Tag: Emmanuel

  • What Is Your Amazing Story? – A Christmas Eve Sermon On Luke 2:1-20

    What Is Your Amazing Story? – A Christmas Eve Sermon On Luke 2:1-20

    “They made known what had been told them about this child; and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds told them.” (Luke 2:1-20) What do you imagine the shepherds told them? Did they tell  about standing in a light of divine presence? Did they admit there were terrified? Did they tell about Read more

  • Emmanuel And The Messiness of Life – A Sermon On Matthew 1:18-25

    Emmanuel And The Messiness of Life – A Sermon On Matthew 1:18-25

    What do you make of today’s gospel? (Matthew 1:18-25)  It’s a beautiful story but does it make sense to you? I doesn’t to me. I have some doubts about it. It doesn’t sound or feel real to me. Does it to you? I struggle with today’s gospel and wonder if that’s really how it happened. Read more

  • Struggling With The Cross – A Good Friday Sermon On John 18:1-19:42

    Struggling With The Cross – A Good Friday Sermon On John 18:1-19:42

    Before I talk about Good Friday I want to talk about Bad Friday. That’s the Friday that I struggle with. Don’t you? How are we to make sense of an all powerful, can do anything, kind of God who seemingly chooses to do nothing? That’s the Bad Friday question. Read more

  • The Scandal We Long For – A Sermon on Matthew 1:18-25

    The Scandal We Long For – A Sermon on Matthew 1:18-25

    What is the most shocking part of today’s gospel (Matthew 1:18-25, Advent 4A)? What’s the thing that makes you wonder whether it really happened the way Matthew describes? What’s the hardest part to believe? For most people, I suspect, the thing that raises questions, controversy, and debate is Mary’s virginity. Aren’t virginity and pregnancy mutually Read more

  • Luke, Tell Me the Story Again!

    There are some stories that simply bear repeating. Children want to hear the same old bed time story. Lovers tell the story of meeting and falling in love. Parents tell the story of their child’s birth. Tonight the Church tells the Christmas story. None of these stories are new. They have been told throughout the Read more

  • Scandals, Wombs, and Emmanuel – A Sermon on Matthew 1:18-25

    The collect and readings for the Fourth Sunday of Advent may be found here. The appointed gospel is Matthew 1:1-25. Now the birth of Jesus the Messiah took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been engaged to Joseph, but before they lived together, she was found to be with child from the Read more