No wonder Isaiah called it “land of deep darkness.” It wasn’t an ethnic or racial epithet. It was a reference to just how difficult and gloomy life had become there, and there appeared to be no likelihood of any improvement in the near future. Things never substantially improved for this region of Palestine, even centuries later by the time of Jesus.
There is so much hidden in the words that we use when saying hello that we often overlook their complexity. We can tell, for example, when someone is genuinely glad to see us or when our appearance is a burden. We know whether we can continue from where we left off the last time together – whether that was a day ago, or a week, or ten years – or whether we have to start all over and repair what was broken.
God, however, wants to be known. God wants to be recognized on the streets, and God wants to receive a million likes. And Christmas is about the lengths to which God will go to be known and loved. Rather than relying on a Tik Tok video, the Bible tells us that “the Word became flesh and lived among us.”
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Our world has changed. It didn’t happen overnight, but it was happening beyond our awareness, beyond our ability to understand. It seems that the Coronavirus that has so profoundly re-shaped our world—our communities, our social interactions, our economy—can be traced back to late last year in a South China seafood market in Wuhan, China. A 33 year old ophthalmologist named Li Wenliang first observed the contagion in his work at a hospital in December and warned his colleagues...
Today we place side-by-side the events of Palm Sunday and Holy Thursday. If we were here together, we might have tried walking around our worship space waving palm branches, following our children and singing “Hosanna, Loud Hosanna.” That’s what your worship planners had intended for this morning: a joyful celebration that you and I share each year with varying degrees of enthusiasm as we each take a palm branch and wave it around in our own unique way...
Last week we talked about the woman who anointed Jesus’ head with the precious nard. The scent filled the room. We brought many of my mother-in-law’s belongings to our house almost 2 years ago now, to figure out what to do with them when we had to move her into a nursing home because of her Alzheimer’s. Her clothing, her blankets, pillows, even her knick-knacks, I think, brought her perfume with them. Now and then, I still catch a scent of the fragrance she enjoyed wearing...
It’s an over-the-top gift; pure extravagance. An expression of love; an outpouring of emotion. Perhaps you’ve been the recipient of an expression of love such as this. Perhaps you’ve felt that outpouring of love yourself: a straight-from-the-heart desire to somehow express tangibly what your words can’t quite describe. The woman didn’t care who was there, who saw it. She didn’t care what they thought. She needed to tell him, to show him, so he’d know. It seems that this woman...
The first risk for us comes as we discover the placement of this story is very different in the synoptic Gospels—Matthew, Mark and Luke—and in the Gospel of John. First, “synoptic” basically means “a general summary” and the first 3 Gospels pretty much summarize the same stories of Jesus, but from the different perspectives of the 3 biblical writers. It’s believed that Matthew and Luke both base their writings on Mark and also have a third resource that we call “Q,” a collection...
I am so often unable to come up with just the right response at just the right time, particularly if I know I’m being set up. There will be all that activity swirling around in my head of the various possibilities of what I might say as well as the how the other person could respond, and later that afternoon, or as I’m driving home—there it is. Yes, that’s it! Got it! But it’s too late now. Not so helpful an hour or so after the fact. But Jesus knows exactly what to say. He has the perfect response...
What did you see the last time you went to a parade? The last parade Scott and I attended was in the French Quarter of New Orleans during Mardi Gras on February 1st. Chewbacchus, it was called, sponsored by the Intergalactic Krewe of Chewbacchus, was glitz and glamour, and a little wild and wooly, family-friendly (which isn’t always the case during Mardi Gras), and I believe was related to super-heroes, Star Wars and other-world warriors. It was a little hard to tell...
I remember the first time I saw mountains. Scott and I were married by then, and we were driving to Denver to check out the seminary he planned to attend. We had driven through the flatlands of Iowa and Nebraska and were in eastern Colorado. There wasn’t a lot to see, pretty desolate with many miles between towns and people, all of which seemed to be a long way off the main highway. And then at one point I remember seeing a dark place ahead, above the horizon...
Perhaps you have heard it said (or have thought yourself), “Being a Christian just makes sense. Your life will go better if you sign on with Jesus.” But I say to you that if you listen to Jesus, if you take his teachings seriously, then you will find your life becoming a bit more complex and complicated. Take today’s gospel for instance… You have heard it said, Jesus says to the people gathered ‘round listening to him teach. You have heard it said: it’s important to try to be compassionate and caring...
On Sunday the church gathers. Christians hold their lights up. We talk about the light. We educate our children about the light. We hold instructional seminars about how to light the world more effectively. We vow to proclaim the light to the world. On Monday through Saturday, the church scatters—into the marketplace, schools, homes and community—to carry the light. As Jesus’ followers and God’s ambassadors, we bear His light. Jesus’ strategy always involved believers being light...
Please pray with me: Lord, we pray, speak in this place, in the calming of our minds and the longing of our hearts, by the words of my lips and in the thoughts that we form. Speak, O Lord, for your servants listen. Amen. When I was a kid, I remember a time when my mother decided to make up some chocolate nut fudge or something very tasty like that. She had all these wonderful ingredients assembled on her kitchen counter, all these lovely smells wafted around the room, she was busy...
There’s a commercial on television right now that portrays a slightly less creepy than other recent commercials of Matthew McConaughey ice-fishing. (I always thought he was pretty cool, but here recently, his commercials in my opinion have been pretty creepy). He sets everything up and then sits in a fancy SUV until a flag triggers that he’s caught something in the fishing hole he’s drilled. It’s all very different from the way my grandpa used to fish. Grandpa was a man who loved to fish, no matter what...
Hopefully, I’m not the only one who ever does this: I’ll be in the kitchen and decide I need something in my study. It’s maybe, 10-12 steps away. I’m not singularly focused, of course, thinking about all kinds of things.I pick up this piece of mail to take back with me, turn off that light that’s on for no good reason on the way back. No need to waste energy. I step inside my study and stop—and realize I have no idea what I went back there to do. I look around a bit, thinking it will come to me. It doesn’t...
A lot has happened as we’ve worshiped in these past few weeks! Jesus was born in Bethlehem and we were told of his birth by hosts of angels and bright stars. The child and his mother and father were visited by three wise men who brought them gifts. Mary and Joseph and the infant Jesus fled to Egypt in terror of King Herod and his murderous rage. The family settled in Nazareth and Jesus grew up. In the same way that our children’s growing up years seem to speed by...
The painting on the front of our worship folders and on the screen before you is entitled “Holy Family” and was painted by Rembrandt in the 17th century. It portrays the nativity as if it were taking place during that time period. Mary and Joseph’s clothing and furnishings are what one would find in a typical Dutch home from Rembrandt’s own day. Mary is seated with an open well-thumbed book, presumably the scriptures, held open by her left hand. Her right hand...
It seems as though we ought be able to bask in the wonder of it all for awhile, doesn’t it? It was only a few days ago, we were singing the carols we love so much: “Silent Night, holy night, all is calm, all is bright.” “O, little town of Bethlehem, how still we see thee lie.” We think of angels and shepherds, of “deep and dreamless sleep, as silent stars go by.” We’ve created in our minds a beautiful setting of a young handsome couple and their perfect child, a crude manger...
Over the past several weeks in worship—and now tonight—we’ve been lighting candles, singing carols, listening to the words and poetry of the prophets, passed down through the ages, preparing ourselves for the birth of Jesus: for the coming of God in the flesh into our lives and our world. It has been a joyful time, a busy time as it always is, as we try to do too much in too short of a time frame. This year I was giving thanks that Thanksgiving was a week later than usual, until...
From the very beginning, from his inception/conception (when he was just a twinkle in his daddy’s eye), Jesus began disordering/disrupting the world. Of course, to begin with, it was a very small piece of the world, but 2 lives that had intended to join together to create a new family were suddenly changed when Mary, and then Joseph, learned that Mary was pregnant. Last week, in the gospel of Luke, we experienced Mary’s response to the...
An angel appears to Mary, telling her that she will give birth to a son. Initially frightened by the angel’s appearance, he soothes her, telling her not to be afraid, because she has found favor with God. The promise of the angel is that: He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High, and the Lord will give to him the throne of his ancestor David. He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end...
“Joy to the world, the Lord is come!” I’ve already heard this much-loved Christmas carol played a number of times—along with others—in the stores where I’ve shopped, for several weeks now. We’ve grown accustomed to Thanksgiving decorations being set up before Halloween, soon followed by the red and green and gold glitters and sparkles of Christmas...
Questions are asked for all kinds of reasons. We might ask a question because we’re curious, we’d like more information, we’d like to get to know someone a little better. Sometimes questions are asked to clarify, to make sure the other person has received the information we’re trying to share, to be sure they understand what we’re saying—like the questions a teacher will...
People in the crowd can see what’s going to happen. They begin to smile in anticipation. Some of the folks in the crowd gently elbow the people on their right and left and whisper, “Wait till you see this!” The rabbi from Nazareth, the traveling preacher, is coming through town on his way to Jerusalem. This rabbi, unlike most of the others, never swallows the truth in order to be polite...
Have you heard the story of the man who came to the gates of heaven to be greeted by Saint Peter? Peter asks the man if he can give a brief history of his life with an emphasis on the good deeds he’s done in order to gain entrance into the kingdom of heaven. “You will need 1000 points to be admitted,” Peter tells the man. “This will be a cinch,” the man thinks to himself...
Mary Ann Cain is one of my favorite people. She is a lay-person, she’s wise, full of vim and vinegar, well-read, and devoted to Christ and His Church. She was our Director of Adult Ministries or Education or some such title when I served in Elkhart, and she continued to serve until she retired some years after I headed off to a new congregation. I remember in some setting...
