Words of Welcome

Isaiah 9:2-7; Luke 2:8-20 When you came into the church this evening, you left behind the cold and the darkness of the streets, and you entered the warmth and light of this sanctuary. Upon entering you found friends and family gathered, and you shared Christmas Greetings with one another. In doing this, you experienced God’s light shining onto your life. Then, as the service started, you began singing the songs of the season, you shared in a Christmas prayer, and you heard scriptures read that declared the good news that God is present in our midst. Yes God has come to us in a baby wrapped in swaddling clothes. And, again, you felt God’s light shining onto your life. It doesn’t matter where you’ve been or what has happened to you this day, God’s light has touched your life. I know that it’s easy to get caught up in the hustle and bustle of the season. You get tired and maybe a bit cranky. There’s the traffic and the crowds. Then there’s the weather. It’s one thing t

Isaiah 61:1-11 The day that we’ve been anticipating is at the door step. There are just a few more shopping days and a bit more time for the parties, before Christmas arrives. It’s so close you can taste it and smell it. But, it’s not quite here yet. You may be shaking the boxes and feeling the packages, but it’s not time to open them just yet. The time for waiting is still with us. I know it’s not easy, but I think that it will be worth the wait. Remember how Jesus told the gathered disciples to wait for the coming of the Spirit. The disciples were probably wondering: Why wait? Why not get going now? The answer: There are still things to do before the Spirit can come in its fullness. What was true for them, is true for us. As we wait for the time of revealing, we again listen to the words of Isaiah. These words, as we’ve already discovered, were spoken to people living in exile. The exiles were waiting expectantly, hoping against hope, that their day of freedom wo

Isaiah 40:1-11 To be blunt, this Advent/Christmas season isn’t all that joyous for many of our neighbors. Indeed some of you are wondering what the new year will bring. Will you have a job? Will your retirement benefits be there? Our region stands at the center of America’s economic downturn. There is great suffering in our midst. I wish I could say that everything is going to be okay, that the jobs will be there come January. But I can’t. Things look bad! And as the President-Elect just said, things may get worse before they get better. That’s not the kind of news that we want to hear just before Christmas, but that’s what they’re saying. We live in a time of great uncertainty. I. An Anchor in a Changing World I know that Advent seems to get in the way of the Christmas Spirit, but it’s at times like this that the words of Isaiah, words that we often read only at Advent, speak most clearly to our hearts. This morning we’ve been invited to look at our ever-changing an

Isaiah 64:1-9 Pearl Harbor, Katrina, 9-11, Mumbai, Ike, the economic devastation that has hit this state, nation, and world; these are images that have seared our thoughts and memories. When we face catastrophic events such as these, it’s difficult to know how to respond. Thinking back to Katrina, do you remember watching New Orleans evacuate? Or, more recently, we watched as Galveston and then Houston evacuated in the face of Ike? At least in the case of Katrina, the ones who were left behind were the ones least able to care for themselves. But even those who escaped experienced a sense of exile. And to live in exile is to live with a sense of rootlessness and insecurity. Nature isn’t the only force that pushes people into exile. There are refugee camps around the world, from Darfur to the Palestinian Territories, and beyond. To live in exile is to lose control of one’s life. It is a time when the future is dark, cloudy, and foreboding. In such a situation, it is common t