Words of Welcome

Isaiah 7:10-16; Matthew 1:18-25 The wait is over. If you’re not finished with your Christmas shopping, it’s too late. By the time we’re finished singing the last carol, the stores will all be closed. In fact, even Starbucks will be closed. And so it’s time to put aside the hustle and bustle of a season that starts earlier every year. Now that the day is here and the children are eagerly eyeing the presents under the tree, hoping that their every wish will be fulfilled, it’s time to stop and consider the true meaning of Christmas. It’s the kind of question Charlie Brown was asking. He didn’t find it in the pageant or in hunting for Christmas trees. Finally in desperation he cried out, begging for someone to give him an answer that made sense. It is at this point that Linus steps out and tells the story of the First Christmas from the perspective of St. Luke. We have come here tonight because, like Charlie Brown, we need to hear that Christmas is more than food, aluminum trees, and brigh

Isaiah 11:1-11 If you wander through a grove of Redwoods, you’ll likely run across the stump of an ancient tree giving birth to a new generation of trees. That forest giant may have died, but new life is emerging from it. In much the same way Isaiah envisions a shoot emerging from the stump of Jesse. Jesse, of course, was David’s father. Isaiah is saying that David’s kingdom might be threatened with extinction, but despite the dire news of the day, things will get better. Not only will they get better, but a golden age of peace is on the horizon. The people’s hopes and dreams will be restored by God. As Christians we see in Isaiah’s vision a promise of the Messiah, God’s anointed one who will restore Creation to its proper order. It may seem like a utopian dream that doesn’t line up with what we know about nature – but that’s not the point. The seasons of Advent and Christmas focus not on what is, but what shall be. It is as Bobby Kennedy said: "There are those who look at things

Isaiah 35:1-10 The Mitchell Report was released on Thursday. It told us what we already knew, there are problems in Baseball. It also told us that Barry Bonds isn’t the only one implicated in the scandal. Yes, Baseball, America’s sport, is broken. We also learned this week that the CIA destroyed tapes that showed agents using waterboarding to get information. Waterboarding is considered torture by the Geneva Conventions. There were bombings in a number of nations and shootings at a church in Colorado. It would seem that we live in a broken world. As psychiatrist Paul Tournier pointed out many years ago: "Its ills are innumerable; it writhes in pain."1 In the words of Frederick Buechner: The world floods in on all of us. The world can be kind, and it can be cruel. It can be beautiful, and it can be appalling. It can give us good reason to hope and good reason to give up hope.2 Life it seems fragmented and unpredictable, and as a result we often become reactors to the world

Isaiah 2:1-5 John Lennon imagined a world without religion or nations, but one with peace. Imagine there's no countries, It isn't hard to do. Nothing to Kill or die for, and no Religion too. Imagine all the people living life in peace . . . Then in the chorus he sings: You may say I'm, a dreamer But I'm not the only One. I Hope someday you'll join us and the world will be as one. Imagine for a moment a world at peace. What might that be like? What will it take? Will it take the end of nations and religions as we know them today? It’s unfortunate that John Lennon is on the mark. Nationalism and religion have often contributed to the hatred and the violence that make a mess of our world. And just to be clear, it’s not just Islam that’s at fault. Every religion, including ours, contributes to this problem. When we think of peace, we tend to think globally. But it’s not just a global issue, it’s also very local and very personal. Wherever conflict and anger and hatred

Colossians 1:11-20 It’s only the last Sunday of November, but for the church this is it. This is the last Sunday of the church year, and next Sunday when we get together to decorate the church before the service we’ll be starting over with a new year. Because it’s tradition to sum up the year gone by, I thought it might be worthwhile to sum things up this morning. Now don’t worry, I’m not going to give you a statistical report, or even list all the things we’ve done this past year. Some of you might be needing a nap, but I’d rather not put you to sleep just yet. Instead we’re going to consider this grand statement from the letter to the Colossians. There’s some question as to whether Paul wrote this letter, but for now we’re going to assume he did. It really doesn’t matter who wrote it because the statement holds true whatever the case may be. In this brief passage, we hear a call to kneel before our Lord and embrace him as our king. 1. THE PROBLEM OF POWER Today is Christ the King S

2 Corinthians 9:6-15 Every day we get bombarded with requests for help and assistance. The causes might be good, but how do you decide when and where to give? Of course, these appeals come even faster the closer we get to Christmas. Although we must be careful and discerning in our giving, we also must be aware of the temptation to close the heart and wallet, and become overly protective of our assets. When we do this, we fall prey to the miserliness that cut Mr. Scrooge off from humanity. Paul made an appeal to the Corinthian Church, that might not have gone over very well. He told them that he was coming south and was taking up a collection for the church in Jerusalem, which was experiencing famine. I’m not sure, but it seems like he was hearing some grumbling about having to give to strangers when there were troubles enough at home. In answering them, Paul focuses on the heart of the giver, the provisions of God, and the blessings of giving. 1. THE HEART OF THE GIVER Paul does tal

Luke 20:27-38 No, I’m not confused about the seasons of the year. I realize that Christmas and not Easter is just around the corner. If nothing else all those ads that keep popping up remind me that I need to get busy with my Christmas shopping. Besides there are a lot of other holidays to get through before the Easter Bunny hops out. But here we are, singing Easter songs in the middle of November. There’s a reason for my madness, and that reason is this passage from the Gospel of Luke. Because it talks about resurrection, I thought it would be great to sing some Easter songs out of season. When we meet up with Jesus in this passage, he’s having a discussion with a group of Sadducees. The Sadducees were a group of religious and social conservatives who didn’t believe in the resurrection. Their Bible was essentially limited to the first five books of the Old Testament, and they didn’t think you could find the resurrection in these books. And so Jesus, who had a broader sense of God’s re

Luke 19:1-10 It’s not Christmas yet, although with Halloween now out of the way, the Christmas stuff has begun to emerge. But when I read about Jesus’ encounter with Zacchaeus, that famously short chief tax collector from Jericho, I can’t help but think of Ebenezer Scrooge. You know the story. On Christmas Eve, that rich penny-pinching money lender, is visited by three ghosts. By the next morning he’s a new man. Instead of taking money from the poor, he gives it away. Now Scrooge didn’t go looking for this encounter, but according to Luke Zacchaeus did. We’re not told why, just that he did. In fact, Zacchaeus goes to great lengths to see Jesus, going as far as climbing a tree so he could see the Master when he walked by. The amazing thing is that not only did he see Jesus, but Jesus saw him. That glance upwards changed his life forever. 1. Salvation – now and then This is supposed to be a stewardship sermon, but this is really a salvation story. But in this story, salvation isn’t just

Luke 18:9-14 "The bigger they are, the harder they fall!" That could be the mantra of this season’s college football teams. Every time a team reaches number 1 or number 2 it loses. LSU, USC, South Florida, Cal. It’s like no one wants to be in the BCS Championship game. After USC got beat by lowly Stanford, it looked like Cal was in the driver’s seat to win the Pac10, especially after they squeaked out a win over my Oregon Ducks. Then LSU lost to Kentucky of all teams and Cal looked up and began to celebrate – only they went on to lose that same day to Oregon State. Even though #2 Boston College held on and won this week, it still has been a topsy turvy fall. And you know what? We like it that way. Unless it’s our team on top, we like to see the big guy lose. For some reason we don’t like the person or the business or the country or the team that’s arrogant, self-important, or snobbish. As Jesus tells the story, two guys went up to the temple to pray. One guy was very righteou

Luke 18:1-8 You’ve heard it said: "Be careful what you pray for, you just might get it!" That’s a scary thought isn’t it? We don’t always think too deeply about what we pray for, and so we might end up praying for things that are better off not being stated. Well when Evan Baxter – a news anchor turned congressman who ran on a platform pledging to change the world – got on his knees the night before his first day in Congress he prayed for help. What Evan didn’t expect was that God would take his prayer seriously. Not only did God hear, but God answered it by giving Evan Baxter the tools he needed to change the world – in a sort of Noahic way. God delivered some tools, a load of wood, plans, and just a bit of incentive to build an ark. I know that some of you have seen Evan Almighty , so you know what I’m talking about. Evan Almighty is a nice family comedy with a good message that’s now out on DVD. That’s my commercial interruption. The point of the movie is pretty simple –

2 Timothy 1:1-14 Back in the 1970s America gathered around its TV sets, fixated by a mini-series about an African American family. Alex Haley’s Roots was one of the most important events in TV history, in part because of the size of an audience it drew, but more importantly because it brought to life the struggles of African Americans as they made their way through life in America. For the first time White America caught sight of the dark side of its history. Roots did something else; it encouraged people to explore and to own their own histories. In telling the story of his own family, from the time his ancestor Kunta Kinte was captured and brought to America on a slave ship up to his own day, he showed us the importance of passing on our stories. Owning our family history – warts and all – is key to knowing who we are as individuals. Each of us has a family history, full of stories, both bad and good. They tell of both struggles and triumphs; they will contain even a few skeletons i

I Timothy 6:6-19 I think the Beatles said it best – "Money can’t buy me love." That’s right – Say you don't need no diamond ring And I'll be satisfied Tell me that you want those kind of things that money just can't buy For I don't care too much for money For money can't buy me love I realize that diamond rings are helpful, and I’ve bought a few, but they can’t buy love. And despite what the Pharaohs thought, you can’t take it with you either! Great pyramids were built to hold all manner of treasure, but those bodies are still there a moldering in the grave, along with all those goods. Sometimes we forget this, but we didn’t bring anything into the world, and we’re not going to take anything out with us! So, "money can’t buy me love," nor does it buy eternal life. Oh, it doesn’t hurt to have a little, but ultimately it can’t buy happiness. Just read the papers about the "Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous" and you’ll see that having &quo

Jeremiah 8:18-9:1 When I last took up this text, six years ago today, it was the second Sunday after September 11, 2001. I think we all have memories of that day, and even two Sundays later, we were still in a state of shock. As I preached that day, I tried to make sense of what had happened just days before. I tried to wrestle with the grief and the anger people were feeling. I reflected on the angry calls for vengeance, which were understandable. I then tried to offer a different perspective, one that reflected the nature and character of the God we know and love in Jesus. That Sunday I tried to make sense of what had happened by using Jeremiah as my lens. As I read this text I heard words of judgement and despair, and then I went looking for words of consolation and hope. In many ways the shadow of September 11, 2001 still hangs over our nation. The anger, the despair, and the fear engendered by the events of that day remain with us. But it’s not just 9-11 that casts a shadow over o