The most popular Christmas song of all time has nothing whatsoever to do with Jesus. The song is “White Christmas,” the song written by Irving Berlin in 1942 during WWII. He wrote it for a musical called “Holiday Inn.” It was recorded by Bing Crosby and became an instant hit with the…
Every birth is preceded by a conception and a pregnancy. My point is theological, not biological. Before the Word made Flesh appeared in a manger in Bethlehem, He dwelled among us in the womb of His mother for nine months. That’s the focus of this morning - the plain fact that…
John the Baptizer, witness, forerunner, way-preparer. He came in the wilderness to prepare people for the coming of Christ. John was a prophet, standing in the breach, with one foot in the old covenant, one foot in the new. John was a plow, cutting through the hard pack, turning over the soil…
From palms to passion, from shouts of Hosanna to cries for crucifixion. This Sunday has everything. It begins with the waving of palm branches in procession, it ends with the cross. We call it Passion Sunday, the older, more historic name for Palm Sunday. Palms are part of our Lord’s Passion,…
There are three signs this morning that tell me it’s the second Sunday in Advent. Two candles burning on the Advent wreath. John the Baptizer emerging from the wilderness to preach a baptism of repentance. And Nancy Clarke with her oboe. It just isn’t Advent without the sound of that oboe.…
Happy New Year! No, I haven’t slipped a month. Nor did you slip into a turkey induced coma and sleep right through the so-called “holiday season.” Today is the Feast of St. Andrew, the brother of Peter, one of the fishermen-disciples of Jesus. And falling on a Sunday, it’s also the…
We are at the end. The Sunday of the Fulfillment. The last Sunday of the church year. Next week, if there is a next week, we start all over again with Advent, looking toward the second appearing of Christ as we prepare to celebrate His first appearing. But today marks the…
Today’s readings for the 2nd to the last Sunday of the church year have a little something for everyone.
For the lawyer, we have the scene from the book of Daniel, and the heavenly courtroom. The Father, the Ancient of Days, is seated on His throne, with brilliant white clothing, and white,…
The final countdown, the last three Sundays of the year, the last days. Our thoughts turn to eschatology, words about the end. Today’s readings all deal with the end, each in their own way. The reading from Hebrews reminds me a bit of my 8th grade art teacher. She believed that…
Distinctions. We make them all the time. We distinguish body and soul, Law and Gospel, justification and sanctification, the two natures of Christ, faith and good works. We make distinctions because our mouths don’t multi-task. Nor do our brains, no matter how much we kid ourselves. You can only talk and…