Love
Picture by Carlos Quintero, unsplash.com Matthew 1:18-25 Love. It’s the reason for the season. It’s the center of the Christian narrative. Not sin nor guilt nor judgment but incredible love. Creation has been described as the pillow-talk of the Trinity. We were conceived in love and created in love and we are nourished in love. Here are some of our central understandings: “For God so loved the world that he sent his only begotten-son that all who believe in him…
Joy!
Photo by Delfino Barboza @Unsplash.com One of the ways that I know there is a long way ahead of me on the spiritual path is when I see holy men like the Dalai Lama and Desmond Tutu laugh. These are people who have experienced great suffering both personally and as part of an oppressed people. Yet they can laugh and laugh. It seems that joy is the mark of a child, and also of a spiritual master. It is…
Peace
Photo by Alice Donovan Rouse@unsplash.com Isaiah 11:1-10 Matthew 3:1-12 What does peace look like? When you imagine peace what does it look like or what does it feel like? Today’s reading from Isaiah gives us a lyrical if unlikely image of peace, The wolf shall live with the lamb, the leopard shall lie down with the kid, the calf and the lion and the fatling together, and a little child shall lead them. The cow and the bear shall graze,…
Hope
Photo by Kelly Sikkema @ unsplash.com Isaiah 2:1-5 Romans 13:11-14 Matthew 24:36-44 I read in the news this morning the sad story of Ron, a man in Maine, who rigged a pistol in his front door so that anyone who tried to enter would be shot. Unfortunately, he made a mistake – I don’t know the details – but on Thanksgiving he walked into his own booby trap, was shot by the pistol and later died of his wounds. This…
Reconciled
Today we celebrate the Reign of Christ! This is the last Sunday of the Church’s year so today we remind ourselves that at the end of time everything will be brought into balance, the earth will be redeemed, Creation will sing for joy, the dead will be raised and we all get to live happily ever after! So it’s a bit jarring to hear the gospel reading from Luke where Jesus is hanging on the cross being mocked -this is…
Is Your God too Small?
Photo by Frances Gunn @unsplash.com Luke 20:27-38 Let’s begin with a riddle: Picture this scene: There was a car wreck. It was the fault of a man in a small car who darted out in front of a big car causing the big car to crash through a store window. The people in the small car were not hurt. In the big car there was one person injured and one person dead. A manslaughter charge was never filed against…
A New Earth
Note: the audio starts in the middle of the sermon, about para 5 Isaiah 65:17-25 Luke 21:5-19 In today’s gospel reading, Jesus talks about the troubles that are to come. Scholars have often thought that this, and its parallel passages in the other gospels, were probably added later, after the fall of Jerusalem and the destruction of the temple in the year 70 CE, with words kind of put in Jesus’ mouth. That may be the case, but in the…
Called to be the Holy Ones of God
Photo by Borna Bervanda @unsplash.com
Living from both pockets
Photo by Matthew Smith @ unsplash.com Text: Luke 18:9-14 Purpose: We recognize both the Pharisee and the toll collector, both the saint and the sinner within ourselves. Prayer: Guard my lips and guide our hearts, O God, our help and our rock. Some days everything goes right. Some days everything goes wrong! Some mornings we awake and say “Good morning, God.” Other days it’s more like, “Good God, it’s morning.” On those good days, it’s sunshine and blue skies, no…