κήρυξον τὸν λόγον

[Introduction] Every year we see drops of blood on our White Christmas. That’s because Christmas highlights the Life and Incarnation of our Lord. To be incarnate means to be in the flesh. Where there is flesh, there is blood.  Today the Incarnation has entered the temple where it was seen by two people just like you and me, a man named Simeon and a woman named Anna. There is nothing special about Simeon and Anna outside of the fact that, unlike you and me, they are in the temple of God every day. These two well-aged people have been constantly waiting ... constantly listening to the Word of God ... constantly receiving God’s gifts ... constantly and and patiently longing to receive the comfort of Israel and redemption of Jerusalem (vv 25, 38). They know that there is no comfort ... there is no redemption ... there is no forgiveness, life, and salvation ... there is no peace ... no unity without the blood of the Incarnate God. 1. Though he’s an ordinary Joe, Simeon was a righteous...

When King Solomon dedicated the first temple in Jerusalem, he wondered aloud ... Will God indeed dwell on the earth? Behold, the heavens and the heaven of heavens cannot contain [him]. How much less this house that I have built! (1 Ki 8:27).  This was a marvelous observation from the wisest man on earth just moments after the glorious cloud of YHWH’s presence filled the temple in such a way that the priests could not stand to minister there (v 11).  Of course, Solomon’s temple was only a prelude for what would follow. The Word [that] was in the beginning and was with God and was God ... the Word through whom all things happened ... the Word who is Life and Light came into the world. ... He entered his temple conceived in Mary’s womb ... and [he] dwelt among us (Jn 1:10-11,14). True God, the maker of heaven and earth, enfleshed himself as True Man with complete human nature. He is Immanuel, God with us. He has a name and a birthday ... just like you and me.  Yes, Jesus...

[Introduction] We began this evening with a beautifully sung contemporary song that you will never find in our service book. I have had mixed feelings about this song for a long time ... not only as a pastor, but as a Christian. They’re mixed because honestly it’s a fun song to listen to. It has a catchy tune and poetic form that employs some interesting rhetoric and gives you something to ponder. But I find it theologically wanting. Mary, did you know ... the songwriter asks. Really?  As a Christian, I want to ask the songwriter: Have you never heard the Gospels of Matthew and Luke? Of course, she knew!  Brothers and sisters in Christ, don’t question for a second what Mary knew. The mother of God knew her baby boy would save our sons and daughters. She knew that he would make you new. She knew this child would soon deliver you. She knew ... the blind will see, the deaf will hear, the dead will live again! The lame will leap, the dumb will speak the praises of the Lamb! ...

My dear brothers and sisters in Christ, there is no tip-toeing around this: Death is our enemy. We don’t want it to be. We devise ways to deny it, to whitewash it, to wish it away. We create euphemisms to deal with it. We like to say our loved ones passed away or that they fought the good fight, anything to soften the reality of death.  We do that because death is our enemy.  It bothers us and chases us and harasses us. We can’t escape it.  It scares us and afflicts us and plagues us. It disrupts our lives. There is no stopping it, eluding it, or wishing it away. Death is our enemy. So today ... my dear brothers and sisters in Christ ... as we mourn the death of our beloved mother, and grandmother, great grandmother ... our sister and friend, Elizabeth June Barnett ... I want to draw your attention to our reading from Isaiah chapter 25, where we hear one of the great promises of the Lord God Almighty, the creator and redeemer and sanctifier of all things in heaven and on ...

[Introduction] Today is the Feast of Saint Thomas the Apostle. Among the twelve, Thomas is one of the more famous apostles, albeit for asking some of the questions we are all afraid to ask. After declaring in John 11 that he was ready to follow Jesus into death, it is Thomas who wonders how we can know the way to the Father. So Jesus tells him, I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. It is also Thomas who doubts the resurrection. After demanding that he be able to touch the hole in the hands and side of Jesus before he believes, “doubting Thomas” becomes “believing Thomas” when our Lord comes into his midst one Sunday morning with all the disciples and reminds him that he now has peace. Put your finger here and see my hands. And put out your hand, and place it in my side , Jesus told Thomas. Do not be unfaithful but faithful. Of course, Thomas’s immediate response was “ my Lord and my God ” (Jn 20:24-29). Then Jesus said to him, Because...