Has God ever spoken to you? Have you ever seen a sign? Heard a voice? Met God in a dream? As I was finishing up my senior year of high school, I was kind of a mess. I could not figure out where I wanted to go to college, and my indecision was creating a…
Christmas
No Christmas without Consent and Commitment
One Christmas, when my niece was about six years old, I carefully wrapped up a gently loved American Girls doll and accessories that had belonged to a dear friend of mine. When Cami unwrapped that gift, she literally burst into tears. “I’ve wanted one of these for my whole life!” she cried out between sobs!…
The Redemption of Scrooge: Keeping Christmas Well
Text: Luke 2: 8-20 Over the four weeks of Advent, we have been exploring together in worship the story of Ebenezer Scrooge captured in A Christmas Carol. Scrooge is a bitter, lonely man whose “soul is as frigid as the bleak midwinter air.” The only friend he had was dead, and Scrooge might as well…
God Moves In
“Before the creation of the world,” Ephesians tells us, God had a plan. Before you made plans to join us here in worship at Immanuel. Before the star in the sky led the Magi to Bethlehem. Before the prophets first heard the voice of God. Before the moon and the stars were set in the…
God Prepares a Feast
How many of you ate too much this holiday season? How many of you ate just enough? You know, the thing about family gatherings, celebrations, and joyous events is that they are feast times in our lives. We gather around tables. We break bread. We share stories. And we experience life to its fullest. …
Can’t Keep Silent!
While the Advent journey takes us through an emotional rollercoaster of joy, fear, humility, and anticipation, there is no other emotion to guide the days after Christmas than pure celebration. Each of the readings for this time of Christmas call us to take a deep breath of relief, to look around at the beauty of…
Winter is Over!
Before our Christmas traditions took hold, there were other festivals in the northern hemisphere among folks who were tucked in for winter. The crops had been harvested and stored, the work was done, and they celebrated… But in one of the pieces I read this advent from a writer named Gayle Boss, I was a…
Inward, Outward, Upward
Since the first Sunday in November, we’ve been talking about the “Already” and the “Not Yet.” We’ve been waiting for the day, for the moment to arrive, when Christ is born again in our hearts and minds and lives. But it is a kind of paradoxical waiting, because God has already entered human history through…