Sermons from December 2023
Charlie Brown Christmas
Christmas Eve 2023 There is a reason we celebrate Christmas at the end of December, when the weather is cold, the days short, the nights long and dark. There is a reason we celebrate Christmas at the darkest, coldest time of the year. Our ancestors in the faith knew why. They knew something about night, and about darkness. They who lived in a world lit only by fire, knew that their world, at least at this time of…
who are you?
3 Advent – December 17, 2023John 1:6-8, 19-28 Our gospel for today tells us more about who John was NOT rather than about who he was: he wasn’t the light; he wasn’t the Messiah; he wasn’t Elijah; he wasn’t the prophet.” Who, then, was he? Well, he was a witness and he was a voice – a voice telling people to prepare for someone else, someone whose sandal thong John was unworthy to untie. He was a voice of one…
Awareness of God?
2 Advent – December 10, 2023Mark 1:1-8 John the Baptist is best known as the forerunner of Jesus, the one who calls on people to prepare the way of the Lord’s coming. He is the messenger, the voice of one crying out in the wilderness. Forerunners are often unseen figures and unsung heroes. And their back stories are unknown. The details of their lives are underimagined or undervalued. They garner minimal attention, because they are forerunners—those who plow the…
Darkness and Light
1 Advent – December 3, 2023Mark 13:24-27 Happy New Year. Happy Advent. It is the beginning of the new church calendar year and isn’t it interesting that the new church year is roughly one month before the secular new year? There is a lot that rides on the turning from December 31 to January 1 — new resolutions, new starts, new beginnings. I suspect there is less consideration given to this move from the season of Pentecost to Advent.…