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Showing posts from December, 2017

he comes to make his blessings flow

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far as the curse if found A Christmas Sermon from Luke's Nativity This is the night of our dear savior’s birth! …and all the while, the world is busy doing what it does best; counting . …Yeah, counting… Emperor Augustus does what emperors do; keeps track. Keeps count .   He organizes a census to count all the world’s population… And everyone goes along with it, too. All go back to the towns of their ancestry to be enrolled in the latest survey…   But , while the world was going about its business as usual, “the time came for Mary to deliver her child…” While the world is busy counting; the one who refuses to to count is born !   Mary gives birth to Jesus . Jesus who, as St. Paul once put it, “does not count our trespasses against us!” On the night when all the world is counting, the one who doesn’t count is born! Jesus who refuses to count our trespasses against us! The irony! While the Emperor tries to count his kingdom, another king is

everybody's got a hunger

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a hunger they can't resist a sermon from Isaiah 55 : Well, time is quickly running out ; isn’t it? All that’s left are seven measly days before Christmas…   Are you ready? Do you have everything in order? Are the gifts bought and wrapped? Are the lights up? Have you decided on the menu? Are all the ingredients in the cupboards? Is the schedule set? Are the in-laws happy with it? Do you think the kids will survive it all without a meltdown? * Are you stressed out yet ? Or is it too late for that, even ? Yes, time is quickly running out. And the truth is we’re not ready, are we? Not yet, anyway.   We’re counting on these seven last days. We need them if we’re going to get everything done in time! There’s so much to do, and every second helps… And I hate to say it, but why should this season be any different from the rest?   Because we live our lives by the clock, don’t we? All the appointments to keep. The deadlines to make. The seconds to sneak u

like the holiest dream, there's someone calling

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an angel whispers my name A sermon from Ezekiel's vision of a valley filled with bones:  On my left calf I bear a scar from a muscle biopsy.   But the truth is, that scar reveals more than the vestiges of some operation… I’ve always walked up on my toes ever since I was a baby.   At first, my mom thought it’d go away when I became a better walker. But as I continued to grow, I kept walking that way.   So my mom she mentioned it to the pediatrician. But he said I’d grow out of it once I noticed how other kids walked.   He was only half right, though. Yes, I learned I walked differently, but I couldn’t do anything to stop it! I’d remember I was walking funny and make a few conscious efforts to correct it, but in a moment or two my mind would drift and I’d be on my toes again. * I mean, how often do you think about the way you walk ? So we went to specialists… And we tried a bunch of different things, but each one was as ineffective as the last. So f

high on the spirit, hopped up & mystic

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after the flame baptism you're fearless An alternate sermon for Advent 1 from Daniel 3 Today begins Advent already. Did you know that? Are you ready for it??? And it’s pretty bad when you aren’t even ready to get ready … But, as the rest of the world is gearing up for another packed holiday season; we in the church are getting ready for the end of the world… No stories of chestnuts roasting over an open fire. No, instead a piece of scripture about an overheated furnace and three martyrs… …Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego had did what Jeremiah told exiles to do. Remember? Settle in.   And they did, they got jobs. Took out mortgages. Got married. Had kids. And, by all accounts, they had done pretty well for themselves. They landed jobs at the foreign government. The climbed the ladder to positions of relative authority, even… But, for all their efforts, all it took was one rash decision by their pagan king, to bring it all crashing down. King Nebuc

let the light banish darkness

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he shall bring salvation to israel A sermon for the First Sunday of Advent, from the third chapter Daniel's scroll Today begins Advent . Before you got here today did you know that? Are you ready for Advent??? Of course, we’re not ready… For one thing, it’s too warm outside. It’s too green to really get you in the spirit of Advent.   But the real reason we’re not ready for Advent is, there’s just plain t oo much to do.   We just got through Thanksgiving and Black-Friday, didn’t we? And now, it’s going to take every second we have to be ready for Christmas! We don’t have time for Advent, it doesn’t fit! No, we’re not ready for it, are we? And that’s how it was for Shadrach, Mesach and Abednego, too. You know… They had done what Jeremiah told exiles to do. Remember? Settle in.   They did that! They got jobs. Took out mortgages. Got married. Had kids. And, by all accounts, they had done pretty well for themselves!   They landed governmental jobs