Words of Welcome

Luke 2:41-52     Oh, how they do grow up!  They start out as cute little babies, but before you know it, they’re twelve, and that original cuteness has begun to wear off.  12-year-old kids are liable to speak their minds – even to their parents.  So, would it surprise you to learn that Jesus is no different?     When last we gathered on Thursday Evening, we found Jesus lying in a manger, surrounded by proud parents and some rather dirty shepherds.  We filled the night with carols, such as O Come all Ye Faithful , the First Noel, and Silent Nigh t.  We sang songs of joy and thanksgiving to the one lying in that manger, all wrapped up in swaddling clothes.  Yes, along with the angels and the shepherds, we sang:       “Infant Holy, Infant Lowly, for his bed a cattle stall;     Oxen lowing, little knowing, Christ the babe is Lord of all.”  These much beloved songs project an image of a gentle glowing baby, and we all seem to like babies.  Little children like them, as do the oldest

Luke 2:1-20     When it comes to casting a Christmas pageant, shepherds rank low on the list of desirable parts.  The most coveted roles, of course, are Mary and Joseph.  After that, I expect that the three wise men get top billing.  Being one of the magi is nice, because you get to wear fancy robes and bring gifts to the baby Jesus.  While angels don’t rank with the wise men, at least they have more star power than shepherds.      As for the shepherds, they get to wear bathrobes with blankets over their heads – You need to think Linus here.  No crowns and no wings, just blankets and bathrobes.   No gifts and no grand songs to sing.  While the angels hang out in the heavens, broadcasting the good news, they hang out in the hills with the sheep and the dogs.  There’s nothing too exciting about these roles, except that Luke seems to think that they’re important.      You might notice that Luke’s birth story doesn’t include wise men, kings, or magi – whatever name you want to give

    LUKE 1:39-55     When Alex Rodriguez signed his ten-year 252-million-dollar contract with the Texas Rangers a number of years ago, baseball fans were scandalized. They wondered – who could be worth that kind of money?  While no baseball player has caught up to him yet, several are nipping at his heels, and his salary doesn’t even compare to what Tiger Woods brought in with his winnings and endorsements – at least prior to his recent scandals, or  Oprah gets from her empire, or the typical Bank CEO receives in compensation.     If you’re like me, it’s kind of hard to grasp the magnitude of this kind of money.    What do you do with that much money?   How many homes and cars do you actually need?    Andy Rooney asked just this question in his 60 Minutes commentary last Sunday evening.  Pointing to the recently released Fortune 400 list of richest Americans, he opined:      I’ve often wondered at what point spending money no longer is any fun for a rich person. In other wor

Luke 3:7-18 The key to success in life is to lower expectations. If you set the bar low enough, then it won’t take much energy or effort to succeed. Let me give you an example. If, back in August, you expected the Lions to make the playoffs this year– not to mention the Super Bowl -- you were probably setting yourself up for a big disappointment. After all, it’s been a while since the Lions last had a winning season, and they’ve been to a Super Bowl, not even when Barry Sanders was roaming the backfield. But, if all you expected was an improvement upon last year’s results, well then, this year has been a roaring success. Just think, last year the Lions lost every game, making them the first NFL team ever to do so. But this year, the Lions have not only won one game, they’ve already won two games. I’m not a mathematician, but that’s a 200% improvement. What more can we ask of them? Quite often what would seem to be bad news can be portrayed as good news – if we set a low bar

Malachi 3:1-4 If you’re planning to host a holiday party, you’ll have to get the house ready. That may mean doing some much needed winter cleaning. Dusting, mopping, vacuuming, polishing, cleaning the bathrooms, and washing and ironing those table cloths. Of course, you also have to prepare the food, unless you decide to save time and hire a caterer. Once you get all that done, you still have to get yourself ready. After all, a good host has to be properly bathed and clothed. At least that’s what you have to do if you want to throw a successful high society party. But, what if your anticipated guest is the Lord of creation? How should you prepare for such a visit? I. PREPARE THE WAY!! This question of preparation is central to the season of Advent. Although, too often this is a season that gets swept aside by all the commotion of the season that follows. When it comes to Advent, we really don’t know what to do with it. We don’t know the hymns, beyond “O Come, O

1 Kings 17:8-16 Julianna Claasen, in reflecting on today’s text, wrote: Sometimes God’s provision comes in the most unlikely of places and by means of the most unlikely of people. 1 Or, to put it another way, “God works in mysterious ways!” The story of the prophet Elijah’s encounter with the widow of Zarephath is a perfect illustration of this principle. Think about it, God sends the prophet, who is fleeing from the wrath of Queen Jezebel, to a foreign land to find shelter with an impoverished widow and her son. What is more, not only was this widow poor, she wasn’t even a worshiper of Yahweh. Being from Sidon, she would have been a worshiper of Baal, the same god worshiped by Jezebel. And yet, it was this most unlikely woman who provided food and shelter for a stranger, even though her resources were few. But in the midst of her scarcity, God found abundance. There is another story about a widow. Although this story is a bit different, it also features a widow who gives

Hebrews 10:19-25 Imagine for a moment that you’re watching two men talking. You can’t hear what they’re saying – they could be talking about football, politics, the best place to get burgers, and maybe even religion. At first the discussion seems fairly congenial, but then it gets a bit heated, and you see one man put his finger into the chest of the other, and shouts: “Don’t provoke me!” It would seem that this word -- “provoke” – carries a lot of negative baggage. When we hear it, we hear argument, heated discussion, or even a fight. Wars start with provocations, and in Ephesians parents are told not to “provoke [their] children to anger” (Eph. 6:4). Now, I wish the message had been -- children, don’t provoke your fathers to anger, but that’s not what it says. Oh, by the way, if you turn to 1 Corinthians 13, you’ll find Paul saying that love isn’t “irritable,” which is the same word in Greek as provoke. And, who wants to be irritable? So, from what I can tell, it’

1 Peter 4:7-11 Do you ever put yourself in the biblical story by asking whether your life story fits into the sacred story? If so, have you ever seen yourself in the story of Abraham and Sarah? In this important biblical story, God calls a couple to leave their homeland and move to a new place. I sort of resonate with this story, though not to the degree that we see described in Hebrews 11, which says that they set out on this journey, “not knowing where he was going.” At least, we had a house when we got here. They had to live in tents for several generations! But, they dwelt in this new land and “looked forward to the city that has foundations, whose architect is God” (Heb. 11:8-9). This is what faith is all about. It’s about trusting someone with your life and your future, even though you don’t know what that future holds. Harvey Cox calls this a “deep-seated confidence.”1 It’s a quality that comes to us as a gift from God and lets us step outside the box and take ris

Note: This is the sixth and final sermon in my series on our congregational core values. ____________________ Psalm 95:1-7a O come, let us sing to the Lord ; let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation! Let us come into his presence with thanksgiving; let us make a joyful noise to him with songs of praise! For the Lord is a great God, and a great King above all gods. In his hand are the depths of the earth; the heights of the mountains are his also. The sea is his, for he made it, and the dry land, which his hands have formed. O come, let us worship and bow down, let us kneel before the Lord , our Maker! For he is our God, and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand. It’s All Saints Day, and so today we join with all the saints in heaven and on earth in singing “Holy, Holy, Holy,” to the Lord our God, the Almighty. We do this because, as the prophet Isaiah declares, “the whole earth is full of his glory” (Isa. 6:3). We sin

Number 5 in a 6 sermon series on Central Woodward Christian Church's congregational core values. ************************************** Acts 1:6-14 There’s a little old song that we’ve all probably sung, and it goes like this: This little light of mine, I’m gonna let it shine This little light of mine, I’m gonna let it shine This little light of mine, I’m gonna let it shine, Let it shine, let it shine, let it shine. When we sing this song, we know that it’s not talking about lighting candles or turning on flashlights when the electricity goes out. This little light that we’re supposed to let shine is our own life that serves as a sign of God’s presence in the world. It reminds us that what we do and what we say bears witness to the grace and love of God. And as Jesus said, don’t hide your light under a bushel or in a cellar – instead, put it on a lamp stand where it can be seen (Luke 11:33; Mk 14:21; Mt. 5:15). Back in February as we discerned God’s missional calling f