Today is simply called the “First Sunday After Christmas”. Because Christmas Day roams throughout the days of the week from year to year, the first Sunday after Christmas could arrive anywhere between one and seven days after Christmas Day. In churches that observe this day, you may well hear this passage from Isaiah being read:Continue reading “On the seventh day of Christmas…”
Category Archives: Devotional
On the sixth day of Christmas…
When I was in my first year of high school and attending the local Anglican church with my parents, my school principal led a Bible study during the service for the handful of teenagers there. At the end of the year, he presented each of us with a book and a card for Christmas. NearlyContinue reading “On the sixth day of Christmas…”
On the fifth day of Christmas…
The story of Thomas Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury and assassinated in 1170 by King Henry II, seems altogether irrelevant to Christmas. And the fact that the church calendar remembers him today stems simply from him dying on December 29. But when we read the full Christmas narrative in Luke and Matthew’s gospels, there’s something fittingContinue reading “On the fifth day of Christmas…”
On the fourth day of Christmas…
We come now to a day that has understandably not remained in our public celebrations of Christmas, the day when we remember all the children who were killed at the command of Herod the Great. It is possibly the most painful day of the church year. As a father of young boys I almost can’tContinue reading “On the fourth day of Christmas…”
On the third day of Christmas…
Many people in churches this week will hear the stories read of those who first saw Jesus and knew that He was the saviour sent to earth. But what about those who knew Him on earth, walked with Him, saw Him die and rise again, then went on to live waiting for Him to return?Continue reading “On the third day of Christmas…”
On the second day of Christmas…
As a child, I used to assume that Boxing Day meant one of three possible things: 1) It was the day we boxed up all our presents to take them home from our grandparents’. (We never did this, so it probably wasn’t option 1.) 2) After a day of celebrating together, we were now sickContinue reading “On the second day of Christmas…”
Christmas Garden
Today, memories of lockdown withunseasonal cold, semi-constant rain.The virus still with us, like Jacob we are remindedof the limp that must attend the blessing.Yet we too have wrestled with Immanuel; Hehas wrestled also, knowing everyvirus, every locked-down heart.So tinsel and bauble can sparkle withoutkitsch or fraudulent claim. He is with us.On no day does thisContinue reading “Christmas Garden”
Advent Garden: Week 4
The day before the abundance breaks,I gather fallen plums and pick upfragments of tinsel shed around the trampoline.Preparing for an iso-Christmas we clean outthe fridge and I carry a tea towel full of leftovervegetables to the compost heap.Deep in the warmth of the bin, excess becomeshumus, steams and steeps in readiness fornext year’s garden. IContinue reading “Advent Garden: Week 4”
Advent Garden: Week 3
Miserly with my days, I scrooge awayminutes, hoarding time the wayothers hoard wealth, as thougheach moment to myself were a treasure hordes might steal.Bethlehem’s abundance shames me.In poverty, in absence of room,heaven brims wide with nothing to hide.The excess of my garden laughs awaythe miser in me. Come play, it chuckles.Delight.
Advent Garden: Week 2
In this city of constantseasonal confusion, the childrenmust learn and relearn yearly howsummer’s advent only sometimes meansafternoons under the sprinkler or ice cream.Sometimes it meansweeklong downpours and a garden sowaterlogged it becomes a marsh.The cross we made for “pretend Easter”now lies facedown in a puddle, a crypticsign of cradle foreshadowingCalvary, while we in thus inbetweenwatchContinue reading “Advent Garden: Week 2”
The Consolations of Writing 