Category: Sermons

A Great and Mighty Wonder

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Biblical Text: Hebrews 1:1-12

The assigned reading for Christmas Day from Hebrews is an interesting one. It is the start of an argument why Jesus is greater than the angels. The background of the argument is that angels took on an outsized role in the popular piety of the intertestamental period. You could almost say that the angels had been turned into idols. The writer of Hebrews was concerned to make an argument to compare the surpassing worth of the Son to the angels. It is an argument for the right ordering of our loves and right worship. The sermon attempts to get us to contemplate what we have placed where the 1st century Jews had placed angels. And how we worship aright.

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Christmas Eve 2022 (Light of Grace)

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The service itself was a very traditional lessons and carols. This sermon didn’t really focus on any one of those texts but upon the themes they present as what the light could mean. The sermon speaks for itself I think more than any summary I could give it here.

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Brother’s Return

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Biblical Text: Micah 5:2-5a

Our final midweek for 2022 Advent. The passage from Micah recalls two big OT themes that will be brought to fulfillment or fruition at the advent of the messiah. The First is God’s choosing the least. The second the return or the ingathering of those who have been let go. This homily attempts to place those before us so that we might have faith in the claims of the eternal peace also brought by the messiah.

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Two Smoldering Stumps

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Biblical Text: Isaiah 7:10-17

Matthew asserts that the Virgin birth of Jesus is the fulfillment of this passage in Isaiah. Now, when a New Testament author points at an Old Testament text, he’s pointing at the larger story. The larger story that this sermon tries to preach is the story of three generations of Judah’s kings – Uzziah, Jotham and Ahaz. How do we get to the prophet Isaiah telling Ahaz to ask for a sign? The story has surprisingly deep resonance for our situation today. Ahaz’s abominations and his refusal to see the signs are very similar to ours.

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Behold and Rejoice

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Biblical Text: Zephaniah 3:14-20

The third week of Advent is often labeled Gaudete, Latin for Rejoice! It’s a command word. But commanding someone to rejoice is a non-starter. True Joy is pulled out of us. It is the natural reaction of the loved seeing the lover. This sermon reflects on these themes and how God coming from outside of us brings for that Rejoicing.

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Are You The One?

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Biblical Text: Matthew 11:2-15

The second and third Sundays in Advent are always John the Baptist Sundays. The third one in year A – Matthew’s year – is one of my favorite texts to preach from. Why you ask? Because I think it is a text that gets emotionally to the core of what many Christians feel, but we are usually scared to read it that way. We are too protective of the saintliness of biblical characters. And beyond getting to the core of what we feel, Jesus’ answers are profound in two ways. Jesus does give us the promise, but that promise comes in the very specific form of the crucified one. We get no other messiah. The text is a challenge to the hearers, both to the faithful like John who might not understand, and the crowds who might be pondering the message.

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Behold…The Messenger

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Biblical Text: Malachi 3:1-7

This is the second midweek advent service following the theme of “Behold”. If week one the “behold” told us to look closely at the promise itself, this week’s text is more about how that promise is fulfilled. The Lord comes to his temple usually following a messenger. This homily attempts to “behold” those messengers in our day.

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Now…and Not Yet

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Biblical Text: Matthew 3:1-12

John the Baptist expresses some clear expectations of the messiah. As a prophet he is concerned with the now. The Kingdom is near and God is acting now. This wants to think about like between the two advents, which is life in the now…and the not yet. Because everything that John the Baptist expected Now didn’t reach immediate fulfillment. This sermon attempts to proclaim the now that started with the first advent while acknowledging (and saving a bit for next week) the not yet.

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A New Hope

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Biblical Text: Isaiah 2:1-5, (Romans 13: 8-14)

It is the first Sunday in Advent, the church new year. Advent is a season set aside to prepare for Christmas. Like the secular New Year that looks backwards and forwards, Advent as a season looks at the past and then toward the future. At least for me its overriding theme is about Hope. The Bible is a book grounded in our human reality. If you think GRR Martin is salacious, read the Bible. Although the players in that Game of Thrones have reasonable motivations behind actions. In the bible the motivations are as often as not that we are just sinners and like sinning. And that we are all in this Empire of Sin. Advent is about the hope, the rebellion of the Kingdom against that Empire. The downfall, already accomplished and yet to come, of the tyrant and the coming of the Reign of Justice and Peace which is founded on love. Things are broken, but there is a New Hope.

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