Lectionary Readings: Year A, First Sunday after Christmas There’s a story I heard once, and I’m sure many of you can relate to at least a part of the story. A father and his son are at home together, the father trying to get some work done, and the son is pestering his father with…
Lectionary Readings: Year A, Christmas III Every time we have a Eucharist – a communion service – the Deacon and I hold up the elements, and I say, “The Gifts of God, for the people of God. Take them in remembrance that Christ died for you, and feed on him in your hearts, by faith,…
Advent has been called a mini-Lent, because it is also a season of penitence. The difference between Lent and Advent is that during Lent, we prepare for Christ’s crucifixion (and then resurrection), while in Advent, we prepare our hearts for Christ’s birth, and in another sense, for Christ’s Second Coming. Accordingly, Advent, while still a penitential season of preparation, is more joyful than Lent because of the anticipation of something new, something greater than ourselves, something that sparks hope for a better future for all God’s children – through our work, and our gifts that allow us to care for all, guided by the love that God has showed us.
This is the tension that Paul lived in – between the creation of the world, between our own creation at our birth, and the New creation that comes with a life in Christ, and the creation of a new heaven and new earth that is made real by the return of Christ in all his glory. For Paul this reality of Christ’s return was so real that he anticipated the coming of Christ in everyday life.
And again, it is this anticipation that Advent tries to instill in us by setting the stage with these texts. The stage is set so that we can understand – even just a little bit – how people in Jesus’ time were anticipating the arrival of the Christ, the Messiah.
Part 1 of 2 What do you think of when you hear the word “sacred?” Does it make you think of temples, idols, revered objects of some kind? Or does it make you think of people? People you know, people you respect, people you love? Sacred Spaces The truth is, the word “sacred” can apply…
The parable is concerned with how we understand justification. Now, in theological terms, to be justified means to be “righteous in God’s eyes.” And, justification is the word we use to describe how we become righteous in God’s eyes. That is, the word justification is all about what God sees when God looks at us, and this word – justification – is interested in explaining what it takes for any of us to become righteous in God’s eyes. How do we get there? How do we end up looking good to God?
In the movie, Forrest Gump, some bullies are throwing rocks at Forrest as he’s talking to his friend Jenny, and so she tells Forrest to run. But there’s a problem, because Forrest wore braces to correct a problem with his spine. And so he stumbles off, trying desperately to run, even though the leg braces…
The first thing that popped into my head when I was preparing this sermon was a scene from the old classic Princess Bride. The hero of the story has been killed, and Fezzik the Giant and Inigo Montoya take him to Miracle Max, a man who sells miracles, and gives them a giant pill to…
Just the other day, I went shopping at IKEA, and in the self-serve area, I managed to grab a shopping cart that had one of those wheels that seemed to have a mind of its own. Every time I hit a little seam in the concrete, the cart would dramatically swerve off in the direction of the rut. It ended up being more of a workout than a shopping experience.
Now, I suppose that I could have kicked that wheel repeatedly until it fell off, since it was causing my cart to stumble, but in the end, I just kept pulling the cart back into alignment. It was more work, but I was able to keep the cart in one piece that way.
There’s a story about an old man giving advice to a younger man about the battle of good and evil within him. I’m sure you’ve seen it either on social media, or had someone tell it to you at some point in your life. The story is about two wolves, and the one that wins the battle, the story says, is the one that a person feeds the most. I’d like you to take the general idea of this story, but instead of two wolves doing battle for your soul, I want you to think of two children. Because within each of us are two children that are battling for our souls.