[RCL] Isaiah 52:7-10; Psalm 98; Hebrews 1:1-4,(5-12); John 1:1-14 Merry Christmas! Today is a beautiful day in which we celebrate the incarnation of God through the birth of a baby boy by the name of Jesus. In a year that has been beset with unanticipated challenges and the spread of a virus, we still have…

“Heard melodies are sweet, but those unheard      Are sweeter; therefore, ye soft pipes, play on…           Bold Lover, never, never canst thou kiss, Though winning near the goal yet, do not grieve;      She cannot fade, though thou hast not thy bliss,           For…

Words fail. Stand at the edge of the Grand Canyon. Feel the wind rising off the canyon walls. See the light dappling in the crevices of the great chasm. Then try to describe this in words. For those who have stood there for themselves, your experience will bring back their own. But tell of feelings…

This is John’s Christmas. This is incarnation. No shepherds, no angels, no crèche, no Magi. John’s story is so utterly unlike the familiar crèche or pageant. How on earth could one make this, John’s story of the incarnation, into a pageant? It begins before time itself! Note the opening words: “In the beginning…” The first…

In the movie “Cool Hand Luke,” Paul Newman plays Luke, a prisoner in a Florida prison camp, who refuses to conform to prison life. In a famous scene, Luke tries to escape, but he is caught and dragged back in shackles and brought to the captain of the prison. In order to make a lesson…

Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams preached his Christmas sermon at Canterbury Cathedral on Dec. 25. The full text follows. This morning’s reading from the Letter to the Hebrews begins with the boldest and most unambiguous statement possible of what’s new and different about Christmas. God has always been communicating with humanity, in any number of…

“The Word became flesh and lived among us.” Here’s a question for you this Christmas Day: Say there had been no fall from grace in the Garden, and humankind had never sinned. In that case, would God have become man? Would God have become part of our human race? And would we today be celebrating…

One of the readings suggested for Christmas Day is from the first chapter of Hebrews. It starts out with this introduction: “In many and various ways God spoke of old to our fathers by the prophets; but in these last days he has spoken to us by a Son, whom he appointed the heir of…

We are all used to party political agendas. We’ve just survived an election season and although there’s two years to go before the next general election, the television networks daily parade possible candidates before us and we hear their plans to transform America. We can count on their plans being expensive. To get them enacted…

Who is this child born into our midst? It’s the question left before us on Christmas Eve, when the story opens with Jesus’ birth to Mary and Joseph, the angels sing, and the shepherds, real working and struggling people like us, come and behold this strange new gift to a world on the edge of…