“Hello . . . Joseph? It’s Mary. “Say, I’ve got some great news. Remember how we said we wanted to start a family sooner rather than later? Well, we’ve got our start – I’m pregnant! “Joseph? Joseph? Yes, of course I know you can’t be the father. Mother and I had ‘the talk’ a long [...]
This season of Advent, we have been pointing out, is a season of preparation for Christians. And not just preparing in the sense of decorating the house, and baking the cookies, and shopping for the presents for Christmas; but also the preparing of our selves, a look inside, a time for reflection and any needed repentance. How do we do that kind of preparation? Where do we look to find out how to prepare? Well, perhaps some guidance is available from some of the people who prepared themselves for the first coming of Jesus, so long ago. Perhaps they can in some ways serve as a model or example for us, as we seek to do our preparation now. […]
So, who invited this John the Baptist guy to our Christmas celebrations anyway? Why does he have to be part of our holiday preparations? Here we are, having a grand old time with our decorating, shopping, baking, and singing “Deck the Halls/Silver Bells/Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer” . . . and along comes a guy—an ascetic [...]
Today is the first day of the season of Advent, on our worship calendar. In fact, today is “New Year’s Day” on our worship calendar, the first day of the worship year, which makes sense when you consider that Jesus Christ is the center of our religion and worship, and that Christmas celebrates the beginning of his life, and that Advent is the time for us Christians to get ready for that beginning; this season becomes the logical starting point. So Happy New Year! We enter this season, and this worship year, today with a series of four reflections on Advent, which I’ve put together from a variety of sources and my own reflection. At the end of each reading, we’ll ask you to please join in singing the listed verse of the classic Advent hymn “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel.” Please remain seated for that singing. The hope is that this observance will aid us in the reason for this season: preparing for the coming of the Lord. […]
Our sermon today incorporates three other sources. I’ll be quoting a reflection on our second Scripture lesson, a reflection by Rev. Douglass Key, Pastor of Clover Presbyterian Church, in Clover, South Carolina. And an article on verse 7, from the Parish Publishing newsletter, “Christian Giving.” And a sermon by Rev. Sarah Bird, Pastor at First Presbyterian Church, Nashville, Tennessee, on our first Scripture lesson today. And I’ll be bouncing back and forth among all three sources and my own words, so I won’t be able to keep you up-to-date on which sentence comes from where; if you want to know exactly who said what, see me some time after the service and we’ll sort it out together. […]