[RCL] Isaiah 7:10-16; Psalm 80:1-7, 16-18; Romans 1:1-7; Matthew 1:18-25 God breaks into human history bringing divine plans to fruition through ordinary people. We see this pattern all through scripture, from the patriarch Abraham to the persecutor of Christians, Saul, who becomes the Apostle Paul. And from Deborah and Esther, who bring hope to their…

[RCL]: Isaiah 7:10-16; Psalm 80:1-7, 16-18; Romans 1:1-7; Matthew 1:18-25 It was a daring plan. For eons, God had tried to get the attention of people. Through prophets, poets, and priests, God had tried to get the attention of the people God loved. God had yelled and whispered, stayed silent and shouted, but people were deaf…

Fourth Sunday in Advent and one wonders: What remains to be said about the season? Year after year, preachers and priests must wonder: How can one tell the story of Jesus’ birth without falling into historical and cultural clichés, without being accused of mythologizing? Or: Without being accused of not following the Scriptures word for…

In our gospel lesson for today, the spotlight falls on Joseph. On this last Sunday of Advent, before we gather to celebrate the birth of Christ, the mystery of God coming to us as a child, we have this story about an ordinary, quiet, faithful man named Joseph. Joseph might have been uncomfortable in the…

At this time of the year, expectation is very nearly overcome by exhaustion. Whether that expectation is Christmas dinner and a pile of ill-afforded presents, or the Coming of the Son of Man, the lead-up now seems interminable, like an overlong engagement, and the pressure to do the right thing by the right people seems…

Here we are, on the fourth Sunday of Advent. Christmas Eve is just around the corner. Ready or not, it’s just about time for the Christmas story, told by carol, by pageant, by Sunday school children in bathrobes and tinsel halos. And when we say “the Christmas story,” we usually mean Luke’s version of the…

In Hawaii, the elders of the indigenous people have explained why the giving of names is so significant within the extended family tradition of the islands: “Some children were named for their ancestors,” it is said, “some for events, some for or by chiefs, and some were named by the gods. To name a child…

Foretold by the prophet Isaiah seven centuries before it occurred, and now over 2,000 years after the event, the birth of Jesus in the somewhat obscure town of Bethlehem in Palestine is still the greatest story ever told. What makes this Christmas story unique and special, worthy of so many Hollywood movies and countless village…

The simple truth is this: none of us avoids a crisis. All of us have trouble in the course of our lives. Someone may appear to be always on top of the world, but this observation may only show that we do not know that person well. Take a man who is successful in business,…