The Time has Grown Short
Jonah 3:1-5, 10 1 Corinthians 7:29-31 Mark 1:14-20 I confess that I procrastinate. This will not be news to most of you. Before my brain really kicks in to get something done, I have to develop a sense of urgency. Today’s readings all have a sense of urgency – “the appointed time has grown short”, “the time is fulfilled”. You would think that even someone as dedicated to challenging deadlines as I, would get that something is up. But…
God Is Calling
1 Samuel 3:1-10(11-20) John 1:43-51 When I was in my late teens and wondering what to do with my life I was told by lovely people that God’s will for me was clearly laid out in the Bible. I was frustrated by that because no matter which way I read the Bible it did not tell me the answer to my burning question: what was I to do with my life? We tend to think about Christian vocation as being…
Steeped in the River of Humanity
Mark 1:4-11 What a week it has been. I am sure that like me you were shocked and sickened by the scenes of people storming the Capitol and even more so by men who should know better inciting the crowds with inflammatory rhetoric. Whether this is the end of something or the beginning of something we can all agree that it is not the way we expect people to behave in this society. Over the past few years, the norms…
Do You Know Where Your Wise Men Are?
Ephesians 1:3-6,15-19a Matthew 2:1-12 It’s 10:45 in the morning. Do you know where your Wise Men are? If you set Wise Men out with a Nativity scene this year, Where are your Wise Men today? Perhaps they have been carefully packed away. Perhaps they are standing vigil around or close to the creche. Perhaps they are still on their way and placed A little distant yet from the birth scene, Since the Feast of Epiphany is still to…
Hearing the Full Song
The world is, in my mind, divided into two kinds of people – those who hear background music and those who don’t. I am in the latter group. I can be shopping with Jill and she will start humming a song and ask whether I remember it – and when I ask what made her think of it she says, “They’re playing it now – can’t you hear it?” and then yes I can discern the melody above my thoughts…
Incarnation Now
This morning we gather to remember and celebrate the incarnation – the time when God became human. We remember the baby Jesus coming out of the womb, wet, bloody and probably yelling; and his young mother wrapping him tightly and placing him in the manger. Sometimes I realize that I’m thinking of Jesus the Christ as being a part of God that somehow got detached. Rather like when you take a snip of a geranium and plant it and it…
Emmanuel in hard times
Luke 2:1-14(15-20) What a year its been! Or more accurately, what a nine months it’s been! For just about as long as Mary was pregnant with Jesus, we have been living with the coronavirus and the restrictions, fear. Illness and death that it has brought. And so we come to this special night: the night when we remember the birth of Jesus the Christ as a tiny baby in the Middle East. When I think of the Middle East I…
Obedience and Surrender
There are some glitches in the audio this week, sorry Romans 16:25-27 Luke 1:26-38 Have you ever wondered what would have happened if Mary had not been willing? If Mary had said “I’m sorry, I just can’t do that”? Or whether Mary was the first woman that Gabriel was sent to, or whether she was the last to be approached because she was the first to say yes? We will ever know the answer to those questions. We simply know…
A Voice in the Wilderness
1 Thessalonians 5:16-24 John 1:6-8,19-28 When asked who he is, John the Baptizer quotes from Isaiah, I am the voice of one crying out in the wilderness, ‘Make straight the way of the Lord,’ and these words have become so familiar to us that its easy to gloss right over them. But imagine that you live in a wilderness area – somewhere where its hard to live, you don’t see many people, but you just about get by. Perhaps you’re…
Goat Walking to Bethlehem
Isaiah 40:1-11 Mark 1:1-8 Psalm 85:1-2, 8-13 Prepare the way, O Zion Your Christ is coming near. Let every hill and valley a level way appear. Greet one who comes in glory, foretold in sacred story. O, blest is Christ that came in God’s most holy name. Advent hymns dwell in my head this time of year And I diligently try to not let them Get pushed aside by Christmas Carols. I think today’s readings are my favorite…