The many differences in such a short distance was a poignant reminder that Christmas never has, nor ever will, mean just one thing. It has always meant different things to different people.

Emmanuel – God is with us.  The song writer of O Come, O Come, Emmanuel found it sufficiently difficult to articulate what this means that he wrote 7 verses trying to describe it.  God with us that comforts the lonely exiles here. Emmanuel is the essence of Advent.  The stories are magical, but they are [...]

If we are honest, we know that part of the burden and part of what obscures the holy in this season, if not the whole year, is the unnecessary financial weight that many of us, and many of our loved ones, carry.

Jesus invites us to store up treasures in heaven—“in heaven” meaning in our interactive relationship with God. When we make this our treasure, we experience life to the fullest and this is who we worship.

All of us live between the ideal and the extreme – seeking to pay attention to how we live with deep, present moment trust in what we know to be true, what life has presented to us, and God’s grace which helps us cope and thrive. All of us know times and occasions when we have put our trust in something material, when we have served the wrong god.