Advent: Thursday, Week 2

Readings for Thursday, Week 2 of Advent:
Psalm 37:1-18
Psalm 37:19-42
Isaiah 7:1-9
2Thessalonians 2:1-12
Luke 22:1-13

Advent: Wednesday, Week 2

Readings for today:

Psalm 38
Psalms 119:25-48
Isaiah 6:1-13
2Thessalonians 1:1-12
John 7:53 - 8:11

Advent: Tuesday, Week 2

Readings for today:

Psalm 26,28
Psalms 36,39
Isaiah 5:13-17,24-25
1Thessalonians 5:12-28
Luke 21:29-38

Advent: Monday, Week 2

Show me your ways, O Lord,
and teach me your paths.

Lead me in your truth and teach me,
for you are the God of my salvation;
in you have I trusted all the day long.
Psalm 25:3



Readings for Today:
Psalm 25
Psalms 9,15
Isaiah 5:8-12,18-23
1Thessalonians 5:1-11
Luke 21:20-28





Head of the Year
by Marge Piercy

The moon is dark tonight, a new
moon for a new year. It is
hollow and hungers to be full.
It is the black zero of beginning.

Now you must void yourself
of injuries, insults, incursions.
Go with empty hands to those
you have hurt and make amends.

It is not too late. It is early
and about to grow. Now
is the time to do what you
know you must and have feared
to begin. Your face is dark
too as you turn inward to face
yourself, the hidden twin of
all you must grow to be.

Forgive the dead year. Forgive
yourself. What will be wants
to push through your fingers.
The light you seek hides
in your belly. The light you
crave longs to stream from
your eyes. You are the moon
that will wax in new goodness.

Advent: Sunday, Week 2

Readings for today:

Psalm 148,149,150
Psalms 114,115
Isaiah 5:1-7
2Peter 3:11-18
Luke 7:28-35

Advent: Saturday, Week 1

Readings for today:

Psalm 20,21:1-7 (8-14)
Psalms 110:1-5 (6-7), 116, 117
Isaiah 4:2-6
1 Thessalonians 4:13-18
Luke 21:5-19

Advent: Friday, Week 1

This morning's readings brought this picture to mind, though I have used it here before. Here are three different ways of looking at it: In the first, we are one with the woman, knowing God's care for us through her sorrow. In the second, we see a crushing indictment of the practices that brought her to this place. And in the third we see the redemptive nobility in her suffering.

For he does not despise nor abhor the poor in their poverty;
neither does he hide his face from them;
but when they cry to him he hears them.
Psalm 22:23

O my people, your leaders mislead you,
and confuse the course of your paths.
The Lord...stands to judge his people.
the Lord enters into judgment with the elders and princes of his people:
"It is you who have devoured the vineyard,
the spoil of the poor is in your houses.
What do you mean by crushing my people,
by grinding the face of the poor?"
says the Lord God of hosts.
Isaiah 3:12-15

He looked up and saw the rich putting their gifts into the treasury; and he saw a poor widow put in two copper coins. And he said, "Truly I tell you, this poor widow has put in more than all of them; for they all contributed out of their abundance, but she out of her poverty put in all the living that she had."
Luke 21:1-4

Readings for today:

Psalm 16,17
Psalms 22
Isaiah 3:8-15
1 Thessalonians 4:1-12
Luke 20:41-21:4