Happy New Year! As we ring in the new Christian year during this season of Advent and turn our attention to the arrival of our Savior Jesus Christ, our lections remind us that the work of conformity to Jesus Christ is not yet complete. As we shake ourselves from our tryptophan trances we come to recognize with God’s people from the book of Isaiah that there is still a mountain to be climbed. There are still swords to beat into plowshares. There are still spears that need to be forged into...

Have you ever held your breath waiting for some kind of intense pain to pass and ease? Have you ever known the joy and the peace of returning to normal and breathing easy after a season of exertion and exhaustion that left you out of breath and gasping? The litany from Isaiah 12 is about God’s people who had been holding their breath in exile coming to exhale and breath in the fresh air of God’s grace, might and renewal. God’s judgements against his people begin to take shape in chapter 9....

Call and Response Not long ago, a friend of mine posed a question on social media. He asked people who identify as Christian and as...