimate gift of divine love.  But, it’s hard for us not to turn to the last page of the story and reflect on …
Continue reading »

BY ANDREW DAUGHERTY. Change is hard.  Change startles us even as it surprises us. Change that comes in bulk often startles us most.  Moving to a new town.  Going to a new school.  Graduating.  Getting married.  Having children.  Changing jobs.  …
Continue reading »

BY CHARLIE ELBERSON.  The story tells of a young women, a virgin, living in a small town.  She receives an unexpected male visitor who says,  “Greetings, favored one! The Lord is with you.” According to the story the girl is…perplexed. …
Continue reading »

BY LAURIE WINSTON.  Have yourself a merry little Christmas… let your heart be light… Ah, to let my heart be light. So often I find myself craving the lightness and the wonder of childhood, and never more so at Christmas. …
Continue reading »

BY ASHLEY HARDY. Rhett and I were so overwhelmed when our first son, Forrest, was born with some very serious, yet undiagnosed, medical issues.  I kept asking God for strength, for guidance, trying to have faith.  It was my last resort.  …
Continue reading »

BY RACHAEL DAUGHERTY.  “But she was much perplexed by his words and pondered what sort of greeting this might be.” I chuckle to myself reading this part of the story.  Here Mary is having a conversation with an angel, and …
Continue reading »

BY ANDREW DAUGHERTY. Spiritual advisors have long said to preacher types, “If you are going to be a prophet, you better have a lifelong membership with U-haul, because you will be doing a lot of moving around.”  In other words, …
Continue reading »

BY LYNN TRENNING. Where is the joy of Advent in this week’s Scripture lessons?  It has almost been a year since my father died, and I miss him often.  But I am not wallowing in ashes.  Instead I wear his …
Continue reading »

BY LISA RUBENSON.  I once stood alone on the tip of Greece’s Western Peloponnese, on a stone jetty that extended into the dark blue sea. Around me were elegant pines, gnarled by wind and time. I was young and unprepared …
Continue reading »

BY MARY CONLON. The truth is, I am feeling quite “un-adventy.” un-adventy-Adj Describing the general lack of joy and peace surrounding the holidays. Often replaced by exhaustion or numbness from attending an extraordinary number of holiday-themed preschool and elementary-aged celebrations. …
Continue reading »

BY MARK J. BARSOUM. Autumn is a duplicitous marvel.  In many ways, it brings us relief – from oppressive heat and humidity, from the buzz and bite of our insect cousins, from the laze of children bored between school years, …
Continue reading »

“Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness.”                                                                                     ~Mark Twain Today is the Feast Day of Saint Nicholas, protector of pilgrims and sailors.  Good thing; we will need protection along thisAdvent RoadtoBethlehem.  Being on a pilgrimage is a vulnerable …
Continue reading »

BY BETH RESLER WALTERS.  A friend of yours, so excited about someone she has met or a person he knows coming to town, sometimes says, “I really want you to meet…”  The friend wants to share the joy of knowing …
Continue reading »

BY DENNIS TESTERMAN.  Advent is a time for waiting expectantly; a time for reflecting.  It is precisely the kind of time when the uncomfortable might experience an all-too-rare moment of comfort in their lives.  It is likewise a time when …
Continue reading »

BY BILL J. LEONARD.  It was spring in Israel.  The rains had been unseasonably prolific, and we were roaming around that Holy Land. Seeing the flowers that Spring in Israel, I remembered the Hebrew word:  mitbar, which we translate as …
Continue reading »

BY BETH HAENNI.  Author Gary Chapman names “gifting” as the love language for people who show their love by giving and receiving very thoughtful gifts.  Does your family have any special “gifters?” We do, so it’s no surprise that wrapping …
Continue reading »

BY DON HUDSON.  In Mark 1:1-8, John the baptizer, the Wild Man who eats locusts and honey and wears a hair shirt, announces “The one who is more powerful than I is coming after me … I have baptized you …
Continue reading »

        BY. KATHIE COLLINS. Preparation is survival’s preference— a feathered nest and storehouse dense, a lighting of the darkened way, the prophet’s voice: “Cease all indifference!” We build the Lord’s straight paths with fear-baked bricks, with one …
Continue reading »

BY TODD RUBENSON.  Advent is the season of expectation and hope – the season of waiting, watching and preparing for the light of the world to pierce the depth of winter’s darkness. Isaiah and John the Baptist give us tasks …
Continue reading »

BY NANCY CLARE MORGAN.  “Prepare ye the way of the Lord.”  Is it just me, or does anybody else hear David Haskell’s soulful voice echoing through the streets of New York Cityfrom the 1973 film Godspell? Haskell, as a Sgt. …
Continue reading »

Isn’t it ironic that during the holidays suicide rates go up? Hospital halls, like shopping malls, become increasingly busy as the season happens around us. It seems like the hope that our religion and our culture tell us to have …
Continue reading »

 Scripture readings: Isaiah 64:1-9 and Mark 13: 24-37 BY JOHN HEWETT.  You won’t find it in any hymnal, but Stephen Sondheim’s song “Something’s Coming” captures the sense of expectancy at the heart of Advent longing:                           Could be!  Who …
Continue reading »

Scripture readings: Isaiah 64:1-9 and Mark 13: 24-37 BY CHARLEY FAULKENBERRY.  What is hope? Sometimes it’s a definite maybe or an expectant wish. Years ago a six year old reminded me that sometimes hope is a deep down joy-filled knowing. …
Continue reading »