Sermon Blog

We gather here today just over a week after the release of probably the most anticipated movie of the year, or at least the second half of the year.  Proof how greatly anticipated the movie was reflected in the fact that during opening weekend, it shattered the all-time opening record by almost $40 million and the opening day record by nearly $35 million.  When you think of Star Wars, several things come to mind, Darth Vader, Luke Skywalker, Yoda, the Millennium Falcon, and of course the tool that every young boy, and probably a few girls, as well as numerous grownups have longed to really possess, a lightsaber. Who wouldn’t want a lightsaber?  The lightsaber was the weapon of choice for both the Jedi and the Sith, Jedi (the good guys) representing the positive side of “The Force” and the Sith (the bad guys) representing the dark side.  In addition to serving as a weapon, the lightsaber was a pretty versatile tool.  It was a defensive tool, used not only to...

I can’t tell you the number of romantic Hallmark Christmas love stories that Anita and I watch every year.  We enjoy spending that time together while we are wrapping presents or while I am typing bulletins or putting our Sunday slideshows together.  However, while all those movies are fictitious, the true Christmas Story is also a love story, it is the beginning of the Greatest Love story, and we are part of that love story, we are the reason for the love story. So my Brothers and Sisters, we find ourselves tonight in the midst of the Greatest Love Story ever told…a story that began when God said “Let there be light,” and won’t conclude until we see Jesus’ fulfillment of “Surely I am coming soon.”  Hear again the words of John, as related to us from Eugene Peterson’s The Message paraphrase of the Bible: “What marvelous love the Father has extended to us! Just look at it—we’re called children of God! That’s who we really are. But that’s also why the world doesn’t r...

Have you ever been in a hurry in the mornings fixing breakfast and either hit the wrong numbers on the microwave, or if you’re a stovetop person, forgotten about the timing while fixing oatmeal, grits, or cream of wheat.  We have a morning routine at our house.  Joshua wakes up with his alarm and comes up the hall where I am doing my devotions.  Once I am done, or if I am already done, my job is to help him finish waking up and get him eating breakfast while I fix my coffee and Anita’s hot chocolate for the morning, along with our lunches.  If Joshua decides on one of those three I mentioned, I am going back and forth to the microwave, working on both his breakfast or Anita’s hot chocolate.  The timings are close.  The initial time for the hot chocolate is a minute, thirty seconds, for Joshua’s breakfast, it is a minute.  Do you know what happens if I forget what I am putting in, and hit 1:30 with his breakfast, especially if I have accidently added...