Sermon: Advent 4.2011

Advent 4 (Rorate Coeli)
John 1.19-28
12.18.2011

In the name of the Father and of the +Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

There is an urgency to this last week of Advent. And I'm not necessarily talking about the anxiety of trying to pull together all the last-minute details of the Christmas Eve Children's service; although that certainly gives a tangibility to the urgency.

No, the urgency we experience this time of year has to do with something more important than the Children's service on Christmas Eve. Now don't get me wrong, that service is important, very important, in fact, especially in the life of this congregation. But that service has it's place. Christmas Eve is like John the Baptist, the Forerunner, the one who came before the most important One, Jesus. In fact, all of our Advent discipline and preparation comes to a climax as we listen to the children tell and sing of a certain Birth in Bethlehem on Christmas Eve.

Sermon: Advent 3.2011

Advent 3 (Gaudete)
Matthew 11.2-15
12.11.2011

In the name of the Father of the +Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

What did you come out into the wilderness to see? I mean, think about, how inconvenient! / For Goodness sake, it's the wilderness. It's desolate, there's nothing out there but sand, a nasty river they call Jordan, and a grungy, un-socialized young preacher-man. How disappointing! But what did you expect way out there in the boonies? A man dressed in kingly apparel? You have no idea! But really, what did you inconvenience yourself to see?

Sermon: Advent 1.2011

Advent 1 (Ad Te Levavi)
Matthew 21.1-9
11.27.2011

In the name of the Father and of the +Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

So, we've spent the last few Sundays learning to wait / and to watch; well, at the very least our Lord has tried to teach us this spiritual discipline. But whether or not we've acquired faithful patience or not, Time moves on. The Time of the Church Year, that is.

So here we are. We've made it. Another Church Year under our belts, and the prospects of a new and full Year of Grace before us. We look out over the divine horizon of Time and we see what's coming:

4 weeks of Advent, then Christmas and the short Christmas Season. After that, we get out our green paraments again for about month of Epiphany season, then on into Pre-lent, Lent, and the Great Pascha and the Resurrection of our Lord and the joyous 50 days that follow. And after that, which always comes sooner than we think, we get back into the long Trinity Season, eventually ending up back where we are today: the beginning of yet another / Church Year.