The Most Unusual Time of the Year

The Church finds itself in an unusual time of the year.

Liturgically, we are finishing up in the last few Sundays of Ordinary Time and the current liturgical year. Advent and a new liturgical year are only a few weeks away.

But, culturally, people are celebrating Christmas already. The egg nog is on sale. Instagram offers me endless holiday recipes. Thanksgiving is barely in view. And Advent is not even mentionable. For many, it's Christmas time – the most wonderful time of the year.

How do we live in this tension? Is there any room left in November and December to PREPARE ourselves for the transforming act of Incarnation that is Christmas?

Slaves and Outer Darkness

This week's Gospel lesson (Matthew 25:14-30) contains at least two challenges.

First, it is difficult to avoid the fact that Jesus tells a story with enslaved people as the main characters and seems to take their existence of enslavement for granted. Further, these people are called "wicked," "lazy," and "worthless" in the parable. How might we not read slavery in this passage as the status quo?

Second, there's the issue of "outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth." It's not an image that elicits gratitude and thanksgiving.

Prepare for Advent

The season of Advent is fast approaching. If you are interested in the Isaiah passages that appear in the Revised Common Lectionary on three of the four Sundays of Advent in 2023, then I wrote a book a few years ago to help Christians understand the traditional Advent passages from Isaiah.

A Benediction (Or Miscellaneous Thoughts)

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