Christmas Day | Darrell Gwaltney

Christmas Day – Tuesday, December 25 Psalms 2, 85, 110.1-5, 132 Zechariah 2.10-13 John 3.31-36 1 John 4.7-16 When I was a child Christmas Day promised new toys, great food, and visits from family. It was one of my favorite days of the year. I would begin counting down the days to Christmas in early […]

Christmas Eve Day | Linda Wofford

Monday, December 24 Psalms 45, 46, 89.1-29 Isaiah 35.1-10 Luke 1.67-80 Revelation 22.12-17 Advent is drawing to a close. The days of preparation are almost complete. Tomorrow is the day for which we have been preparing. Christmas is almost here. So, the question comes: “Are we ready?” As I have considered the suggested readings for […]

The Fourth Sunday of Advent | David Dark

Sunday, December 23 Psalms 80, 146, 147 Isaiah 29.13-24 Luke 1.39-56 Revelation 21.22-22.5 Standing outside a Middle Tennessee Best Buy having braved the crowd to secure some items on a very well-publicized, Here-Comes-Christmas sale day, I watched a woman approach the entrance with a tired look of determination. “Gotta get in the spirit,” I heard […]

Week 3 of Advent | Sally Holt

Saturday, December 22 Psalms 72, 111, 113 Isaiah 28.9-22 Luke 1.26-38 Revelation 21.9-21 Advent is a pregnant time, filled with waiting and expectation, and the passages in Psalm 113 and in Luke 1.26-38 focus our attention on pregnancy.  In both the psalm and the passage from Luke, women who are not expected to become pregnant […]

Week 3 of Advent | Mark McEntire

Friday, December 21  Psalms 66, 67, 116, 117 Isaiah 11.10-16 Luke 1.5-25 Revelation 20.11-21.8 At no point during my childhood could you have asked me “What do you want to be when you grow up?” and received the answer “A religion professor.” Among the things I remember wanting to be are baseball player, astronomer, basketball […]

Week 3 of Advent | Mimi Barnard

Thursday, December 20 Psalms 33, 50 Isaiah 9.18-10.4 Matthew 3.1-12 2 Peter 2.10b-16 On this Thursday, December 20, in the third week of Advent, we are reminded of the peace that comes during this holy season as we consider all that Christ’s coming into the world means to us and all of Creation—the hope, the […]

Week 3 of Advent | Daniel Weatherby

Wednesday, December 19 Psalms 49, 119.49-72 Isaiah 9.8-17 Mark 1.1-8 2 Peter 2.1-10a “John appeared, baptizing in the wilderness and proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. And all the country of Judea and all Jerusalem were going out to him and were being baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins” (Mark […]

Week 3 of Advent | Amanda Miller

Tuesday, December 18 Psalms 45, 47, 48 Isaiah 9.1-7 Luke 22.54-69 2 Peter 1.12-21 Reading Psalm 48 transported me back to last May, when I was in Jerusalem on a study abroad trip with twenty Belmont students, another professor, and my husband and parents. Several of us spent one warm evening walking along the top […]

Week 3 of Advent | Guy Chmieleski

Monday, December 17 Psalms 41, 44, 52 Isaiah 8.16-9.1 Luke 22.39-53 2 Peter 1.1-11 It is getting close by now, so much so that you can almost feel it in the air. Christmas—the coming of Christ. It is a “season” that starts just as soon as we finish cleaning up our Thanksgiving feast, but is […]

The Third Sunday of Advent | Ben Curtis

Sunday, December 16 Psalms 63.1-8, 98, 103 Isaiah 13.6-13 John 3.22-30 Hebrews 12.18-29 “The friend of the bridegroom, who stands and hears him, rejoices greatly at the bridegroom’s voice . . . He must increase, but I must decrease.” (John 3.29-30) The initial home of John the Baptist was the wilderness—that vast, desolate, silent place […]