This Sunday we will light the fourth candle of Advent—the candle of love. We’ve lit the candle of hope, the candle of peace, and the candle of joy. Advent is a time of waiting. Just as God’s people waited for many years for the coming of the Messiah, so we wait for his return, but…

This Sunday is the third Sunday in Advent. On the first Sunday we focused on hope, the confident waiting for the Lord his people experienced before he came, and the confident waiting for his return we still experience. On the second Sunday we focused on peace, the presence of God’s sense of well-being active in…

This Sunday is the second Sunday of Advent, that season in which we remember the many centuries God’s people waited for his coming and even now, after Christ’s coming, we long for his return—for his Advent. Last Sunday we focused on hope. Hope is the confident expectation that Christ will come, but not in a…

This Sunday is the beginning of Advent, which is the beginning of the liturgical year. At New City we follow the lectionary produced by the Anglican Church of North America, which allows us to read through the breadth of Scripture in a single calendar year, in a three-year cycle. The use of lectionaries is as…

We’re Americans, which means we love our independence and our ability to self-rule. We love our rugged individualism. Well, perhaps we actually hate it but we don’t know anything different so we cling to what we know. The sort of individualism we experience in our culture is unique in world history as it’s largely devoid…