A Christmas Eve Eucatastrophe

[A sermon delivered on Christmas Eve, 2022.]

Brothers and sisters in the Christ Child, grace and peace, hope and joy to you, Amen.

This time of year is bound up in such high hopes.  Like almost no other moment on our calendar, Christmas is a time when we yearn for everything to be just right.  We get all the decorations and the lights in place.  We set plans for family gatherings and parties hoping to see all of our favorite and beloved people.  We even offer up prayers that the weather will cooperate just nicely and give us a white Christmas.  

Yet as it goes with life, rarely does everything go according to plan.  When party plans change we almost expect it.  When the weather doesn’t cooperate, even that we kind of expect, it is Michigan after all.  What really throws us is when tragedy and hardship and suffering find us in this most holy time of year.  So many of us have endured losses at this time of year and they weigh on us, year after year.  They take so long to heal.  Losing loved ones so close to Christmas always seems to affect us more as it interrupts that idea. It interrupts those perfect hopes we so yearned for.  

Thankful Remembering

[Originally published in the Monroe News on December 2, 2022]

I’d like to direct your attention to thankfulness one more time.  I know our calendars have moved past Thanksgiving and Black Friday and into that month of Christmas, but this is more of a year-round topic so I’m going to go with it.  I was able to spend the Thanksgiving holiday with my Dad’s side of the family in Fort Wayne, Indiana.  We were celebrating my grandmother’s 95th birthday as an entire family (cousins, aunts, uncles, etc.) in addition to the big Thanksgiving celebration.  

Gathering together as family was reason alone to be thankful.  It is a rare feat to get all of my cousins and I together at the same time as life and vocation have moved us across the country.  As we shared several meals and a heated game of “Ticket to Ride” I was reminded of how wonderful it was to have that time together and how thankful I was to be there.  During the weekend we all wrote memories in a book to share with my grandmother that the joy of the weekend might always be remembered.  My grandmother also invited us grandkids to her house for her to have a chance to impart several heirlooms upon our generation.  These were items that would help us remember our grandmother and wonderful times from her life when the day comes that our Lord calls her home.

When I began to digest the entire weekend I couldn’t tell if it was more about remembering or about thankfulness.  Perhaps both.  It seems that a genuine thankfulness might just be built upon remembering.  When I remember the love my grandmother and my family has shared over the years that naturally makes me all the more thankful.  When I remember my childhood I can be all the more thankful for my parents.  When I remember tough days past I can be more thankful for good days present.  Thankfulness and remembering really do pair nicely together.

Freedom in Love

Sermon Preached on November 13, 2022, Proper 28C. Sermon Text Galatians 5:13-15 Brothers and sisters in Christ, grace and peace to you, Amen. Journey with me back to the Old Testament era. I want you to picture in your minds the early parts of the story of Joseph. Joseph was one of the 12 sons of Jacob. Joseph, the young boy who was despised by all of his older brothers. Joseph, who was given the beautiful coat of many colors by his father. Joseph, who was beaten and then sold by his brothers to slave traders. Joseph, who came to live in the house of Potiphar in Egypt. That is where our attention begins this morning. Joseph in Potiphar’s house. When you picture Joseph in this situation, would you describe him as a free man? Does Joseph have freedom in his predicament in Egypt? Practically speaking, he was for all intents and purposes a slave. He had a master who demanded his complete obedience and service. This master had literally purchased Joseph from the traders. It certainly doesn’t look like much freedom.

Who is Faithful?

Sermon for Reformation Sunday -- Oct 30, 2022 -- Romans 3:19-28

Brothers and sisters in Christ, grace and peace to you, Amen.

Do you remember Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego?  They are well known for what happened to them during the time of Israel’s exile in Babylon.  They squared off with King Nebuchadnezzar in an unforgettable event.  These three men, faithful to God, had risen in the ranks of the wise leaders of the king of Babylon.  Things were going well for them until this one day.  King Nebuchadnezzar had constructed a 90-foot golden image on the plains of Babylon.  This golden image was to be worshipped by everyone.  When the special instruments would play, all were to bow down to it.  And pretty much all did, that is, except for Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego.  The three refused.  The king was furious.  He gives them an ultimatum.  When you hear the special music, bow down, or else you will be thrown into the fiery furnace.  The king boldly asks them “who is the god who will deliver you out of my hands?”

Parents

[Originally published in the Monroe News on October 28, 2022]

My life continues to enter new and fascinating stages of parenting.  Though they feel unique to me I’m sure others out there have found themselves in similar positions.  My wife and I have our 3 older boys all in high school now.  On the plus side it is handy all having them in the same school again.  On the down side, the tuition bill is really a kick in the pants.  Our oldest is a senior and so that brings all sorts of extra emotional experiences like watching them go through senior nights, witnessing them playing their last soccer game of the season and a last cross-country meet.  There’s also the senior pictures and all the other fun of getting ready for graduation.  Maybe the biggest task of them all is the college hunt.  It was quite overwhelming back in April when we began to make some college visits.  I’m not sure what was more daunting, picturing our oldest getting ready to go off to school, or looking at what a year of school was going to cost.

On the flip side of all the high school parenting we are doing, my wife and I also have a 3-year old and a 9-month old. After years of being out of diapers and bottles here we are, having started all over again.  We’re learning quickly how parenting, especially with babies and toddlers, is a young person’s game.  Getting up with kids in the middle of the night is one thing in your 20s when you’re used to staying up late; but it is another thing entirely in your 40s when a 10pm bedtime is your friend.  One of the things we do enjoy about having both older and younger kids is the interaction between the two age groups.  The younger ones of course just adore the older ones and watch everything they do.  The older ones have been pretty caring and helpful in loving their little siblings.  The funniest part of it all, and we’ve heard this happens in other families, is when our oldest is handling the baby and strangers ask him if it is his own child.  He handles it with a blush.