Sermons
Let us begin
Happy New Year! Again! One of the nice things about using the church calendar is getting two New Year celebrations. We had the beginning of the new liturgical year a few weeks ago and we are now into a new calendar year too. I don’t tend to make resolutions, nothing wrong with them but if last January was any indication, we are fooling ourselves if we think we have a…
We are all in the family
Merry Christmas! We are all in the family, the same family. Our New Testament lesson for today makes it very clear, “God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, in order to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as children.” (Galatians 4:4b-5 NRSV) This is the reason, among a few others I suppose, we refer to each other as…
Love. It is still all you need.
The Fourth Sunday of Advent is today and is the Sunday of Love. What a great Sunday to end with. We begin with hope and end with love, sounds like a perfect relationship. “Life in a prison cell may well be compared to Advent. One waits, hopes, and does this, that, or the other—things that are of no real consequence—the door is shut, and can be opened only from the…
We don’t have to choose
The Third Sunday of Advent is the Sunday of Joy. Joy is one of those tricky words because it has perfectly acceptable casual uses but also more technical uses. Happiness and joy are often considered synonyms and used as such with no difficulty. However, there is a deeper meaning to “joy” that connects us to more than our current circumstances. Happiness is our reaction to what is going on with…
Is it here yet?
We are on to our second Sunday of Advent, the Sunday of Peace. It almost seems unkind to have to think about peace in these days. Oh, I know, I’m not in an active combat zone but there is still a noticeable lack of peace in many places and people I encounter. One of the titles of Jesus Christ is “Prince of Peace.” Shouldn’t peace be here by now? I…
Hope for a new year!
It is a new year, really. Not a new calendar but a new Liturgical year, a new church year. Even though the church uses the same calendar you use for lots of things, the church year is different from the calendar. It begins with the First Sunday of Advent, which this year is November 29 (today, as I type). Each Sunday in Advent, there are four, has a traditional theme….
Serving the King
Christ the King Sunday is the last Sunday in the liturgical year. It doesn’t lead, at least not always, to the kind of introspection December 31st can. This year it led me to think about what it means to serve a monarch. If we are thinking in terms of a “traditional” monarch, an historical king like Henry VIII of England or queen like Isabella of Spain, the first thing to…
Everyone wants a schedule
Even people who hate being told what to do, who hate being constrained, tend to like a schedule. They might not want anyone to schedule them but they probably want to know when other people are available or around. It shouldn’t surprise us that we want to know what is coming up. When we think of upcoming events we need to know when they are actually happening so we can…
Remembering and choosing
Today was Remembrance Sunday. Not every church or denomination observes Remembrance Sunday, usually the Sunday before November 11, and I have no quarrel with choosing not to when it is a well thought out position. I am glad to be part of a denomination and two congregations who think it is important. The only “special” addition to the service is the observation of two minutes of silence. Two minutes is…
Reformation and the Greatest Commandments
Today is Reformation Sunday. This is a bigger thing for Presbyterians and Lutherans than for some other, perfectly fine, denominations. I like Reformation Sunday because in an alternate universe I am an historian and in this universe historical things interest me. I am grateful for an understanding of the context in which I find myself and a sense of where I came from as a Presbyterian. All that being said,…