Series A                                                    Christmas II               January 2, 2011                                                                          

John 1:1-18

“WHAT THE WORD SAYS”

Life is not always fair.  Life is not always exciting, fun, and enjoyable.  Life is not always pleasant or peaceful.  Into every life comes adversity, pain, sorrow, and tragedy.  We can not escape it.  And when we boil all this bad stuff that happens to all of us in life down to its bare essence, we will find “sin”.  The sin of greed drove executives on Wall Street, and investment bankers like Lehman Brothers, to use shady business practices to make money faster, and created this world economy that affects the poor and working class far more than the rich and affluent.  The sin of covetousness causes people to…

Series A                                                   Christmas Eve       December 24, 2010                                                                          

Luke 2:1-20

“God’s ‘Rhema’ Born This Night”

Once upon a time a little girl named Sara, told her mother that she just hated Christmas.  Of course her mother asked her why in the world she would say such a thing.  Sara responded that Christmas meant too much work for everyone to get ready for it.  She didn’t like that she had to spend so much time helping to decorate the house when she would rather be playing.  She didn’t like that she had to help her mother with the Christmas cookies, and all the extra cooking, and then having all those dishes to wash afterwards when she would rather be watching T.V.  And she didn’t…

Series A                                                      Advent III          December 12, 2010                                                                          

Matthew 11:2-11

THE WAIT THAT TEACHES CONSISTENCY

Advent means “coming”.  You have heard that many times before.  When we know someone or something is coming, we wait and prepare.  When grandma and grandpa are the ones coming to our home to stay a few days, while we wait: we may also be preparing the bedroom where they will stay; we may give the house an extra special cleaning; we may take a trip to the grocery store to stock up for the meals we will serve them; and take the time to bake cookies or a pie or two.  It is what we do when we are waiting.  We prepare!  But when it comes to…

Series A                                                      Advent II             December 5, 2010                                                                          

Matthew 3:1-12

GETTING READY FOR WHAT’S COMING

No one had ever seen the likes of him before.  A prophet who lived in the desert with snakes, cactus, and scorpions; wore itchy camel’s hair clothing; and shunned everything that civilization stood for.  He owned no house, lived with no family, had no neighbors, and took care of no yard or garden.  He ate whatever the desert provided: things like locusts and wild honey.  He slept on no bed, but on the ground looking up at the night sky.  He didn’t need friends, for he had God and a message that God had given him to share with the world.

It was odd that God would choose him…

Series C                                                  Pentecost XXV      November 14, 2010                                                                          

Luke 21: 5-19

SIGNS AND RESPONSE

What makes us afraid?  And what do we put our faith in?  That is the question Jesus is raising before his disciples in today’s Gospel.  No one will forget what happened on 9/11.  I helped make the steel that the World Trade Center buildings were erected with in the Bethlehem Steel Plant in Steelton.  Those buildings were symbols of a world economy that through co-operation and trade was reaching new heights.

As Jesus’ disciples looked upon the temple, it’s magnificence entranced them.  For the Temple symbolized all that was great about Israel, and stood as a monument to the eternal God that chose Israel to be His people.  They could…

Series C                                                All Saints Sunday      November 7, 2010

Ephesians 1:11-23        Luke 6:20-31

“CRACKED POTS”

Jesus’ Beatitudes speak of the blessed.  The Greek word is makarios.

But through time that word has gone through a lot of different interpretations.  In ancient Greek times, that word referred only to the gods. They had achieved a state of happiness and contentment in life that was beyond all cares, labors, and even death. To be blessed, you had to be a god, living in some other world.

Later that word took on a second meaning.  It referred to the “dead”.  The blessed ones were humans, who, through death, had reached the other world of the gods.  They were now beyond the cares of earthly life.  To be blessed,…

Series C                                              Reformation Sunday      October 31, 2010                                                                          

John 8:31-36

You are now free

What we are used to becomes the norm of what life is supposed to be for us.  For instance, when I lived in the parsonage in Montgomery the Main train tracks that go through Northumberland here, passed by my home.  About 50 feet from my house.  I can remember the first night, our bedroom was on the corner of the house by the rail and road crossing, and Peggy and I sat straight up from a sound sleep as the house was vibrating, and the train whistle was blowing, and the engine’s headlight was illuminating the curtains.  It almost seemed as though the train was going to go right…

Series C                                                  Pentecost XXII          October 24, 2010                                                                          

Luke 18: 9-14

The Prayer that Counts

If you find that this parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector makes you uncomfortable, you are probably not alone.  Last week Jesus taught us about being persistent in prayer and this week he warns us against being presumptive in our prayers.  The very first hearers of this parable highly respected the Pharisees and viewed them as very religious, pious, and trusting in God, not themselves, while those same people would have viewed tax collectors as thieves who rejected their faith, were traitors against Israel and trusted only in themselves.  Like most Pharisees, tax collectors were rich, but because of the way they got those riches, they…

Series C                                                   Pentecost XXI           October 17, 2010                                                                          

Luke 18:1-8a

“PERSISTENCE”

Those of you who are married know about being harried.  Spouses tend to harass and badger until they get what they want.  For instance down in our basement the faucet to the washing machine had a steady drip.  It wasn’t a bad drip, just every now and then, and for months, I was hearing about that faucet.  I’d get home from work and hear: “When are you going to fix that faucet?”    As time went by, I began hearing “Now there is a puddle of water there under that faucet!”  And this kept up until finally just last week I turned off the water, and fixed it.  Persistence does pay off and…

Series C                                                    Pentecost XX           October 10, 2010                                                                          

Luke 17:11-19

THE THANKSGIVING FAITH BRINGS

The healing of the 10 lepers is one of Christ’s most well known healings.  All ten were cleansed.  But only one returns to thank Jesus.  And to him Jesus says:

“Get up and go on your way; your faith has made you well.”

This is one of four people in the gospel of Luke to whom Jesus uses this phrase to heal: two are women and two are men. 

One of those men are in today’s Gospel.  But ten were cleansed.

The Greek word translated “made you well” actually means: “to rescue from danger” and “to restore to a former state of safety and well being”.  So we find it translated with words…