Sermons

  Christmas https://www.lectionarypage.net/YearABC_RCL/Christmas/ChrsDay1_RCL.html These are not the circumstances I expected for a Christmas message. Like all of you I was caught off-guard when in the span of 24 hours it seemed clear that we would have to move back to being church virtually. I am speaking to you now, trying to reach into your homes through the wonder of modern technology, while what most of us are probably most aware of is the distance between us. I do know, however, that each of us is doing the best we can with the deck of cards that we have been dealt. The wonder of God's work in us is precisely that God takes who and what we are and works with that. God isn't finished with any of us. Opening It’s Christmas. The season of Christmas will stretch for 12 days. It’s all around us and its impact stretches as far as we can see. The supply chain, the success of the economy, images of lights and candles, and stories of generosity and self giving, -- all of ...

Advent 4 Opening It's so often happens that I am boggled in my mind with what we say and read in church. I think did we really say that? Did we really mean that? Take, for example, the Collect of the day we opened our liturgy with. Purify our conscience, Almighty God, by your daily visitation , that your Son Jesus Christ, at his coming , may find in us a mansion prepared for himself ; who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen. We just let it roll off our tongues. But listen! In just the most simple sort of way, we acknowledge that Almighty God comes to me everyday. I can imagine that might be a kind of theoretical statement whereby we acknowledge that God the creator of the universe is somehow maybe in the universe itself present. But with me? When I'm getting out of bed, groggy from sleep and wanting a cup of coffee? Me when I'm crabby or impatient? But we are claiming that God comes to visit me in order to prepa...

  Tis the season It is Advent. We are swiftly moving through Advent, now. The time is running short. Do you feel the pressure? Maybe your goal is to be ready to travel wherever you're going for Christmas. Perhaps it is to get things in the mail on time. I know in our house we've missed deadlines related to Christmas by weeks and even months. Such is the season. Why is it that the harder we try the behinder we get? What are the barriers that somehow we erect to hinder ourselves in going forward? Advent a time for self-examination Advent is precisely the time for asking those kinds of questions. It is a time for looking at ourselves with sharp eyes. And it is a time of becoming more sharply aware of what is the goal. And the goal isn't really about letters, or packing, or any of the myriad things we fill our days with. The goal is our encounter with the living God. Paul to Philippians Paul seems to present us with a list of things of that order. rejoice always D...

  Advent 2 lectionary Opening It was many years ago. I was still a youth. I'm not sure where I learned it. Was it that I had a physician and a nurse for parents? Was it that I was an oldest child? Was it learning about people like Mother Teresa? I don't know. But I knew, deep down, that the lives we lived were not primarily for ourselves, for our enjoyment or fulfillment, but for others. Man for others was the title of an address by the head of the Jesuits in 1973. 1 I also may have heard it in connection with the movement of the 90's, focused on men and led by the football coach of the Colorado University football team: Promise Keepers Called to prepare the way We are not here for ourselves. We are here for those who come after us. That is a startling thing to acknowledge. It is shocking to try to put it into practice. If we are not for ourselves but for others, it is clear that we are not not even here for our generation, but for those we will not even meet in t...