SERMONS
Where is the calm of Christmas?
There is no room in the inn. Yet God is born beyond the “reach of the emperor’s grasp,” as the writer goes on, off the grid. With the animals. You could say God is born homeless, unregistered, undocumented.
Born Today for You
We glued the pieces back together as best we could, and then set it back in its central location. And I love it even more now, because I see in the cracked places and gaping holes the brokenness and vulnerability of our world. And it is to this world that Christ comes and lives among us.
An Adult Christmas
What is the Christmas message for us, especially this year? Sometimes the blue of Advent feels more authentic. A world still waiting. Longing for justice and healing to dawn on a world filled with inequities, cynicism, and confusion. Hoping against hope.
With our pristine manger scenes, it is easy to overlook that in the scriptures God’s people seem to always be dealing with slavery or living in exile . . . with foreign occupation or siege. Nothing about the first Christmas is ideal for Mary and Joseph. The timing is off. The birth messy. The political context unstable.
Sermon 12/24/20: Christmas is not canceled...or stolen (Pr. Michelle Sevig)
May the Holy One give us the grace to remember that we cannot create Christmas, we can only receive it. Just as the Grinch could not stop it, we can’t make it happen either. Because we learn over and over again that Christmas is more than boxes and tags and ribbons and bows. More than traditions and celebrations. God enters the world and lives among us this night, and for all our days, full of grace and truth. Full of love and promise.
Sermon 12/24/20: Directionless (Pr. Ben Adams)
Merry Christmas dear found ones, whoever you are, wherever you are, whatever you have done or not done, Christ has been born to you this day and is with you and leading you towards your ultimate destination, a place we can’t get to with a map because this place is not so much a place at all, but a new day where there will be no more virus, where all will live in unity, and where love and light will fill all creation to overflowing.
Sermon 12/24/2019: To Know the Dark, Go Dark (Pr. Craig Mueller)
Christ is born, Christ comes, Christ is made known in beautiful, holy darkness. In this quiet, still place—in the cave of our hearts—is peace and hope beyond telling. Receive the Child this holy night. Feast on him at this table. Behold him in both strangers and beloved ones. Ponder him in quiet moments of wonder and gratitude. Savor the grace and mystery. Welcome him in the darkness!