Reflections of an Urban Priest

In those days Mary set out and went with haste to a Judean town in the hill country, where she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth. When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the child leaped in her womb. And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit and exclaimed with a loud cry, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb. And why has this happened to me, that the mother of my Lord comes to me? For as soon as I heard the sound of your greeting, the child in my womb leaped for joy. And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her by the Lord.” (NRSV Luke 1:39-45) One of my favorite places in Israel is Ein Karem situated on the outskirts of Jerusalem and the Church of the Visitation. Tradition has it that it is the place where Mary and Elizabeth had their famous encounter; two women because of age and circumstances should not have been pregnant, yet they were. Mary, the Virgin and Elizabeth, the b...

Advent is a season of preparation; we prepare for the Second Coming of Christ. In this third week of Advent, I think it would be beneficial for all of us to think about the truth that Jesus was born; he performed miracles; modeled what it was to see God in our midst; taught with true understanding; threatened authority; served all of humankind; gave up his life for many; and then ascended to sit at the right hand of God. He will, we know, come again. But how will he come? Will he come as he came? Will he be born of a marginalized young woman in a way that astounds all?  Will he be raised on the periphery of society, steeped in spiritual tradition, and yet, clearly not in the inner circle of respectability?  At Bethlehem there is a large Cathedral over the place where Jesus was remembered to have been born.  It seems improbable that the Second Coming of Christ will be in a Cathedral or the seat of religious hierarchy.  It seems much more likely that the Christ, at...

Saint Nicholas is the patron saint of sailors, merchants, archers, repentant thieves, children, brewers, pawnbrokers, prostitutes, and students in various cities and countries around Europe.  For each of these groups there is a legend and a reason that the patron saint has been chosen.  There is little known about Nicholas’ life and writings; he was a Nicea in 325 where he – reportedly – struck someone who did not believe in the same way that he did.  The legends portray him as profoundly generous, and through principally the Dutch church in the New World (read New Amsterdam), his legends inspired Santa Claus.  The memory of St. Nicholas did not stand the Biblical test of Protestantism and therefore there was limited appreciation for Santa Claus, as understood in the United States in Europe.  Thirty years ago, as a young soldier stationed in Europe, I did not understand that Santa Claus, as I understood him, was North American creation.  For me, Christ...

This week begins with the First Sunday in Advent; the underlying theme of the week is that of being awake and ready for the Second Coming of Christ. It is a matter of being truly awake. Being awake is not something that can be compartmentalized. If one is awake in one thing, one should be awake in all things. Being awake is something I hear about often. An irreverent countercultural dictionary called the Urban Dictionary defines being awake (or the past tense, woke) as a reference to how people should be aware of current events using the example, “While you are obsessing with the Kardashians, there are millions of homeless in the world. STAY WOKE.” Being awake in Philadelphia in 2017 has so many levels. Current events are one thing, but there is so much more to being awake in God’s eyes. Being awake in God’s eyes includes everything. It includes all the gifts that God has given us that we know about, and those we don’t because we do not see because we do not see as God sees. We ca...