Each year, the Vicar writes a Christmas story which he reads at the family service after blessing the creche.
Luke 2:1-20
“A crèche is a nativity scene. It’s just a fancy name for it.” Mrs. Harris explained. She was pulling into the driveway of the Binghams’ house. Sam and Katie were in the back seat.
“Wow!” Sam said. “The Binghams live in a fancy house too.” The house was indeed a large one, with big white columns at the front door.
“Now no talking about fancy, kids,” Mrs. Harris said. “You be polite. This was a very special invitation Mrs. B gave to you. And don’t touch anything. This is not a kid-friendly house. When I clean the house for them, I’m scared all the time that I’m going to break something. They got stuff that would cost more than your mom will make in her lifetime.”
Katie and Sam were careful to mind their mother’s warning. Continue reading ‘Christmas Eve December 24, 2008′
2 Samuel 7:1-11, 16
Romans 16:25-27
Luke 1:26-38 [39-56]
He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead,
and his kingdom will have no end.
–from the Nicene Creed
I don’t know how many of you this morning are still without power or phone service. It was the longest outage Anne and I have ever experienced: six days without power and then two more before the phone was restored. There was the darkness, reading by candlelight and kerosene lamp. There was the cold, though we kept the woodstove going. There was worry about pipes freezing and frozen food thawing. But most of all, there was the feeling of isolation.
We borrowed a cell phone from Alice St. Hilaire up the hill and began to call people—family, friends, parishioners—just to know they were still out there. We bought a little wind-up radio and listened to New Hampshire Public Radio tell me about the world beyond our walls. Trips to Colburn’s became about more than picking up the newspaper; people exchanged storm stories and offered each other help; strangers became friends. And I prayed, more than usual because I had the time and because I needed that connection too. I prayed a lot about waiting.
I’ve never been sure what those words in the Creed really mean, about Jesus “coming again in glory.” Continue reading ‘Advent 4 December 21, 2008′
Isaiah 61:1-4, 8-11
1 Thessalonians 5:16-24
John 1:6-8, 19-28
In the Great Thanksgiving prayer we are using in this season, Prayer B, we give thanks to God for creation, for the calling of Israel to be God’s people, and then for God’s “Word spoken through the prophets.” These figures we call prophets are of central importance in the history of salvation and their words—God’s Word spoken through them—remain of central importance today.
But who is a prophet? What is true prophecy—prophecy that speaks God’s Word? Continue reading ‘Advent 3 December 14, 2008′
Isaiah 40:1-11
2 Peter 3:8-15a
Mark 1:1-8
Comfort, O comfort my people, says your God.
–Isaiah 40:1
I begin with a piece of show and tell. This towel, or rather fragment of a towel, which was a dust rag after its towel days ended and then finally disintegrated in the washing machine into this scrap of cloth. “Can I throw it out now?” asked Anne. “No, give it to me. I want to keep it.”
You see, when it was a towel I was a child. Continue reading ‘Advent 2 December 7, 2008′
Isaiah 61:1-9
1 Corinthians 1:3-9
Mark 13:24-37
An English cyclist, out for a spin in the countryside, stops to visit a country church. “Once I am sure there’s nothing going on,” he says, “I step inside, letting the door thud shut.” He looks around, doing the sightseeing thing in the ancient building. “Back at the door/ I sign the book, donate an Irish sixpence,/ Reflect the place was not worth stopping for.”
But then he is led to deeper reflection. What will it be like, some future day, “when churches fall completely out of use/. . . when [even] disbelief has gone?” People will have forgotten what the buildings meant, what they held. And yet, he says, “It pleases me to stand in silence here;/ A serious house on serious earth it is,/ . . . . And that much never can be obsolete,/ Since someone will forever be surprising/ A hunger in himself to be more serious,/ And gravitating with it to this ground,/ Which, he once heard, was proper to grow wise in . . . .”* Continue reading ‘Advent 1 November 30, 2008′
Matthew 25:31-46
[Come With Joy Sunday]
Over the doorways of many medieval churches are painted or carved scenes of the Last Judgment. They’re a little like the bulletin cover this morning, only the medieval Jesus does not look as mellow as he does in the cover clip art. He’s the judge, and a fierce one. At his left hand are the goats, and often also human souls plunging down to the fires of hell with devils and their pitchforks skewering them as they fall. At his right hand are the sheep, and human souls wafting up to heaven where angels await them. The scene was designed to strike terror into the hearts of worshipers and, not coincidentally, make them more dependent on the Church. Continue reading ‘Pentecost Last: Christ the King November 23, 2008′
Zephaniah 1:7, 12-18
1 Thessalonians 5:1-11
Matthew 25:14-30
A parable like the one we heard this morning, the Parable of the Talents, is like a fine cut diamond. It has many facets, and though you have heard it many times, even like me preached on it many times, if suddenly you look upon it through another facet you may be struck by some quite new brilliance of insight. Continue reading ‘Pentecost 27 November 16, 2008′
Wisdom 6:12-16
1 Thessalonians 4:13-18
Matthew 251-13
Were you stuck by the contrast? On the one hand, the excitement around the world at America’s election of a black President? The outpouring of hope in Europe, Africa, Asia, Latin America. The gracious and moving statements, too, from President Bush, Senator McCain, Condoleezza Rice, recognizing whether or not one voted for this man, this was an extraordinary moment in our Nation’s history.
And then the very next day world stock markets plunge again, the Labor Department announces that the unemployment rate is at a 14 year high, the President of Russia threatens us over nuclear missiles in Poland—we are reminded of just how serious things are in the world at this moment.
Is this a case of illusion versus reality? Are the hopes on which this election turned going to be broken on the unyielding rocks of reality? Continue reading ‘Pentecost 26 November 9, 2008′
Revelation 7:9-17
1 John 3:1-3
Matthew 5:1-12
It seems another life, though it was only a few years ago, that we used to see those bumper stickers: “The one who dies with the most toys wins.” It turns out that the toys went mostly to the top tiny percentage of Americans. But thanks to credit cards and easy mortgages, the rest of us were able to pretend that our lives, too, could consist of amassing toys.
That illusion has collapsed with breathtaking suddenness. Our “toy story” is over. Whoever wins the election on Tuesday will have the task of leading us through a painful journey to a truer reality. What are the stories that will sustain and inspire us as we make our way into this new world? Continue reading ‘All Saints’ Sunday November 2, 2008′
Isaiah 25:1-9
Philippians 4:1-9
Matthew 22:1-14
Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice. Let your gentleness be known to everyone. The Lord is near. Do not worry about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
– Philippians 5:4-7
Is sadness a sin? I don’t mean the sadness that comes with the death of a loved one, the diagnosis of a serious illness, some other piece of bad news. Sadness like this has an immediate cause, we work it through, and life goes on. I mean the “black dogs” of depression, anxiety, despair that can overshadow a person, especially in times like this when there are so many frightening developments in the world around us. Is it a sin to let one’s life be captured by this kind of sadness? Continue reading ‘Pentecost 22 October 12, 2008′