Sermons

Advent 1: Nov. 27, 2016 St. Peter’s, Great Falls Lectionary Listen to a portion of our first reading today: excerpt Isaiah ‘Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob; that he may teach us his ways and that we may walk in his paths.’ … they shall beat their swords into ploughshares, and their spears into pruning-hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more. O house of Jacob, come, let us walk in the light of the Lord! Our second reading invites us to “wake from our sleep” – to be alert to God’s work around us and the Gospel urges us to prepared for the “Son of man coming at an unexpected hour” 4 Sundays hearing from Isaiah: What I plan to do for the next 4 weeks is to prepare for Christmas through Advent by listening to the prophet Isaiah. This week: Mountain of the Lord, swords into plowshares Next week: a shoot shall come forth from the stump of Jesse 3rd week: make stra...

Church Sun, Nov 20, 2016 St. Paul's lectionary make us good stewards provide for us a wandering Aramean was my ancestor rejoice in the Lord always whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is pleasing, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. I am the bread of life What we "ought" to do At a young age I remember being taught that I ought to be grateful -- for any number of things. I ought to write thank you notes. I ought to appreciate all that my parents -- or teachers -- or ?? did for me. For the most part I don't think it worked very well. On the other hand, I am curious to figure out when did I learn actually become grateful ? At what point did I exercise gratitude? Being grateful It had to be connected with receiving a gift and knowing that I didn't somehow deserve it. Had earned it or it belonged to me. When I g...

Church Sun, Nov 13, 2016: St. Paul’s lectionary Holy Scripture written for us I shall build a new Heavens – focus on Jerusalem – no more the sound of weeping the wolf and the lamb shall lie down together the stones of the temple thrown down – when you hear of wars and resurrection – nation will rise against nation they will arrest you The Bible and the Times “This past week has been an emotional and turbulent one for many people in our nation.” We had an election last week. … you probably noticed. Perhaps the greatest 20^th^ c. theologians, Karl Barth, said that sermons should be written with the Bible in one hand and the newspaper in the other. He came to that conclusion after watching his German Evangelical Church first support the Kaiser in his war-making effort in the 1^st^ World War and then much more alarmingly support the rise of Adolph Hitler. The events of the past week require me to look at the Bible and the newspaper at the same time....

Nov. 6 (All Saints Sunday) lectionary Haggai – Thessalonians Again we hear from a prophet whose name comes with many different pronunciations. My teacher enforcing the British pronunciation made us say “Hay’-gay-ai”. As I previewed the passage last week, I smiled because it was a perfect example text for my Old Testament class. The timing was perfect – In the second year of King Darius ,… . The prophet looks back at a nation, a religious faith, a way of life, an extended family – that had been utterly destroyed. He looks and sees a time to come: “Once again, in a little while, I will shake the heavens and the earth and the sea and the dry land; and I will shake all the nations, so that the treasure of all nations shall come, and I will fill this house with splendor, says the Lord of hosts.” Remembering the past glory, promising a coming splendor and glory Second coming, delay of parousia Now he is God not of the dead, but of the living; for to him all of them are alive.” Hag...