Advent — Brewing Theology with Teer Hardy

A Griswold Family Advent

No matter how much we try to avoid the broken and messiness of the world and our lives, the birth of Joseph’s boy tells creation that we are not separated from God.

Advent, Mount Olivet UMC, SermonTeer HardyDecember 11, 2022Advent, Sermon, Griswold, Matthew 1, Matthew 1:18-25Comment

Storyteller | That's What She Said - December 4, 2022

With three words, “Let it be,” Mary reveals to the world that the way things are is not how things will be when the will of God is followed when the Kingdom of God is fully realized.

Advent, Mount Olivet UMC, SermonTeer HardyDecember 4, 2022Advent 2, Luke 1:26-38Comment

A Small-Town Messiah

God did not choose the pride-filled, the historically strong, or influential at the first Advent.

Advent, Mount Olivet UMC, Sermon, Year CTeer HardyDecember 19, 2021Advent 4, Guatemala, Luke 1:35-55, Micah 5:2-5, Embodied, Mount Olivet, SermonComment

Spoiler Alert

Peace by the pointy end of a sword, gun, or any instrument of violence exemplifies how well we do not understand the very thing we all want for ourselves generations to come.

Advent, Mount Olivet UMC, Sermon, Year CTeer HardyDecember 5, 2021Year C, Advent, Zechariah, Luke 1:68-79, PeaceComment

Coming Home

We can’t come home to the Church until the Church repents of what it has so long called “home” on its own terms.

Advent, BloggingTeer HardyDecember 2, 2021Advent, Blog, Home, LGBTQIA, VAUMCComment

Wait, Anticipate, and Trust

The good ‘ole days are what they used to be.

Higher Than Angels

We continue to look to the heavens today. We petition God to come down from on high, liberating us, healing us from the things that stand against us. The earnest prayers of the people of God today are not unlike the prayers lifted up by Israel as they awaited the birth of the Messiah.

Advent, Mount Olivet UMCTeer HardyDecember 18, 2020Hebrews 1:5-14, Advent, Advent Devotional, Mount OlivetComment

It May Be Dark Out There, But the Lord is With Us

Whatever you have been called to, the Lord will equip you. The Lord will not leave you in the darkness alone

Advent, CoronablogTeer HardyDecember 4, 2020Jeremiah 1:4-10, Devotional, Advent, Mount Olivet, DarknessComment

What Are We Waiting For?

We do not know what guise Jesus will appear in, and so we find ourselves between two Advents – knowing Christ as come and that Christ promises to come again

Advent, Year B, Sermon, Mount Olivet UMCTeer HardyNovember 29, 2020Year B, Advent 1, Mark 13, Waiting, Fleming RutledgeComment

Dream On

God’s revelation, God’s dreams rearrange our lives, disrupting the trajectory of what we have set for ourselves, just as an intruder in the middle of the night has the ability to suddenly, without warning rearrange the layout of a home.

Advent, Mount Olivet UMC, SermonTeer HardyDecember 22, 2019Joseph, Advent 4, Year A, Sermon, Preaching, Teer Hardy, Mount Olivet, Matthew 1:18-25, Dream, AerosmithComment

Borrowed Time

God will do what God will do, and the timing, however much we like to think we can control, is not up to us.

Advent, HauerwasTeer HardyDecember 20, 2019Stanley Hauerwas, Advent-ure, Advent, Devotional, Jesus, EschatonComment

At War in Advent

While immersing ourselves into the season of Christmas we have bypassed, overlooked, and neglected the season of preparation. Like Lent is to Easter, Advent prepares us for the coming of Christ.

Advent, Advent Devotionals 2019Teer HardyDecember 13, 2019Advent-ure, Advent, Stanley Hauerwas, Crackers and Grape Juice, podcastComment

Jesus, Put in a Cage & Denied a Flu Shot

In all we do, in all we post and tweet, in all we pray, may we, Christ’s body the Church, point away from ourselves and to Jesus Christ.

Advent, Bad ChristianityTeer HardyDecember 12, 2019Advent, Advent 2019, Immigration, Flu, Pastor, Leadership, donald trump, Jesus, Christianity, Stanley Hauerwas, fleming rutledgeComment

Are You Afraid of the Dark?

Shadows created by the moonlight bouncing off the white pine trees were creepy for sure but by the end of each summer, I embraced the shadows knowing not only was there nothing to be afraid but also that the shadows revealed parts of the forest I would miss during the day.

Hope | Keeping Watching in the Dark

We begin a new year within the church waiting, not for an infant but rather we are waiting for Christ’s return.

Advent Devotional - A Review

Advent “is a season of strange proclamations, mysterious movements, and ultimately ends in a place unexpected.”

Advent Devotionals 2019, AdventTeer HardyNovember 13, 2019Advent Devotional, Taylor Mertins, Book Review, AdventComment

Advent is Coming

Join me on a daily journey through this season of anticipation and yearning.

Advent, Advent Devotionals 2019, BooksTeer HardyNovember 5, 2019Advent Devotional, Advent, Abingdon PressComment

Advent Begins Today

We have not acted and now we find ourselves beginning to retreat back into the ordinary time of the world. We assume the ordinariness of the summer life of the church gives way to kick-offs in the fall but Advent begins today! The Hope and Promise of the Incarnation push the ordinary of the world to the side as the Hope and Promise of Christ’s justice and mercy take centerstage.

Advent, Blogging, ChurchTeer HardyMay 31, 2019Feast Day, Advent, Mary, Virgini, Virgin, Fleming RutledgeComment

Let All Creation Repent

The preparation John is calling for is a change in orientation, not pointing to guilt or shame, but instead facing in a new direction. A direction that allows the refiner’s fire to burn away the damage sin has done to creation and then live in the hopefully light of the coming Christ.

Let All Creation Praise the Paradox

While we look at this season of anticipating a birth we have to also remember that Christ has already been born, and we now live as a Church awaiting his return and with his return the fullness of the Kingdom of G-d will be made known to us.