This is the third week in our sermon series on the Angels of Advent and Christmas. And as we move through the Christmas Story we see that angels are messengers from God; that when something big happens – God sends His angels to tell us about it. The first week we heard the angel Gabriel’s…
Today is the second in a 5-part sermon series on the angels of Advent and Christmas. We are looking at stories within the Christmas story which contain angel appearances. A little review from last week: Angels appear all through out the Bible, both Old and New Testament; and especially it seems in the stories of…
Today we begin a series about the Angels of Advent and Christmas. Today – Gabriel appears to Zechariah to announce the birth of John, Jesus’ cousin. Next week Gabriel will visit Mary to announce Jesus’ birth The Sunday before Christmas – an unnamed angel visits Joseph Christmas Eve – the angels visit the shepherds the…
Perhaps you’ve heard the one about the burglar, who late one night, broke into a house that he thought was empty. He tiptoed through the living room but suddenly he froze in his tracks when he heard a loud voice say, “Jesus is watching you.” Silence returned to the house, so the burglar crept forward again. “Jesus is watching you,” the voice…
John 11:32-44 Here’s one many of us grew up with: Jesus Wept Now I lay me down to sleep, I pray the Lord my soul to keep. And if I die before I wake, I pray the Lord my soul to take. But the one my mother-in-law made in needlepoint for Sophia says this: Now I lay me down to sleep, I…
When All We Can Do Is Sing This past fall we observed the 25th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. And so there were the expected reviews in the news media of the events leading up to, surrounding, and following that remarkable and largely unforeseen event. One of the items that was routinely left out of those reviews, however, was…
In these weeks before Christmas, we’ve been making our way through the beloved Christmas carol, Joy to the World: And heaven and nature sing Repeat the sounding joy Far as the curse is found – and today we come to And wonders of his love. It is so interesting that one of the standard favorites of the Christmas carols, was NOT written…
Today is Christ the King Sunday, the last Sunday of the Christian year. We celebrate that because Christ emptied himself of the authority of God and humbled himself to the point of death on a cross, God has highly exalted him and given him the name that is above every name. Therefore every knee in heaven and on earth and under the…
It began a week ago Saturday with shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson MO and the ensuing events and escalating commentary. Then there was Robin Williams’ suicide on Monday; Lauren Bacall’s death on Wednesday; Market Basket standoff ultimatums offered and ignored. And that’s just here in the United States…. And when I read the assigned Bible readings for today – I just…
Go, baptize, teach, remember. With such basic instructions, I wonder how church got so complicated. We have committees, ministries, task forces, councils, conferences, doctrines, dogmas. Some churches even have courts and trials to enforce it all. This structure may have something to do with how we refine and revise our processes. New procedures are usually built on what came before. When we…