You are Christ’s own forever… what does that mean for your life? Today, we start with the Gospel of Mark. And to get into the story, we need to remove from our memory any vestige of Christmas or the birth of Jesus or the journeying of the Magi. For Mark, the story of Jesus’ life…
The magi saw the star; they accepted that gift and gave in response to it.What will you do with the gift that you have been given this year? Find your star word here. Today’s Gospel reading is the familiar reading appointed for Epiphany, which we celebrate on January 6, the twelfth day of Christmas. That’s…
“Christ is born. He is born to us. And, He is born TODAY. For Christmas is not merely a day like every other day. It is a day made holy and special by a sacred mystery…. For today, God the Father makes all things new, in his divine Son, our redeemer.” Thomas Merton penned these…
Many thanks to the Rev. Matt Schultz for the foundations of this sermon. ’Twas the night before Christmas, and all through the townNot a person was stirring – We were all hunkered down.The masks were all hung from their ear-straps with care,In hopes that their vaccine doses soon would be there. The children were nestled…
How can our own fears prevent us from allowing God to work in our lives? What do we need to do in order to be more receptive to God’s presence in the world? Today marks the fourth Sunday of Advent, and our worship focus shifts from the return of Christ in glory to the celebration…
God’s love is for all… share it out loud! To be honest with you, my sermons are beginning to feel like a bit of a broken record. So let’s get this out of the way at the outset: the pandemic continues, it affects us greatly, and it has changed our celebration of Advent and Christmas….
Are you looking for God? And what does that mean for you? You might have heard the messages: “Only 19 more days until Christmas!” “Christmas comes in 19 more days!” “Are you ready? Did you buy for everyone on your list?” We hear these messages and many of us feel our hearts race. We might…
How much longer? About five more minutes… Today marks the beginning of the Church year, and in fact, today is kind of like the church’s New Year celebration. We begin the year with the season of Advent, an expectation for the coming of the Christ child, yes – at his birth over 2,000 years ago…
Examine your life and your lifestyle… Are you the lean sheep or the fat sheep? Today, the church ends the current year, and next week we begin anew as we experience Advent, undoubtedly in a different way from which we have experienced it before. Christ the King Sunday – or the celebration of the Reign…
Which servant are you? And what does that mean about how you go about your daily life in response? In an ironic twist of fate – or perhaps due to God’s intervention – we get this classic parable on a Sunday just after we have been shut down due to the global pandemic, which has…
“Keep awake therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour.” That’s Jesus’ parting line in the Gospel reading for today. How do you keep awake? Do you count sheep? Drink coffee? Set an alarm to go off regularly? The ancient writer Pliny, in The Natural History, writes, “During the night, also, [cranes] place…
I’d like to start today’s sermon with a story from Robert Fulghum, a Unitarian minister. The story goes like this: At the last session on the last morning of a two week seminar on Greek culture, the professor turned and made the ritual gesture: “Are there any questions?” He was greeted with silence. These two…
