An Episcopal Priest's Sermons, Prayers, and Reflections on Life, Becoming Human, and Discovering Our Divinity
“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…
Read More What Is Your Amazing Story? – A Christmas Eve Sermon On Luke 2:1-20
When I was kid I loved the “then and there” Christmas story. You know it. It’s the one we just heard from the gospel according to St. Luke (Luke 2:1-20). It begins, “In those days …” and it happened “in…
Read More Tonight It Is Filled – A Christmas Eve Sermon On Luke 2:1-20
It began about nine months ago. Life was interrupted when the unexpected and unimaginable happened. And I wondered, “How can this be?” Life was changing and things were getting too real too quick. The government made travel decrees. Some family, friends, and businesses closed to us and said, “No, you can’t come in.” Things just aren’t like they used to be. They probably never will be. So much has changed. It feels like it’s been one interruption after another. You know what I’m talking about, right? I’m sure you do. It’s not too hard to figure it out. It’s in the air. It’s all around us. You know, don’t you, that I’m talking about Mary and what she might have thought about the past nine months of her life? I’m talking about the first Christmas. That is what you thought I was talking about, right?
Christmas Eve - Luke 2:1-20 Look around. Look how many of us showed up tonight - family, friends, people you know, and people you’ve never seen before. It’s like this every year. Christmas is one of the two best attended…
Read More Your Christmas Life – A Sermon On Luke 2:1-20
Jesus is God’s yes to us and the world. Regardless of who you are, where you are from, what you have done or left undone, or what is happening in your life today, you get a yes. There is no one who does not get a yes.
Regardless of what the last year has been for us and whether we consider the changes it brought to be for better or for worse it is deeply rooted in the Christmas story.
I am not talking about the then and there Christmas story, the one that starts out “In those days” and takes place “in that region.” I am talking about the here and now Christmas story, the one that is taking place in these days and in this region. After all, that’s really the only Christmas story that matters.
Luke 2:1-20 I come to this Christmas Eve with mixed feelings. This has been one of those years when it seemed as if Christmas just couldn’t get here soon enough. I’ve felt an urgency and necessity about Christmas this year…
Read More What Will You Bring to the Manger? – A Christmas Eve Sermon on Luke 2:1-20
“Let us go now to Bethlehem and see this thing that has taken place.” That’s what the shepherds said after the angels had left them and gone into heaven. It wasn’t enough to just hear the good news. It wasn’t…
Read More What Is Your Christmas Story? – A Christmas Sermon on Luke 2:1-20
She gave birth, wrapped him in bands of cloth, and laid him in a manger. It’s all rather matter of fact as St. Luke tells it (Luke 2:1-20; Christmas Eve). It sounds like it could be any birth. It was probably…
Read More Gazing into the Face of a New Beginning – A Christmas Sermon on Luke 2:1-20
I probably need to begin with a disclaimer. My understanding of the nativity has changed. It is not what it used to be. I no longer see the birth of Jesus the way it is so often portrayed. The image…
Read More Nativity Scenes Here, There, Everywhere – A Sermon for Christmas Eve, Luke 2:1-20
Interrupting the Silence 