Advent is the season of hope, and the season of repentance. Our altar Paraments have changed over the years for the season of Advent. Remember they used to be purple which is the sign of repentance. But now they are blue, the color of hope. In...
Mark starts from the beginning. Pretty appropriate, right? Here are his first words: The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. So what, after all, is the gospel? Simply this: the good news. What good news? That we are justified through faith, by...
Welcome to the first of our three Wednesday Advent services. These are intended to be short, without communion, but with prayer, hymns, and we pray introspection as we together walk through this season of preparation. You’ll notice O Come, O Come, Emmanuel often in this...
God spoke so often through Isaiah. He prophesied the destruction of Israel, His people, who had strayed from worship of the one true God, and ignored His laws. God spoke Law through Isaiah, and He also, as He always does, spoke Gospel through Isaiah to...
In recent years activists of all sorts have been at work changing the perception of Thanksgiving. Native Americans have instituted a gathering at Plymouth Rock to commemorate the indigenous lives lost in the European “invasion.” If you search the “real” history of Thanksgiving you’ll see...
Our readings this day describe an arc. Beginning with Ezekiel speaking God’s words into a lost world, through Paul’s reassurance of the historical fact of resurrection and its meaning for us, concluding with Jesus speaking in Jerusalem of His righteous judgement, we read of God’s...
Do you have any talents? I’ll bet you do. Maybe you were born with a musical talent – in that case, I’m envious. Languages. I know some folks who just seem to be adept at picking up languages – not something I can do. So...
Remember on Good Friday Jesus cried out “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?” Desperate words from a man abandoned… Jesus felt in those moments the absence of God. That is one definition of hell, isn’t it, the absence of God. In our readings...
This weekend we recognize All Saints Day. In these days we remember, and give thanks for the faith of, all those Christians who have gone on before us, now dwelling with the Lord in the heavenly realms. What’s it like up there, anyway? Scripture offers few...
The 16th and 21st centuries sure are different, aren’t they? Everything has changed. We live in an electronic world; they lived in a fire-lit world. We have modern medicine; they had herbal remedies and nothing else except the bone saw. They had the plague and...