[Below are the words I had planned on giving at my family's Zoom Christmas Eve service this year. As the pandemic took a significant turn for the worse in the days leading up to Christmas, I felt the need to offer a gentler reflection at that service. But, I thought I'd share these words here … Continue reading The Work of Christmas: A Reflection for Christmas 2021
[This is the text of a short homily I gave at a family Zoom Christmas Eve service on December 24, 2021.] -- Picture it: Jerusalem, sometime in the 730s BCE. The world as you know it is being shaken by the rise of an empire in the far northeast, the likes of which no one … Continue reading A Word of Hope: A Reflection for Christmas Eve 2021
A recurring theme here lately, especially during Advent and in this Christmas season, has been how Jesus reveals to us who God is. This is the most obvious consequence of Christian belief that Jesus is both fully human and fully divine, a belief we call the Incarnation. But today I'd like to talk about the … Continue reading Word Made Flesh, or, How to Be Human
The days in between Christmas and New Year's have always been among my favorites. After all the chaos of Christmas, but before life returns to "normal," we have these precious, spacious, open days. Forgive me for giving in too much to the 'magic' of the secular Christmas spirit, but this time always feels special, expansive … Continue reading Our Eyes Have Seen Your Salvation
Those of you who know me in person likely know that I hate, hate, hate sentimental portrayals of the Christmas story. I can't stand Christmas pageants (even as a kid I thought they were drivel whose only function was to let the grannies fawn over us — and yes, I was a strange child) and … Continue reading Into Our Mess: A Reflection for Christmas 2020
Matthew Root 