Genesis 1:1-5 , Mark 1:4-11, Acts 19:1-7 It is still early in this new year, a time when many of us are still thinking about what comes next, what we would like to accomplish, what resolutions we intend to keep in 2021. It’s a time of beginnings. We have been living in a sort of […]
Jeremiah 31:7-14 and John 1:10-18 The late David H. C. Reade was pastor of New York City’s Madison Avenue Presbyterian Church for 33 years. A Scot by birth, Dr. Reade was a chaplain in Britain’s Highland Division during World War II. He was captured by the Germans at Dunkirk and spent the rest of the […]
Galatians 4:4-7 and Luke 2:22-40 Have you noticed that we’re not allowed to linger long at the manger? We heard, during the Sundays of Advent, the prophets speak of darkness, of sin, of desire, and need, the pain of exile and homelessness. And then, in the middle of a starlit night in Bethlehem, there was […]
Luke 1:47-55 and Luke 1:26-38 Our readings this Fourth Sunday of Advent focus on Mary, the mother of Jesus, and tell the story of the annunciation—the announcement to Mary by the angel Gabriel of the coming, miraculous birth of Jesus. It is a scene of great mystery, simplicity and beauty, but also of fear. It […]
Isaiah 61:1-4, 8-11 and John 1:6-8, 19-28 One of the loveliest things about Christmas is that for once in the year we can soak ourselves, for a little while, anyway, in the familiar. In a world where everything is always changing, where so much of what once we took for granted now seems up for […]
Isaiah 40:1-11 and Mark 1:1-8 It was 77 years ago that Bing Crosby recorded a new Christmas song called “I’ll Be Home for Christmas.” You know it: I’ll be home for Christmas You can count on me. . . . Christmas Eve will find me Where the love light gleams. I’ll be home for Christmas […]
Isaiah 64:1-9 and Mark 13:24-37 Today’s lesson from Mark’s gospel speaks to us of the end of the age and of Christ coming again. What do we mean when we say Christ is coming again? What can we say about that? Well, first of all, let’s look at the fact that every year the church […]
Psalm 100 and Matthew 25:31-46 In this morning’s text from Matthew Chapter 25, Jesus is summarizing what he has been teaching and preaching for three years. The time is getting short. The Cross is two days away, and he does not have much opportunity left to make things any plainer for his followers. As he […]
Psalm 123 and Matthew 25:14-30 Edmund Steimle, the long-time professor of homiletics at Union Seminary in New York, once remarked that “One of the curious facts about the Cristian faith is that the biggest stumbling block in the way of our acceptance of it is not so much what we believe or don’t believe about […]
Psalm 78:1-7 and Matthew 25:1-13 All my life, I have had a tendency to procrastinate. No matter how much lead time I have on a project, I invariably seem to put it off until the last minute. That made for a lot of all-nighters in college and more than a few “just-in-time” presentations to business […]