Thoughts on Life and Worship

The Four Advents of Christmas Christmas Eve, 2017 Introduction St. Augustine famously said, “You have made us for yourself, and our hearts are restless until we find our rest in Thee.”  From the beginning, since sin and rebellion against God turned this world over to Evil, men’s hearts have yearned to be made right again with their Creator.  The Bible says, “For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. And not only the creation, but we ourselves…” (Romans 8:22-23a).  This yearning is the sadness we feel when a loved one dies or develops a terminal disease.  Our desire for justice in a world full of violence, bullies, terrorism and systemic prejudice is the built into our souls.  It is the yearning that we all have for the holy and righteous God who made us.  We live on the battlefield of the war between Satan with all his powers of evil and God himself.  You see, the Bible tells us...

Fourth Sunday in Advent December 24, 2017 Isaiah 9:1-7 Introduction We are almost there!  This is the fourth week of Advent.  Last week we celebrated the place of lasting joy.  And as we move closer to Christmas Day and begin to indulge in festivities as friends and family gather there is a greater sense of anticipation and participation in the joy of the season.  But at the same time, this season also converges with the turning of the year.  Inevitably, the change of the calendar leads us to reflection on the year that is past.  For some, it may have been a good year.  For us a church, I really couldn’t be more pleased and excited about what is around the bend for us.  But the world as a whole…and our culture specifically?  It’s not looking so good.  Do we really need to go through a litany of bad news through the year? ·        The international insecurity that came from Britain’s e...

Second Sunday in Advent December 10, 2017 Performing or Transforming? Matthew 3:1-12 Preparing for Change There is hardly anything more life-transforming than the birth of a child, especially your first.  It was thirty-five years ago this year that our daughter, Meredith, made her entrance into the world.  When Diane was expecting, my mother-in-law bought a house for us to rent.  She didn’t want her grandchild living in an apartment in L.A.  Diane twisted my father-in-law’s arm to paint and wallpaper the bedroom which would become the nursery.  (Like the baby would really care!)  In the meantime, I pretty much cowered in the corner.  I knew my life was about to change, but had no idea to what extent. We’ve all had to prepare for change in our lives.  If it wasn’t a new baby, it might have been a new job or, even more challenging, a new boss.  The issue of change and new realities was the landscape of the beginning of each...

The Yearning Romans 8:18-25 Introduction It’s finally December.  There are only few more weeks left until we finally turn the page on 2017.  As we look forward to a new year, we will also look back and reflect on what happened during the past twelve months.  News programs will begin running spots on what happened in politics, the weather, sports, violence and other tragedies.  A few may even run positive stories, but they don’t seem to be as newsworthy as all the bad stuff that happened to us on this planet.  Simply put, this world is broken.  The little things that bother us and make us cranky are nothing compared what goes on in the rest of the world.  Typhoons, tsunamis and earthquakes kill thousands of innocent people every year.  Defenseless men, women, and children are murdered every year so that powerful people can satisfy their lust for even more power.  According to World Vision’s latest statistics, over 21 million chi...