Luke 1: 5-25
God broke his silence to say He was going to fulfil his promises. He still has promises to keep to us. Have you given up on expecting Jesus to come back? Let's live our lives in the expectation of His return.
(We also started Advent a week early. I'm expecting our church tower to be struck by lightning).
We had a "family Mass" so there were a couple of dozen kids on the steps having a Q&A session on the contrast between earthly kings and the kingship of Jesus. No great depths were plumbed but it was good to see them all there.
Psalm 51. We're all sinners, my word what sinners we are and what a sinner David was. Sinful from conception, though that doesn't mean sex is sinful if conducted within marriage (which is one man and one woman); and God doesn't require sacrifices except those of our broken and contrite hearts although David also does say bulls will be offered and what's that all about? Did I mention we're all sinners?
No word from God will ever fail because nothing is impossible for God. What is the Lord’s word to me today? Mary said "yes" to God: what might the Lord do if we also say yes to Him?
(As an aside, Nazareth was described as, "An undistinguished Northern town - the Stockton-on-Tees of Galilee)
Our God is a God who will turn things upside down: politically, socially and spirituality. We have a "u" shaped theology not an "n" shaped theology (illustration taken from Christopher Watkin's book Biblical Critical Theory). That is, most religions are "n"s who try to do things to raise themselves up to God in the hope of receiving blessings - works righteousness, "u"s receive blessings from God so that they can be raised up to God - the righteousness of Faith.
[as an aside, the fact the John the Baptist responds to Jesus in Elizabeth's womb shows that he had personhood and that embryos shouldn't be aborted. I think the preacher missed that fact that John was at least 24 weeks on from conception and therefore not an embryo]
Today's service was a mini nine lessons and carols (actually five readings) so the sermon was not centred around a particular passage. We had just sung O Little Town of Bethlehem, and were reminded that there is little “dreamless sleep” in the region at the moment. People ask why God doesn't do something, why doesn't he intervene? But he did intervene 2000 years ago with the incarnation. Jesus does bring peace, not peace as the world wants it but he can bring us a deep inner peace.
We had a joint service with the local Baptists, and the sermon was on "no word from God will ever fail", an alternate translation of "nothing is impossible with God". The preacher took care to explicitly rule out "prosperity Gospel" interpretations and focus on Mary's response.
We had a Frankenmass; carol service segueing into the Eucharist, with no sermon. But the priest (male) looked pretty in pink. I think everyone is conscious of the need to pray for peace though, hence little need to hammer the message home.
Salvation is a two step process: we are justified by faith in Christ alone. But we are also called to be sanctified and to live a life of obedience. John the Baptist's mission was to make a people prepared for Jesus. Our mission is the same - to make the disciples of the world.
Shepherds praise God- so we should praise him. Angels praised God, this was important in heaven and on Earth. Mary treasured these things. We should spend time this Christmas treasuring what we know of Jesus.
Today's reading covered Luke's nativity story. Our rector asked that if he knocked on our door and said to come with him to the nearby city as something amazing was happening, would we drop everything and go off with him? This is what the shepherds did, abandoning their livelihood to go and see the new born Jesus. We need to put Christ first, not just at Christmas but throughout the year.
One particularly slow news week we had a space so just put an empty square there labelled "sermon doodling space".
Not sure how I ran across this ancient post. I love it! With the giving envelopes on the backs of the pews, our church keeps "Scribble Sheets" that are for drawing, sermon notes, doodles, scribbles. Sorry your vicar didn't see the humor.
Sermon Sunday (12/24):
Hebrews 11:17-19, which felt nearly ironic after all the time I spent reading Fear and Trembling (which is about the Binding of Isaac -- sort of).
17 By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises was in the act of offering up his only son, 18 of whom it was said, “Through Isaac shall your offspring be named.” 19 He considered that God was able even to raise him from the dead, from which, figuratively speaking, he did receive him back.
Jesus has defeated Death. The promise of bodily resurrection should be the basis of our hope this coming year. What we do with our bodies here and now matters to God.
Feast of the Holy Family. A very last minute Indian supply priest.
"The family is under attack from the devil."
Luckily most of it was drowned out by very noisy toddlers.
Yesterday's sermon was about the presentation in the temple and Anna and Simeon. The message was about how their meeting with Jesus gave their lives completion. The thread on Kerygmania about Simeon's age helped my prep. Unfortunately I had a Temporal Lobe Seizure in the pulpit shortly before the sermon, and needed help from a member of the congregation. This probably effected the presentation.
Ours was the story of the Baptism of Jesus in Mark. A couple of side comments about Mark. Did you know it is all written in the present tense in the Greek? And, did you know there are only five periods in the original book?
The theme was about how we are Baptized into the ministry, the activity of the church. It is not a magical static act.
I was under the impression that the Greek punctuation is NOT original, sorry. And Mark 1:9 is the first verse I turned up and it clearly shows past tense verbs. Where are you getting this stuff? I'd approach that source with extreme caution.
One of our PTOs preached on Luke 2: 1-11. Simon Peter, James and John are specifically named and called, but there are other anonymous people involved. This is repeated throughout the gospels - various people opened their homes and women supported Jesus through his ministry. This has been true throughout church history and continues today. Behind every well known minister, evangelist & missionary there are many unknown people supporting them. Not everyone is called to completely change what they are doing, but we must all be listening and open to whatever part God requires us to play in the building of His kingdom.
Our parish has a tradition of Asperges (the rite of sprinkling everybody with holy water) during the opening hymn. It is supposed to remind us of our Baptism, and we do well to remember what Baptism is: everything our BCP catechism says it is, yes, but overall it gives us our new identity in Christ, our adoption as children of God. When the Asperges is done and when we bless ourselves with holy water on the way in and out of the church, remember your Baptism, and remember and start your participation in worship by recognizing the reality that you are a child of God.
Matthew: 6: 5-13
The Lord's Prayer:
Don't pray to impress others or to impress God - Put God at the centre of your prayer solar system.
Pray first for God's glory, God's kingdom, God's will to be done.
Then pray for our Provision, our Pardon, our Protection.
Our reading from Ephesians 4:20 - 5:2 led to a talk on "Living for Christ". The preacher based it around five points, not the usual Anglican three!
* Be truthful
* Control your anger
* Be generous
* Build others up
* Be kind and loving
We also focused on the lectionary readings around God speaking to people, but from the angle of how God knows us and our situation even before we think He does and can speak into it in unexpected ways.
I don't think that many people will be nodding off during tomorrow's sermon at Our Place as the theme was announced in last week's news sheet.
Prayers of Love and Faith (PLF) is the name that the Church of England has given to the blessing of gay relationships in church services. As this is an important issue for all churches to be aware of, I will be speaking about this at all three services on Sunday 21st January. This is a massively sensitive subject, but I will do my best to explain the current situation and share some thoughts from the Bible.
I am expecting our rector to take a "conservative" approach. The chat over after-service coffee could be interesting, or maybe people will just keep their thoughts to themselves.
Ours was something to do with God calling people, the different ways we respond and where we might encounter God's call in our daily lives. I only wrote it so I'm not completely sure.
Comments
I doubt that the Good Lord could be bothered
🤣😂
Did a bit of that myself today while giving half an ear to some childish rambling about colours of vestments and Christmas shopping 😱
No word from God will ever fail because nothing is impossible for God. What is the Lord’s word to me today? Mary said "yes" to God: what might the Lord do if we also say yes to Him?
(As an aside, Nazareth was described as, "An undistinguished Northern town - the Stockton-on-Tees of Galilee)
Be alert. Your country needs lerts.
/tangent
Our God is a God who will turn things upside down: politically, socially and spirituality. We have a "u" shaped theology not an "n" shaped theology (illustration taken from Christopher Watkin's book Biblical Critical Theory). That is, most religions are "n"s who try to do things to raise themselves up to God in the hope of receiving blessings - works righteousness, "u"s receive blessings from God so that they can be raised up to God - the righteousness of Faith.
[as an aside, the fact the John the Baptist responds to Jesus in Elizabeth's womb shows that he had personhood and that embryos shouldn't be aborted. I think the preacher missed that fact that John was at least 24 weeks on from conception and therefore not an embryo]
Salvation is a two step process: we are justified by faith in Christ alone. But we are also called to be sanctified and to live a life of obedience. John the Baptist's mission was to make a people prepared for Jesus. Our mission is the same - to make the disciples of the world.
Shepherds praise God- so we should praise him. Angels praised God, this was important in heaven and on Earth. Mary treasured these things. We should spend time this Christmas treasuring what we know of Jesus.
Sermon Sunday (12/24):
Hebrews 11:17-19, which felt nearly ironic after all the time I spent reading Fear and Trembling (which is about the Binding of Isaac -- sort of).
17 By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises was in the act of offering up his only son, 18 of whom it was said, “Through Isaac shall your offspring be named.” 19 He considered that God was able even to raise him from the dead, from which, figuratively speaking, he did receive him back.
Jesus has defeated Death. The promise of bodily resurrection should be the basis of our hope this coming year. What we do with our bodies here and now matters to God.
"The family is under attack from the devil."
Luckily most of it was drowned out by very noisy toddlers.
It's not nice and that's the point.
The theme was about how we are Baptized into the ministry, the activity of the church. It is not a magical static act.
Yes, indeed so.
Giving is part of our worship to God. We shouldn't be boasting about it. We shouldn't be keeping a record of it. We should give and forget.
Our sermon was all about the Feast of Light for those seeking the light.
The Lord's Prayer:
Don't pray to impress others or to impress God - Put God at the centre of your prayer solar system.
Pray first for God's glory, God's kingdom, God's will to be done.
Then pray for our Provision, our Pardon, our Protection.
* Be truthful
* Control your anger
* Be generous
* Build others up
* Be kind and loving