Sermons on Life of Christ (Page 8)

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Created Beautiful and Messy

Luke 2:22-40 Happy Groundhog day! I understand that in Pennsylvania this morning, the groundhog did not see his shadow and so we can expect an early spring. It was the Germans and the Dutch who brought the tradition of Groundhog day to America. The tradition was probably originally based on a bear coming out of hibernation, but as bears became scarce it became a fox or a badger and that translated here to a Ground Hog. Ground hogs or no,…

Discipleship = Stewardship

Photo: Around the Sea of Galilee, Matson Collection [Public domain] Matthew 4:12-23 Today we take a second look at discipleship. Last week we heard the call of the first disciples as told in John’s Gospel – two of John the Baptizer’s disciples intrigued by John’s description of him, asked Jesus where he was staying to which he replied, Come and see. They went and stayed with him. I reflected on what it means to stay with Jesus the Christ and…

Come Thou Unexpected Jesus

Photo by Visit Greenland @ pexels.com Titus 2:11-14 Luke 2:1-14(15-20) I’ve been particularly enjoying the Christmas music this year.  On Sunday, Ann Lucas our musician played an arrangement of the hymn “Come thou long-expected Jesus” and my friend Jill was interested to realize that this was the same melody that we use for another hymn. As she was chatting about it she kept saying, “Come thou Unexpected Jesus” and I kept correcting her – “No, no,” I said, “It’s come…

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…

Grateful

Photo by Timothy Eberle @unsplash.com 2 Timothy 2:8-15 Luke 17:11-19 The grateful Samaritan – the one person who comes back and thanks Jesus is a foreigner. This is great gospel reading to have in our Season of Gratitude, with the Gratitude Dinner coming up this Friday and the celebration of St. Benedict, our patron saint, next Sunday. So let’s start this morning by thinking about things we’re grateful for. I’m grateful for the Saturday night eucharist, for coffee, for my…

Humility

When we think about St Benedict and his Rule or Way of Life, most of us think about balance or moderation or hospitality. Yet his longest chapter was about humility. In fact, he lists 12 steps of humility. Some of them are not immediately useful for us today, such as the one that says we should speak only when necessary and without laughter – after all we often associate gentle laughter with holiness; or the one that says that humility…

The Way of Love – Turn

Photo by Dewang Gupta@unsplash.com Acts 9:1-6, (7-20) John 21:1-19 I wonder who was the most astonished; Saul – soon to be known as Paul – when the light flashed from heaven and the voice said “Saul, “Saul, why do you persecute me?”;  Ananias when he had a vision telling him to go minister to Saul; or the disciples when they saw Jesus and pulled in an overflowing netfull of fish. God broke through into all their lives in unexpected and…

We are the Light of the World – Easter Vigil

Photo by Noah Silliman on unsplash.com I love this service. I love the excitement of bringing light into the dark church and the telling of stories and singing of songs gathered around the ritual flame. Tonight we remind ourselves that we are the people of God, as we recount our salvation history, renew our vows and then celebrate the first Eucharist of Easter, the foretaste of the heavenly banquet when we will all be gathered together and all will be…