Prepare Ye

This is my sermon manuscript for December 31. The lesson is John 1:19-34. A recording may be posted after this auto-posts. Over this extended weekend, many people will begin an annual ritual. You take down the Christmas decorations, and bring out your workout gear, or make the exercise bike, or treadmill accessible. We end one season, and begin the season of resolutions. However, like Christmas, the season of resolutions lasts about 12 days. By mid-January, the exercise bike has resumed its role as secondary coat rack. But the end of a year, and the beginning of a new one provides us with the opportunity to reflect on what we have been doing, and look at, and maybe even pursue, a new way of doing things. That is what is going on in our Gospel lesson. God is doing a new thing, and the leaders of Israel’s Jewish community don’t like it. John the Baptizer has created a great deal of controversy. He is baptizing people in the Jordan River. He is quoting the words of the prophe

os_xmas_morn_ed.m4a Download File This is my sermon text for my Christmas Morn message. The text is Luke 2:4-20. EDIT: An audio recording has been added. Merry Christmas. In God’s time, there was Good News of Great Joy to all people. In God’s time, a gift was given to us. In God’s time, the things that separate us from God, sin and death, would be defeated. In God’s time, humanity would be reconciled to God. And all of this occurred because a baby boy was born in a barn, laid in a feeding trough and wrapped in rags. The time was right. But what should our response be? Because we know the whole story of Jesus, that this baby whose birth we remember and celebrate will grow to be an incredible teacher and preacher; that he will heal the sick, and raise the dead; that he will perform many miracles; but most importantly, that he will give up his life on the Cross; and then he will be raised from that death; through him our sins are wiped clean and death i

naz_xmas_eve_ed.m4a Download File Below is my sermon text for our Christmas Eve services. The Gospel lessons are: Luke 2:6-14 and John 1:1-5, 9-14, 16-18. Apologies for the poor quality of the recording; this was the best of the three. Merry Christmas. The Gospels contain two very different stories about Jesus’ birth. Luke, and to some degree Matthew, tell the story we know best. Mary and Joseph go to Bethlehem because of the census. There is no place for them to stay, so she gives birth to her baby amongst the animals, and lays him in a feeding trough for his first crib. But John begins differently. John begins back at THE Beginning. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being in him was life, and the life was the light of all people. The true light, which enlightens everyon

Below is my message for Sunday, December 10 on Ezekiel 37:1-14, the Valley of Dry Bones.   As far as you can see, it is brilliant white. Eye blinding white covers the ground. As far you can hear, it is as silent as a closed library. You are surrounded by hundreds of thousands of millions of bones. There is no smell, because the bodies have been dead for a long, long time. The bodies have been picked clean of any shred of the person they once belonged to. The harsh rays of the sun have bleached the bones as white as the few clouds that float overhead. God brought Ezekiel into a valley filled with dried, human bones. The bones are the bodies of the people of Israel, dead because they had lost faith in their god. The nation of Israel is dead because they did not keep Him first, slain because they did not obey His commands, murdered because they did not love Him with their whole heart. They lost their way, lost God as the focus of their lives, and lost their f

Below is a draft of my sermon for December 3, the First Sunday of Advent, on the lesson from Daniel 3 in the Narrative Lectionary. The lesson is the story of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. As I mention in my message, the inspiration and most of the message that I gave came from a sermon that the Reverend Doctor Martin Luther King, Jr. gave at the Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta on November 5, 1967. A transcript of that powerful message was done by Austin Smith and is here . A recording of Rev. Dr. King's sermon is on YouTube and is embedded below. Two of my attempts, which pale next to the message of Rev. Dr. King, are at the bottom of this post. This lesson is a Sunday School classic. It has repetitions, strange and fun to say names, and comes to a conclusion with a moral. But there is so much more to this, especially right in the middle of this story. The leaders and prominent people from Jerusalem had been taken into exile in Babylon, and put to work in the B

I make this post almost every year on my Facebook page at the beginning of Advent to share what I believe is the most beautiful version of a Christmas Carol. It is "O Holy NIght," and was performed by Trombone Shorty and other jazz musicians from New Orleans on the tv show "Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip." Here is a  video of the song, and a link to download ( http://writingjunkie.net/sou…/Studio60-O-Holy-Night-NOLA.mp3 )the song. Merry Christmas.

e_26nov_message_ed.m4a Download File This is my sermon from November 26 on the Reign of Christ Sunday, and the lesson is Jeremiah 29:1,4-14. Above is a recording of the sermon from Emmanuel. It is hard to be the bearer of bad news. It is painful to have to tell a person or people what they don’t want to hear. Just talking about it, I fell that sinking feeling in my stomach, that heaviness in my heart. I’ve had to tell people they have lost their jobs. I‘ve had to tell people a loved one has died.  I’ve told people a loved one is in a dire situation and may not live. I’ve been in the room when people have been told they are probably going to die soon. I’ve been in the room when people have been told they don’t have a job. When delivering bad news, it is human nature to try to find a positive. You want to leave the person with some hope, with something to hold onto while their world in crumbling. This is what the prophet Jeremiah tries to do. The Souther

This is my article from the December 2017 - January 2018 Newsletter. A Few Things That Are Going On … We have several things going on in December and January. Please take time to go through the articles and calendar to see what you may want to take advantage of participating in. One of the things that I want to note is that I will be going to Houston at the end of January. I will be attending the ELCA Youth Extravaganza in Houston. This is a conference for youth and family ministries. It is a conference I attended three years ago in Detroit. It is held in the host city of the Youth Gathering in those years, and will give me an opportunity to scout the sites in Houston. It also has some sessions I am looking forward to attending. The downside is that I will not be able to be at the annual meetings for Nazareth and Our Savior’s. I plan to have everything prepared for these meetings before I leave. In preparation, Kay and I will be preparing annual reports and for th

This is Ananias' article from the December 2017-January 2018 Newsletter. My Big Guy read me another Bible story; this one has a connection to Christmas. It was before Jesus was born, right after his mom, Mary, found out she was going to give birth to Jesus. She went to visit her cousin Elizabeth, who was pregnant with John the Baptizer. When they met, Elizabeth shouted her blessings, and Mary responded with a song. (Luke 1.46-55) I’m not really sure if this is a song, or a poem, but it really means a lot to My Big Guy. He said it is called “the Magnificat.” But I think it is magnificent. Mary talks about what her son is going to do. She says that her soul magnifies God, and that God has chosen her from the lowly people, and she will be called blessed. It amazed me when My Big Guy told me that Mary was probably just a teenager when she became pregnant, about the same age as the kids in his C+LIFFE class. That is a lot of trust for anyone, but especially someone that yo

naz_19nov_message_ed.m4a Download File This is my sermon from Sunday, November 19. The lesson was Isaiah 9:1-7. A recording of the sermon from Emmanuel is above. The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who lived in a land of deep darkness— on them light has shined. Darkness is a horrible place to be. It doesn’t matter what the darkness is, or where the darkness comes from. Darkness is a horrible place to be. It doesn’t matter if the darkness comes from violence, economic struggles, personal struggles, emotional battles, or deep depression. Darkness is a horrible place to be. It isn’t just a lack of light. It is a weight that slows you down. It is a chill that you can’t warm up from. It is a barrier between people. It is a lack of hope and a loss of desire. Darkness calls you to hide and withdrawal. Darkness isolates and separates. Darkness divides and destroys. Darkness takes away light. Darkness takes away warmth. Darkness takes away re

Here is my sermon manuscript and two recordings of my message from Sunday, November 12. I was not happy with my final manuscript and did not use it at any of the services. The lessons for today are Amos 1:1-2; 5:14-15, 21-24 and John 7:37-38. Below are two recordings. I preferred my message at Nazareth, but the volume is poor. It was even worse at Our Savior's so I'm not including that. The volume was best at Emmanuel. naz_12nov_ed.m4a Download File em_12nov_ed.m4a Download File An immigrant worker comes from the south to its richer, northern neighbor. He looks around at the opulence of their homes and their places of worship. The people have winter and summer homes, both of which are extravagantly adorned. They are fitted with the finest fabrics and inset in imported ivory. They dine on the best foods, having turned their fields of sustenance crops like grains into vineyards and orchards for exotic fruits

This is Ananias' article from the November newsletter. My Big Guy gave me a homework assignment while he went to the Lutefisk Dinner at Our Savior’s. He had read Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount and the Beatitudes ( Matthew 5:1-12 ) to me the night before, and said I write my article about that lesson. But it makes NO SENSE! Jesus is saying all of the people are blessed, but they are dealing with difficult circumstances. They are pour in spirit; they mourn; they are meek; they hunger and thirst for righteousness; they are merciful; they are pure in heart; they are peacemakers; they are persecuted and reviled. How are those things supposed to be a blessing? So he left me to chew on that, plus a few toys and bones. I thought about these beatitudes, and wondered if our attitude might play a part in these blessings. If we are poor in spirit, we are humble, and realize we can’t do it ourselves, we have to put our trust in God. If we mourn, we understand loss, and can better receive an

naz_29oct17_message_ed.m4a Download File os_29oct17_message_ed.m4a Download File Below is my manuscript of my sermon for Reformation Sunday, October 29, 2017. The lessons for today were Ephesians 4:1-6 and John 6:27-35,  This is the fourth in our Reformation 500 series, today focusing on vocation. Above are two audio files with the message from Nazareth and Our Savior's. The audio quality is not what I hope for. If you are interested in prayer resources, look here and here . If you would like more information on the Seven Daily Faith Practices, contact Pastor Brian . I want to share the connection between these two lessons. In our Gospel lesson, Jesus was followed by some of the 5,000 people who he fed with a few fish and loaves of bread. They ask what must they do to perform the works of God. This is at the heart of this passage from the letter to Ephesians. In a series this Summer when we focused on Ephesians, I said that this vers

em_smalltalk_22oct17.m4a Download File em_message_22oct17_ed.m4a Download File This is my sermon for October 22nd. This is the third week of our Reformation 500 series, focusing on Holy Communion. The lessons were 1Corinthians 11:18, 21-29 and Matthew 26.26-29. Above are a recording of my message and the Small Talk (Children's Message)  from Emmanuel. I got to spend yesterday morning talking to some really smart and fun kids about Holy Communion. They are going to receive this sacrament for the first time today. So we spent time talking about what this meal means. We talked about how this meal means so many things. It is: A sign of God’s love A sign of God’s forgiveness A remembrance of what Jesus’ life, death and resurrection mean for us. A meal that strengthens us for service. A promise and foretaste of the meal to come in eternity. A gathering of the community of saints. It is all of this, and so much more. But it foremost wh

naz_message_15oct_t.m4a Download File os_message_15_oct_t.m4a Download File em_smalltalk_15oct_t.m4a Download File em_message_15oct_t.m4a Download File Below is my manuscript for my sermons on Sunday, October 15. We are in week two of a five week series focusing on themes for the 500th Anniversary of the Reformation. The lessons were 1 Peter 2.4-6, 9-10 and John 14.1-7. Recordings from the three services are above, each had some audio issues. I've also included my Small Talk (Children's Sermon) from Emmanuel. I'm not happy with the finished message. If you compare any of the audio versions to the manuscript, you will see I strayed and went into materials I read but hadn't committed to paper.  I still have two more tries at this as I will be leading services at two assisted living facilities. EDITED 10/15/17 at 255pm: I forgot to include a link to the Living Lu