1st Sunday after Christmas, Sunday, December 29th, 2019
God did not become incarnate in the son of Mary and Joseph to bring us a mid-winter festival of peace and contentment. No, God came into this world where families wander homeless and corrupt tyrants rule by murder and deceit. God broke into this world because this world needs a Savior for it cannot save itself. The slaughter of the innocent, the tears of Rachel weeping for her children, remind us that we live in the midst of brokenness. But in the midst of the brokenness, we also have work to do.
(A link to the YouTube video of this week’s service)
It seems that from the beginning, from as early as the book of beginnings, Genesis, God has been searching for us. Like Adam and Eve after eating the forbidden fruit we have tried to hide from God because we are naked and ashamed. But God loves us. God loves us, each and every one of us. And God has given to us the ministry of reconciliation. The world wants us to choose sides. But choosing sides is the Devil’s mischief because ol’ Scratch knows that if we are fighting with each other, we are not living into our call of reconciliation. The ministry of reconciliation is the Christian mission. Proclaiming God’s peace is the Christian’s calling. It is our sole work, no matter what our profession or calling. “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among all with whom God is pleased.”
The songs of Advent and the carols of Christmas will give way to the Cross of Calvary. There is an interesting thing in Bjorn Thorkelson’s painting. Both the manger and the shadow of the Cross are empty. Neither Christmas nor Good Friday has the last word. Death and Despair never have the last word. Easter does. “Because I live, you shall live also,” (John 14:19)
(A link to the YouTube video of this week’s service)
Third Sunday of Advent ~ Sunday, December 15th, 2019
So where is Christ? Christ is wherever there the least, the last, and the lost are found. Christ is where the hungry are fed, the homeless are sheltered, the spiritually blind are given insight, the sick, the dying, and the literally blind are cared for, where the lost are found, where the hopeless are given hope. Christ is in the midst of the world’s brokenness and Christ beckons us to be His Body, to be the Church, doing works of the Kingdom in His name and to the glory of God.
(A link to the YouTube video of this week’s service)
I think that stumps are fascinating things. We’ve cut several down in the flower beds of our yard. We even had a few ground “out”. The interesting thing about stumps is that just when you think that they are dead, just when you think that they are gone, a shoot pops up through the ground.
(A link to the YouTube video of this week’s service)
Christmas Cantata A Mass for the Shepherds By Karl Kempter Performed by the FFC Chancel Choir and Violinists: Marcia Henry Liebenow, Jane Hoffmire, Molly Wilson, and Casey Hoffmire
First Sunday of Advent ~ Sunday, December 1st, 2019
In first-century Israel, many people believed that God had been silent for a very long time. But that simply wasn’t the case. The people had become complacent. God spoke through the prophets, Isaiah and Jeremiah, Amos and Micah, and the other Old Testament prophets. But Israel grew deaf and ignored their words. At times they even killed the prophets who challenged them to live up to their calling. They chased not only foreign gods but became addicted through distraction. They cast out those who judged them. So God seemed silent but God wasn’t really silent. God just couldn’t be heard above the din of their own noise. The people had forgotten how to listen.
Reign of Christ Sunday ~ Sunday, November 24th, 2019
Over the next several months she asked herself “What difference does my faith make in my life? What impact does my faith have on my finances, my job, my family and my relationships?” Here’s a question for all of us to ask, “What difference would it make in my life if Christ truly was the King of Life?”
(A link to the YouTube video of this week’s service)
Twenty-third Sunday after Pentecost ~ Sunday, November 17th, 2019
Those who take Jesus seriously must, in the words of our epistle lesson, “Get to work doing what is right”, namely, working toward that day when the wolf and the lamb, the lion and the ox, when all of God’s children are secure, fed, housed, cared for, and beloved.
Twenty-second Sunday after Pentecost ~ Sunday, November 10th, 2019
I believe that he knew that God is not the God of the dead, but of the living and in God all are alive. I believe that he knew the truth of the Brief Statement of Faith, “In life and in death we belong to God.”
Once Jesus calls your name, once Jesus comes into your life, once you decide to take Jesus seriously and make him more than a Sunday thing, but an everyday thing; some every day things change everything.
(A link to the YouTube video of this week’s service)