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Sermon for the First Sunday after Christmas, December 31, 2017 - Luke 2:22-40
Jesus is the focus of all things dealing with purity. I’m not talking about the culture we have created where purity of life and soul trumps all things. Where we all better be good boys and girls. I’m not talking about Santa. Christ is where our purity of life and soul reside. Where it begins and ends. So much so that he has stepped into the very things we find to make ourselves pure for God so that he might show you who he is for you.
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Sermon for Christmas Day, 2017 - John 1:1-14
Jesus is a bearing God. A God who bears up the world, the broken, the tired, the sinner by an outstretched arm. By an arm that wins victory. He is also a bearing God who births things. Births humans, souls of sinners, from old to new. That is Christmas. The God who creates becomes a created thing just for a moment to save the creation by giving birth to a new one. Sermon for Christmas Eve, 2017 - Luke 2:1-20
Jesus came for you. Jesus has come for you. Jesus will come again for you. This is what our Christmas is this night. A night before the birth. The before-party. Some think the party is awesome. Others think the afterparty is even better. But, oh, the before-party. The time when we come here and imagine that this child, each year, is remembered as about to be born for you. One who was upon a throne in heaven, choosing to be relegated to a stall, all because of you. Not the best part of you either. The worst actually. The parts we don’t want anybody to know or see, the things that shame us. That is what he came for. That is why the before-party is so great. Each year anticipating that once again Jesus comes for you for the things you hope to forget, so that he can wipe them away. Sermon for the 4th Sunday of Advent - Luke 1:26-38
Jesus is coming. Nothing can get in the way of it. Your lack of preparation will not keep him at bay. The possibility of ignoring prophecy doesn’t throw a curveball into his plans. Even closing off your ears to the words of the preacher cannot keep the promise of Jesus, a Jesus born to be a savior for his people, saving them from their sins, coming as a King in glory and light, the Son of the Most High whose kingdom will have no end. He is coming, he has come, he will come again. Amen Come Lord Jesus. Sermon for the First Sunday of Advent - Mark 13:24-37
Jesus is all about death and life. Crucifixion and resurrection. I will never grow tired of saying it. Whether it be in this discussion of the end of days; the begging of the Lord to rend the heavens, tear them asunder and come down before our sins overwhelm us; or the calling forth of the grace and peace of Christ to come to us, enlivening our thoughts and knowledge in him. All of it has death and resurrection in it. A little baptism. Each of us being little Elijah, each day. Dying to self and rising again in Jesus, regularly. Each day. Giving up the things we hold, seeing in God a Jesus who comes to us shaking the foundation of our hearts. |
AuthorCarleton Smee Archives
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