12/30/2018
Christmas 1 C
John (the theologian) takes us to a heavenly perspective on the importance of the birth of the baby Jesus. It is high theology, and it is easy for the lessons this Sunday to get very complicated very quickly. But there is an important dimension here of who Jesus was. John’s prologue explains the significance of Christmas that I had never heard until I took courses in seminary. Let’s see where John is taking us.
12/23/2018
Advent IV C
Elizabeth’s senior life pregnancy most definitely caused a change in the plans she had made. She was suddenly no longer going to slow down the pace of life; retire in her ‘golden years’; or even sleep in more. In her old age she was going to be the mother of a baby boy; and not just any baby boy. Elizabeth was carrying John; whom an angel announced was going to prepare the way for Israel’s Messiah. God’s Plan brought a whole new direction to Elizabeth’s life.
12/16/2018
Advent III C
John understood that he was there to prepare the way for the Messiah; but the fact that Jesus was more concerned with healing, reconciliation, and love than repentance led John to question whether Jesus was really the One whom he was called to proclaim (Lk. 7:18-20). “Are you the one, or should we expect someone else?”
12/2/2018
Advent 1
Be on guard. Be alert. Something is happening!
Years ago NBC ran a series of commercials about their nightly news; “The world is complicated. Our job is to make sense of it. That is what we do.” Isn’t that special?
The truth is that daily life includes events that do not make sense. School shootings, boiling tempers in politics and in the streets of America, acts of terrorism around the world, an inability to have civil discourse anymore. In the context of all the issues that can pull us down and wear us out, there is a message in the season of Advent that offers us hope.
12/17/2017
3 Advent
John the Baptizer said that his task was to give witness that the Savior was about to arrive. And when he had given his witness, and when Jesus arrived, John told his followers that it was time for them to go to Jesus.
John’s job was not to be the focus, but to bring focus to Jesus.