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One Thing

Exodus 34:29-35 ; 2 Corinthians 3:12-4:2 We sometimes talk about “church business.” Which you might think is an oxymoron. I once heard a Presbyterian pastor describe the way we handle our business in church. This pastor said, “This is how we do church meetings. We sit down at the meeting table and we say, ‘Good Evening, God. Welcome to our business meeting. We are so glad to have you here. Would you be so kind as to bless this gathering?’ There is an opening prayer…perhaps a brief devotion on a passage of scripture…then everyone says, ‘Amen.’ Then we say, ‘God, thank you so much for your assistance. I am afraid we have to ask you to leave now because we have some important business to attend to, business that, frankly, we don’t think you would be interested in and most likely you don’t have anything to offer in this regard. So thanks again, and let me show you the door. Oh, […]

To Be Blessed

Jeremiah 17:5-10; Luke 6:17-26 Rachel Naomi Remen is a doctor – she was, perhaps, genetically disposed to be a doctor. She comes from a family tree full of doctors and nurses. But in addition to all the medical persons in her orbit there was, she says, one mystic – her grandfather the rabbi. Her grandfather taught her about blessing. For her fourth birthday, her grandfather gave her a story. He said, Rachel, this is the story of the birthday of the world. In the beginning there was only holy darkness, the Ein Sof, the source of life. Then, in the course of history, at a moment in time, this world, the world of things, emerged from the heart of the holy darkness as a great ray of light. But then there was an accident, and the vessels containing the light of the world, the wholeness of the world, broke. And the wholeness in the […]

Taking the Call

Isaiah 6:1-13; Luke 5:1-11 There’s a funny film called Galaxy Quest about some actors who used to star together in a science fiction TV show. The basis for the show was this seemingly endless journey through the galaxy. The actors played the members of the crew. The show was eventually cancelled, but not forgotten, and the cast members made a profitable living attending Galaxy Quest conventions. They would dress up as their characters and, for the benefit of fans, relive the glory days, sign autographs, do promotional stunts, and such. One day they are approached at one of these events by a group of people who call themselves Thermians. They are dressed strangely, but that’s not unusual for Galaxy Quest fans. They ask the cast members for help, which the cast assumes to mean that they want to hire them for some event. No problem. They agree to meet them the […]

How Shall We Build Our House?

Nehemiah 8:1-10 ; Luke 4:14-21 Last week I reminisced a bit about the old days when the churches were full on most Sundays – when the ushers were responsible for helping you find a place to sit, when Sunday school classes were bursting at the seams, both children and adult – like the photo above! It isn’t like that anymore. The last time I remember people flocking to houses of worship as though it meant something important to them was in the aftermath of September 11, 2001. They didn’t exactly fill the sanctuaries, but that was a time when many people returned to church after a period of absence. It was a time when casual worship-goers came in looking more purposeful than usual, like they were actually looking for something that mattered. It was a time when we were startled out of our complacency; a sharp reminder that we are not […]

Gathered In

Isaiah 60:1-6 ; Matthew 2:1-12 Today is the day of Epiphany, also known as Three Kings Day. Although the gospel of Matthew doesn’t actually say they were kings. Americans don’t get into it with the same energy as others do, but Epiphany is a big day in some parts of the world, with a whole collection of traditions around it. The king cakes, where something is hidden inside and whoever gets the piece with the prize becomes the king. Or, in some cultures it means you get to pay for the cake. There are places where children dress up as kings and go door to door singing songs and collecting sweets – sort of a cross between caroling and trick-or-treating. Epiphany, in some places is the day when gifts are exchanged – not on Christmas Day, but Epiphany Day. It marks the end of the Christmas season, 12 days long. Epiphany, like […]

Searching for Him

Luke 2:39-52 I think most parents know what it feels like to lose a child. Or, if you have been careful enough to never lose track of one of your children, then maybe you are familiar with the fear of losing a child. I am one of the many mothers of the world who has lost a child in a public place. I have had the mall on lock-down more than once. I know that feeling of panic that comes the moment you realize your child is not with you. But I cannot imagine what it would be like to feel this way for three days. Three days they searched in Jerusalem, a city packed with Jews from all over the diaspora, on pilgrimage for the festival of the Passover. Three days he was on his own in a city that was not his home, an unfamiliar place. Three days Mary and […]

Will We Sing with Them?

Luke 1:39-55 In the midst of everything else about this Christmas season, the secular attachments and the religious meanings; at the very center of it this is a story about women having babies. It’s about pregnancy and childbirth. And today we rest our minds on that. In Luke’s gospel, it is a story about two women – Elizabeth and Mary – both finding themselves pregnant in the most unexpected circumstances. Elizabeth, older cousin to Mary and wife of the temple priest Zechariah, is too old for having babies. For Elizabeth, those years have passed and left her empty. She is barren, like other women we have seen in the scriptures: Sarah, the wife of Abraham; Rachel, the wife of Jacob; Hannah, the wife of Elkanah. All these women waited for their turn to come, while they watched their peers’ swelling bellies and glowing faces; they waited, while month after month […]

What Then Should We Do?

Zephaniah 3:14-20 Luke 3:7-18 Does anyone know if the war on Christmas is still going on? I’m just wondering. I haven’t been paying much attention to it, so I’m not really up to speed on it. I would feel bad about that – except that I don’t. I am tired of this particular war. I can’t work up any enthusiasm for it, frankly, because if you want to know the truth I am more concerned about the war on Advent. You don’t hear much about that one –probably because it has been so successful. Seriously, when was the last time you had anyone wish you a Happy Advent? How often do you see Advent decorations or get visited by Advent carolers? Never? It’s all “Christmas this” and “Christmas that” – Christmas trees, Christmas carols, Christmas movies. Even here in the church. The struggle is real, my friends. The war on […]

He Is Coming; Prepare the Way

Malachi 3:1-4 ; Luke 3:1-6 Our youngest child, Henry, had some interesting ways of saying things when he was little. He soaked up information like a sponge, but sometimes his brain got a little ahead of his mouth and things came out funny. For example, he would tell you that our town of Bloomsburg sat along the banks of the Sexy-Hanna River. Also known as the Susquehanna River. One day he and I were in the car driving along a road that was known locally as The Narrows, because it was a narrow, winding road with railroad tracks on one side and a straight, jagged rock wall on the other. Henry pointed toward the rocky wall and said to me, “You know why it’s like that? It’s because they daminated the mountain to make this road.” It took me a second to translate what he said from daminated to dynamited. For a […]

Looking for the Fig Tree

Jeremiah 33:14-16 Luke 21:25-36 Years ago, Kim and I visited the Muir Woods, north of San Francisco, to see the giant redwoods. They are truly magnificent trees, thick and tall, ancient and glorious as they soar up to the sky. They have existed on this earth for hundreds of thousands of years; each one can live to be hundreds of years old. They seem to live forever. But eventually they die, just like every living thing dies. We saw some fallen redwoods in the forest, and that was the most interesting thing. Some of these long dead trunks had trees growing out of them, long straight new trunks reaching up to the sky. Even in death, these amazing trees gave birth to new life. I learned later these are called nurse logs, or nursers. In the forest environment, these fallen trees are able to provide a suitable ecosystem for new […]

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