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December 2016

December 27, 2016

What you do to your neighbor you do to Christ

It still being Christmas--there are twelve days of it, remember--we can still contemplate the inexhaustible topic...

December 26, 2016

Happy Boxing Day!

Today, the day after Christmas, is celebrated as "Boxing Day" in the United Kingdom and...

December 24, 2016

“The light shines in the darkness”

How fitting that we commemorate the birth of Jesus Christ around the time of the...

December 24, 2016

A medieval Christmas for the children

In a review of what sounds like an excellent book on Bach's Christmas Oratorio, Nathaniel...

December 24, 2016

What to do with your Amazon boxes

If you or people who gave you presents did much of your Christmas shopping online,...

December 23, 2016

Tolkien’s newly-discovered Christmas poem

A Christmas poem written by J. R. R. Tolkien was recently discovered. Entitled "Noel," Tolkien...

December 23, 2016

“That’s Christmas”

Chicago Tribune columnist Rex Huppke writes about how when he was a kid Christmas was...

December 22, 2016

The tragedies behind “I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day”

Let me just let Jim Priest, writing in the Daily Oklahoman, tell it: As Christmas...

December 21, 2016

Theological music for Christmas

Ken Myers has written a wonderful post on Christmas music, emphasizing particularly how it is sung...

December 20, 2016

The Christmas stories of Connie Willis & her favorite Christmas movies

Connie Willis is an award-winning science fiction author and a deft satirist of contemporary foibles....

December 19, 2016

Cancelling church on Christmas

Christmas falls on a Sunday this year. So once again, many congregations are CANCELLING SERVICES!...

December 15, 2016

Ceremonial Deism

The Supreme Court ruled in 1984 that Nativity scenes in publicly-owned spaces are legal. As...

December 12, 2016

“Even if they are fools, they shall not go astray”

More prophecies of the coming of Christ for our Advent contemplation: Isaiah 35, yesterday's Old...

December 08, 2016

The Christmas wars throughout history

A new book by Gerry Bowler entitled Christmas in the Crosshairs: Two Thousand Years of Denouncing...

December 07, 2016

From “the most humiliating year in our history” to victory

Today is the 75th anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor. The Daily Oklahoman...

December 05, 2016

And now, the commercialization of Advent

One reason that many Christians are rediscovering Advent is that Christmas has become so commercialized....

November 2016

November 28, 2016

Explaining Advent

Happy New Year! That is to say, Happy Advent, the beginning of the new church...

November 24, 2016

Thanksgiving in Australia

It's strange being in Australia for Thanksgiving. We're getting together with some other expatriate Americans,...

November 24, 2016

Happy Dependence Day

July 4 is Independence Day. Thanksgiving is Dependence Day, a time to remember how dependent...

November 21, 2016

Christ the King

Hispanic martyrs put before the firing squads by socialist dictators would call out as their last...

November 11, 2016

Merry Veterans Day

Thank you, veterans, for serving all of us. A grateful nation offers you all kinds...

November 07, 2016

Australia notes: Guy Fawkes Day

On Saturday night, here in Australia, fireworks started going off everywhere. It dawned on my...

November 01, 2016

Saints I have known

Happy All Saints' Day! The Augsburg Confession, one of the definitive Lutheran doctrinal statements, says...

November 01, 2016

All Saints’ Day, the Reformation, and the shadow of Death

As he mourns a death in his family, Mathew Block brings together the Reformation and All...

October 2016

October 31, 2016

The Reformation as a restoration of catholicity

Even some Protestants are saying that we shouldn't celebrate Reformation Day. Why celebrate the breakup...

October 31, 2016

Pope praises Luther

Pope Francis is set to celebrate Reformation Day in a joint service with Swedish Lutherans....

October 31, 2016

The medieval Christian–not pagan–origins of Halloween

We have long been told that Halloween goes back to the ancient Celtic pagan holiday...

October 31, 2016

What percentage of Christians observe Halloween?

Seven out of ten Americans observe Halloween. 28% of evangelicals don't. But most Christians seem...

September 2016

September 09, 2016

Commemorating or undoing the Reformation?

On Reformation Day, October 31, the Pope will commemorate the Reformation in a common service...

September 05, 2016

Why we have cookouts and don’t work on Vocation Day

Our efforts to turn Labor Day into a Christian feast commemorating the doctrine of Vocation may...