Maxine and I missed being with you last week, on the first Sunday of the New Year. As we think of this New Year that we will walk together, many of us would like to know what kind of a year will it be? How will we succeed in our mission to reach out to our community as the hands and feet of Jesus? Might a few more people want to come and join us? There’s the ever practical question, will we keep up our finances? Do we have any grounds to be optimistic? This morning’s scripture lessons are the… Continue reading →

It’s Christmas Day, the culmination of all the hope, all the peace, all the joy, and all the love of Advent. Of course, we don’t actually know when Jesus was born, but Christians have been celebrating it about now for many centuries. It really doesn’t matter much at what time of year it was. What is important is that, in this event, “The hopes and fears of all the years are met in thee tonight.” One of my friends often says that at Christmas God stepped onto our planet with eternal consequence. As a convinced Christian, I, of course, think… Continue reading →

On the Third Sunday of Advent, we light the only candle on the circumference of the wreath that isn’t purple–it’s pink–and it represents that which stands out on the wreath and in life. It’s for joy. That’s because joy, though not the same as silliness and giggles, often shows up “on our outsides.” That’s also one reason we celebrate Gaudy Sunday by wearing bright clothes; to emphasize that we do intend our inner joy to be outwardly obvious. That joy and joyful energy are important is shown by the fact that, in the Old Testament alone, there are more than… Continue reading →

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to… Continue reading →

Another season of Advent has begun, and so, we lit the first purple candle on our Advent Wreath today. We do it every year. And when we light this first one, we remind ourselves that this new season – this new church year – begins in and with this thing called hope. The last time I addressed you, I talked about the fact that there is no question that God is creating a new everything, but that the path to appreciating and appropriating that wonderful new everything is often an upward one, progress along which is only made, in the… Continue reading →

The Gospel reading contains a story of Jesus and some folks who were looking at the Jerusalem Temple. It reminded me of a group of tourists visiting Washington DC, and commenting about one of the many monuments and memorials, “My isn’t this impressive and lovely.” Jesus responded to them, not that the temple wasn’t these things, but that, as lovely and impressive as it was, that “the days would come when not one stone will be left upon another, all will be thrown down.” That must have sounded almost irreligious and unpatriotic. It led Jesus to talk about two separate,… Continue reading →

Well, the day after tomorrow is election day. Some say it’s the most important election in a century (or ever!?). I think many of us have been overwhelmed by the unprecedented negativity, personal attacks, general nastiness and lack of civility in the last months. I also think that many of us are at least as worried about what happens next, with the possibility of violence at the polls and later. We hear rumours that, already plans are afoot in Washington to make the next President’s term unpleasant and difficult. And, so, the gridlock with which we ended will be that… Continue reading →

As I’ve said, today is All Saints Sunday. According to the New Testament, saints are followers of Jesus. They don’t have to qualify in special ways, but are garden variety followers of the Carpenter of Nazareth. Today’s lessons speak of how spiritual life, or following Jesus, is supposed to work out. There is to be a continuity between the worship we do “in here,” and the work we do “out there.” Many people think that it’s, sometimes, easier to see this in the Gospels and the New Testament than it is in the Old. After a lifetime of teaching the… Continue reading →

Here we are, almost at the end of October. Of course, here in the Midwest, the weather can be unpredictable, but this year, we’ve had a wonderful, warm autumn season to this point. So, I’m glad to think about Psalm 65 today, which is a public or community confession that it is God who gives the goodness we experience in life. It is good to be reminded that the Bible does not look at the world as “evil, fallen, nature” that exists apart from God, but as a good work of God done for human blessing. It is the very… Continue reading →