Weekly Links: The It's-Still-Christmas Edition

~ Links to some interesting reading, FOR What's left of your weekend ~

- "Twelve Days of Christmas Jollification"  - A primer on when the Twelve Days of Christmas actually started.


- "The Prophetess Anna Praises Christ": a beautiful meditation on Anna meeting the Christ child.


- "Aspire to be Fezziwig: Isn't It Time to Grow Up?"


-"People Disagreed with Jesus About the Bible Too"


-"Mary and Jesus and Me"


-"'An Odd Sort of Mercy': Jen Hatmaker, Glennon Doyle Melton, and The End of the Affair"



-"I'm On the Lookout for the Next Great Christian Novel"


-"How to Parent Without Regret": I needed to read this one this week.


-"The Bloody Attempt to Kidnap a British Princess"


-"Rules for Writers: Be Imperfect"


-"Why Can't We Read Anymore?"


-"It's Not Just You: Garfield Is Not Meant to Be Funny"



And, because I was reminded recently that if you've published a book, you ought to remind people of it every once in awhile...

-"Let Us Keep the Feast: Living the Church Year at Home" - a good resource if you want to learn more about why it's still Christmas, or if you want to learn how to celebrate any of the seasons that are coming up soon.


And that's it! I hope you have a lovely New Year's Day, and a good first week of 2017!


Peace of Christ to you,
Jessica Snell


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"Blood and Milk": Devotion at Biola University's ADVENT PROJECT

I have a devotion up at Biola University's Advent Project today. It's about what Mary, the mother of God, has in common with a king-slayer from the Old Testament. Here's a snippet:

There isn’t any reason to doubt the virtue of [these women], but it’s not their virtue that the scripture brings to our attention. Rather, it is the great virtue, strength, and goodness of God that these women’s lives display. They are the stained glass, but they are not the light that shines through it and makes it beautiful.

Please head on over to The Advent Project site to read the rest!


Peace of Christ to you,
Jessica Snell

Weekend Links: a day late!

"Fermentation":

Some of the stories need working on before I can see whether they’re interesting enough to finish; some of them stall when they need some heavy-duty research that I don’t have time to do; and there are a few that I started and then realized I didn’t have the chops to do justice to. So those are all partials sitting on my hard drive, and I revisit them occasionally between books to see if any of them are ready to get written the rest of the way yet. If one of them is, I have a big jump on getting the next thing started.

"Annunciation Gap":

One thing almost all the painters agree about: in this scene, the annunciation, they put Mary on one side of the painting and Gabriel on the other, with a gap between them. Sometimes it’s a large gap, as if Gabriel is shouting from across the room. Sometimes there is architecture between them, like posts or columns or half-walls. And sometimes, if it’s installed in a church, the scene will be depicted on two separate paintings, with the angel on one wall and Mary on another, and actual empty space between the two. The angel’s message has to jump from one two-dimensional plane to another, through a gulf of three-dimensional space.

"Let the Children Come":

All this being so, the thing about church is to just go and be there. Not to have any kind of agenda about it. Leave aside the hymn learning. Leave aside the needing to sit still. Leave aside the getting to know of your church family. You want to just be there, yourself, and for your children to be there, even though it is a wretched and horrific hassle. As you're dancing in the back with your baby, or hauling out your toddler for banging on the pew, missing the singing, missing the sermon, missing the announcements, missing everything, and you're bone tired, you back aches, and you're just angry, you just want to go hide in a hole, you stand there, and that's where Jesus is. That is where he is. That's where he was on the cross.

Advent: the Magnificat

 In a Sunday school class I've been teaching this month, we've been focusing on Mary's Magnificat. And I love John Allen Banks' observation on that famous song of triumph:

Advent presents us with a Christ who is the great reverser of fortunes, the one who (in the words of the Song of Mary) brings down the mighty from their thrones and instead exalts the humble, who fills the hungry with good things while sending the rich away empty (see Luke 1:52-53). Advent is anything but a consumerist season. It’s about a God who cares for the poor, who sent Christ to proclaim good news to the poor, and who calls us through the prophets to show concern for the poor.” 

 (From John Allen  Banks' book Rekindling Advent.)

Advent is a fasting season, and in Christian tradition, fasting is always tied to two things: prayer and charity.  I like how Banks ties together Advent & the Magnificat & charity all in one neat bundle.


Peace of Christ to you,
Jessica Snell

This post contains an Amazon affiliate link. (See full disclosure on sidebar of my blog.)

Links: Human Trafficking, a Better Version of the Oscars, and more!

The New Christian Abolition Movement - on the fight against human trafficking. An excerpt:

But the assistant U.S. attorney still believes in the partnership between church and state.

“On one hand the fact they’re a religious organization is not directly relevant,” he says. “However, if you look at the history of the abolitionist movement, it has always been religious communities and those are the people who are concerned enough to be active in it.

“And today with modern-day slavery the same is the case.”

Another take on "Once Upon a Time", Semicolon's "Once Upon a Time . . . We All Believed in Marriage".

And the Oscar Goes to . . . "Twilight"! - I love this article about what the Oscars should actually be. The author convincingly argues that the Oscars neither reward what Hollywood does really well (impeccably produced blockbusters) nor what art house films do really well (beautiful, thoughtful stories). Instead, he describes the films it rewards this way:

While it’s impossible to lay out a precise description, it’s like Justice Stewart’s famous definition of obscenity: You know it when you see it. Earnest, middleweight dramas that teach life lessons and feature major emotional climaxes always leap to the forefront. They should make you laugh before they make you cry, or vice versa. Classic three-act structure; a major star playing slightly against type; at least one odd or gruesome or humorous supporting performance from a name actor.

Yep. And where's Alan Rickman's nomination for his portrayal of Severus Snape? That too.

A Nerd's Guide to What Jeff Probst Won't Tell You: How to Win Survivor. "Don't be afraid of being bad television, is what I am telling you."

My sister-in-law writes about Mary and Simeon, about love and loss.

Peace of Christ to you,
Jessica Snell