Every encounter that you have in your daily life is a possibility to show how you have been changed by God’s adoption and gift of love. Instead of the worry and stress of the world around you God has surrounded you with the peace that passes all understanding.
Read MoreIt has always struck me as strange that so many of the people who put up lights for the season turn them all off on December 26. Do they not know of the twelve days of Christmas? Usually when we hear about this, someone is talking about the twelve days before Christmas and using it as some way to make money. Yes, there was a tradition of giving gifts on each of the twelve days (that is where the song comes from), but the reason and meaning of many of our actions around Christmas is lost in the commercialization of the event.
Read MoreHas kindness become so rare that we have to report on it? Does that mean the opposite – meanness – has become prevalent? (Or is the opposite of kindness selfishness?) Have we become a society where kindness is only a random event? Is life only good if you push and shove your way through it?
Read MoreWhile everyone around you is rushing to and fro trying to get those last-minute gifts, show them the reason why we give gifts (to remind us of the gift of Jesus) and gather with family and friends (to share the love of God who came to us as a child). It is only because of God’s gift of Jesus that we are able to celebrate in love. Embrace God’s love, look to Jesus as your example, and strive to do God’s will this Christmas and always.
Read MoreWe could add many things about Paul, traveling dangerous roads on long journeys (by foot), shipwrecked, imprisoned, and rejected. We know this was not the whole of Paul’s life, he did have many joyful times as well. I point out the difficult times because it is easy to rejoice and give thanks when things are going well. Paul calls us to rejoice and give thanks at all times.
Read MoreI can remember as a child, sometimes on Sunday after church my dad would pile us all into the car and we would go for a drive. I do not know if the destination was planned but we would often end up at the home of a relative or family friend. One of those destinations was my mother’s school-friend. She and her husband were building their own home. It never seemed to be done.
Read MoreThere are so many things that vie for our attention. Especially in this time. We realize that in two days it will be December. And we all know what December brings – great expectations. There are presents to buy, another meal around which to gather our families, trips to plan, all with the uncertainty of our time.
Read MoreWe are allowed to practice our religion without government interference. We have the opposite problem from the Jews under Antiochus and the early Christians. Since we can practice our faith as we wish we tend to forget about God.
Read MoreIn fact many of the signs they point to are the work of human hands and greed. We are the ones who make war. We are the ones who have wreaked havoc on our climate, not God.
Read MoreJust like Lazarus, Jesus is standing outside the tomb of our lives calling for us to, “Come out.” Our tomb is a many-structured thing made up of our own doing and random events which meet us in the everyday happenstance of life. We are bound by our own sin and death. To us Jesus calls.
Read MoreLuther knew that and reminds us that we are the same. We are, at the same time, sinner and saint. Sometimes we do not know if our actions are God’s will or not. Usually we do, and when we act as we desire, we often delude ourselves into believing we are doing what is right.
Read MoreWe note that this text repeats a common theme in the salvation literature (if we may call it that) of the Old Testament. That theme is one of a journey home. It is a proclamation that God will gather all the people of Israel and bring them home. Especially the blind and lame, those with child, and those in labor. Hmm, the ones for whom a journey will be most difficult?
Read MoreThis fourth song is also considered by many scholars to be the basis for the Apostle’s creed. That creed was developed very early in the church and might possibly even predate some of the New Testament books.
Read MoreThe people rejected him and his message and drove him away because they had deluded themselves that their prosperity was a sign that God approved of their lives and how they treated others. We do know how that is.
Read MoreSome Christian churches take them [the texts about marriage] to the fullest possible understanding in the modern sense – birth control is wrong as well as divorce, and in divorce, leads to excommunication. This use is the opposite of what the texts really mean. The Genesis text is about a gift. God’s gift of life, the world, and human community.
Read MoreThe story is not about how the Israelites lacked the things needed for life. It is about their dissatisfaction with the things that they had. What God gave them was never enough. They complained about being in slavery in Egypt and God rescued them. Once rescued they complained about how hard the journey was to the promised land. Now they are complaining because they do not have the cucumbers and fish they had there. The people were starting to believe that their freedom was all for nothing because it did not go the way they desired.
Read MoreHaving a conversation with God does not mean getting your own way. It is how you learn what God is calling you to do. It does not mean asking for the things you want. Listen to James, “You do not have because you do not ask. You do not receive because you ask wrongly in order to spend on your pleasures.”
Read MoreThe people who had lost everything, who were held in captivity, were starting to fall away from the covenant and taking up the customs and religion of their captors. Life was probably much easier that way. God sent Isaiah to this weary and tired people who were ready to give up.
Read MoreWhile our society has bought the lie that the only person we need to worry about is ourself and that we can do whatever we desire without having any concern about anyone else, as a quick look at television advertisements or the anti-vaccination movement shows. It seems that was one of the problems in the community to which the book of James was written.
Read MoreHis point is that the Pharisees and scribes were following the law for the wrong purpose. They were using the law to set themselves apart from everyone else as the true followers of God. Which is the opposite of what our text from Deuteronomy called them to do.
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