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…
Hope in the Darkness
Welcome to Advent – today is the first Sunday of the church’s year. And welcome to the first paradox of the year. Today’s key word as we lit our Advent wreath was “Hope” yet the hope in these readings seems hidden in a description of human difficulty. I have mentioned before that my brother, an Anglican priest, faithfully sent out a Christmas letter each year in which he talked about normal things like the achievements of his children, but always…
Feed them with Justice
Ezekiel 34:11-16, 20-24 Matthew 25:31-46 We are all familiar with this gospel story of the end time when the sheep and the goats will be separated, but less familiar I think with the Old Testament reading. You will remember that Ezekiel was a contemporary of Jeremiah’s who prophesied the fall of Jerusalem, and then was exiled into Babylon when it happened. Ezekiel was unusual in that he was given to visions, in addition to hearing the word of the Lord…
80lbs of silver
Matthew 25:14-30 As the church year comes to an end, our readings have taken a turn towards the end of time with warnings to be on our guard, to be ready, to be prepared. This morning’s parable is one of these stories, warning us of what will happen if we get it wrong. I expect that you have heard this story of the talents before – it’s a favorite of Sunday School teachers because it seems to have such a…