First Sunday in Advent
from Isaiah 9:1-7
As we begin the season of Advent, the march toward Christmas we must acknowledge that there is much that is familiar about this time of year. There are traditions we uphold, customs, gatherings that happen every year, people we expect to see, even food we expect to eat…it is part of what makes this time of year so special…being able to enjoy things that we don’t always get to.
What if in the familiar, we have lost sight of that which is foundational to our reason for celebrating? Has the birth of Christ simply become for us another familiar tradition rather then the foundation of our hope and the expectation of our future?
w/ Vern Collins
from Ephesians 3:1-12
The season of Epiphany is about the hope of humanity being revealed in the birth of Christ.
Epiphany. Revelation. The Ah-ha moment. The time when things become clear…when there is knowledge of something not previously possessed…if knowledge is power, it begs the question , “what kind of power are you in pursuit of?”
Paul has experienced a deep revelation of Christ…and it has empowered him in significant ways…but perhaps not in the way we tend to think of power…
w/ Vern Collins
from Luke 2:22-40
How do we reconcile the anticipation and promise of hope and joy and peace that we are immersed in during Advent with the harsh reality that is a hurting and broken life or this broken world in which we live?
In Luke’s account of Mary and Joseph’s encounter with Simeon and Anna in the temple, we find that Simeon (and as a result, Mary) is very much in touch with long suffering and pain…and we find that perhaps it is not something we are meant to explain away or shy away from.
What if, like Mary, we embraced God’s hope for our lives…both in the good and the bad…and in embracing it find that we are able to point the world around us to the hope we find in Christ?
w/ Vern Collins
from Luke 2:1-20
Order. We spend a great deal of time and energy in our lives seeking to achieve and maintain some sort of order. And yet, all it takes is a phone call, a meeting at work, a notice in the mail, a visit to the doctor to realize that at any given moment we are a breath away from chaos breaking in and disrupting our safe, calculated lives.
The good news is, as a census was being taken in the Roman Empire…as order was being set…Jesus was entering the world…not in the midst of order, but on the fringe of it…on the edge of chaos.
In unexpected ways to unlikely people the birth of Jesus and news of His birth came…with a proclamation that through Christ, God is coming to make peace in the midst of the chaos…
w/ Vern Collins
