Hey, Mary!

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“Hey, Mary! God thinks you’re great. God is with you.”

(What on earth  …?)

“Stop being afraid. You are going to become the mother of the Son of God.”

“Okay, how are you going to do this?”

Mary didn’t blink an eye. She trusted that everything the angel had said was true. She just wondered how it was going to happen. What’s the protocol for virgin birth? How does infinite God become a finite human?

“Okay, tell me what to expect,” was all Mary wanted to know.
“How exactly is this going to work?”

“Look, your relative Elizabeth is also pregnant. She’s well beyond child-bearing years. If God can do that, God can do anything. Nothing is impossible with God.”

“Got it,” said Mary. “I’m ready. Let’s do this.”

Luke 1:26-38

Reach-Renew-Rejoice! Sermon on Isaiah 61:1-4, 8-11 Advent 3B

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The first sermon Jesus preached, according to Luke’s gospel (Luke 4:16-30), was in his hometown of Nazareth. It was one of those “hometown kid makes good” stories. You know the kind. Promising young man heads off to college and comes back a multi-millionaire because he invented something called Facebook while he was in school. Or, kid goes off to study engineering and a routine homework assignment becomes a cottage industry to employ homeless people in the manufacture of pop up shelters. That cute girl with the dimples and long hair who played second violin in your high school string quartet becomes chair of the FDIC. It’s that sort of thing.

So here’s Jesus, who has built a modest reputation so far as a healer and worker of miracles, come home to visit the family. And, as was his custom on the Sabbath day, he goes to the synagogue to worship. The local religious leaders approach him the minute he comes through the door. Would he be willing to read from a book of the Prophets, and perhaps share some insight into those words with the people?

Sure, he shrugs. And they bring him a large scroll, which he carefully places on the reading desk. Continue reading →

“Preparing the Way” – Sermon on Mark 1:1-8 Advent 2B

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An updated version of this sermon for 2017, with photos of the Jordan River,
is available here .

 

Enriched in Every Way – Sermon on 1 Corinthians 1:3-9 Advent 1B

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When Bruce and I lived in Kansas City, we developed a holiday tradition that we loved. On a Saturday between Christmas and Epiphany, we held a party for all of our musician friends. We invited them to bring their holiday leftovers, and all the music they had missed playing or singing for the last month because they were too busy performing Messiah and Nutcracker. Serious music was welcome, but not required. Concert Black dress was strictly prohibited. We called it “The Little Jimmy Dickens Society for the Preservation of the Rebek, Sackbutt, and Other Instruments of Torture.”

We had a lot of fun. Our dining room table was crowded with food, and our living room was filled with music. But not all those who attended the Little Jimmy Dickens Society were musicians. Spouses and significant others came along, and sometimes they would join in the fun with non-musical performances. Continue reading →

Well Done! Sermon on Matthew 25:14-30

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11/16/2014

 

An updated version of this sermon for 2017 can be found here. 

What Are You Waiting For? – Sermon on Matthew 25:1-13

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In 1961, my family moved into a house that was a model of modern innovation. The bedrooms had built-in desks with fluorescent light fixtures, and the closets had sliding doors. The kitchen was all-electric, and there were not only one, but two picture windows looking out over the golf course across the road. But the feature that set this house apart was not visible from the road, or even from inside that all-electric kitchen.

This house had its own bomb shelter, already equipped with blankets, flashlights, jugs of water, and food rations packed in barrels. It was the epitome of middle class preparedness for surviving a nuclear attack. Should anyone decide to “drop the bomb” on southeast Kansas, our family was ready for disaster. We were prepared.

As Jesus neared the end of his ministry, he wanted his disciples to be prepared for the time when he would no longer be with them. But he was also preparing them for something more. He was preparing his followers for the fulfillment of God’s promised kingdom, for “the end of the age.” …

An updated version of this sermon for 2017 can be found here.

 

Blessed – Sermon on Matthew 5:1-12

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An updated version of this sermon can be found here.

Identity Markers: One in Purpose (Love) – Sermon on Matthew 22:34-46

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Our younger son was a great fan of the game show, Jeopardy! He was pretty good at remembering the bits of trivia that were represented by various categories on the game board. It’s easy to play Jeopardy! from the comfort of your own couch, where you can feel brilliant every time you get one right. The stakes aren’t very high if you miss one, and if you get too frustrated, you can always turn off the TV.

Jeopardy!’s format puts questions in the form of answers, and answers must take the form of questions. It’s obviously a winning formula for a game show. That whole question-and-answer thing was something Jesus was pretty good at, too.

Continue reading →

Chicken Enchiladas

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I was sure this recipe would be here somewhere, but I’m not seeing it. I got it from a US Army wife when I lived in Germany. That’s another story. I shared it with my family, and now my nephew makes it for his family – so it must be good, right?

Start with:

1 chicken, or 4-6 boneless, skinless chicken breasts

If you need some chicken broth, cover a whole chicken with water in a deep pot, add a bay leaf and a bouillon cube or two, bring to a boil, then reduce the heat and simmer until the chicken falls off the bone. Remove the chicken from the pot, and when it is cool enough to handle, remove skin and bones, shredding the meat into a bowl.

Or cook some boneless skinless chicken breasts in the microwave and shred them if you’re in a hurry and don’t want to mess with the bones and stuff.

In a separate bowl from the shredded chicken, combine:

1 can cream of mushroom soup
1 can cream of chicken soup
1 can chopped green chiles
1 chopped onion (optional)
1 c sour cream or plain yogurt
Cumin (I use quite a bit, but I really like cumin) to taste

Mix HALF of the soup mixture into the shredded chicken, setting aside the other half for the final step.

Grease/butter/cooking-spray a 9×13 dish, and preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Open a package of flour tortillas, and separate 8-12 of them (this depends on whether you cooked a whole chicken or just some breasts). On a clean surface, spoon about 1/3 to 1/2 cup of the chicken mixture onto a tortilla, and roll it up. Place the enchilada seam-side down in the dish, and repeat until you have no more chicken mixture left. Pour bout a cup of water or chicken broth (you can use whatever cooked out of the chicken breasts if you nuked them) around the edges of the dish to prevent the ends of the tortillas from drying out. Spread the reserved soup mixture over everything, and cover with about a cup of shredded cheese (cheddar, co-jack, “Mexican blend” pre-shredded, whatever… probably not Swiss) over the top and loosely cover with foil.

Bake at 350 degrees for about 45 minutes, then remove the foil and continue baking until cheese is golden brown and the enchiladas are bubbly. Remove from the oven and let set 5 minutes before serving. You can garnish with sliced black olives and chopped tomatoes and chopped green onions if you want to make it look pretty for company.

Add a salad, and you have dinner.

Winter Wheat (reblogged)

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Once a month, I write a short piece for our church’s print newsletter, the Circuit Rider. This publication was established fifty years ago, when the pastor at that time asked a legal secretary in the congregation to be the editor. Jo put together the Circuit Rider every month for fifty-plus years, until she joined the Church Triumphant on October 1st.

Here’s the article for this month’s Circuit Rider. It’s in memory of Jo, who I’m sure has heard her Master say, “Well done, good and faithful servant.”

Winter Wheat

OCTOBER 21, 2014

Are you one of those people who suffers from melancholy this time of year? I first noticed how falling leaves affected my mood when I was still in junior high. I remember walking  home from school one day, trying to put my finger on a word for the emotion I was feeling, and not having much success.

There was a kind of sadness at the end of summer, as flowers faded and gardens were put to bed for the winter, but there was also awe at the beauty of leaves turning orange and red and gold, the crisp air, and the deep blue backdrop of the fall sky.  Even at the tender age of 13, I was overcome with the power of memories, and the relentless march of time that seems more potent in autumn as the year draws to a close.

Nostalgia seemed a good word, but it still didn’t quite fit the way I felt. I never did find a term for it. As an adult, I’ve discovered that many people experience Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) in late fall or winter, and the symptoms seem to go away when sunnier spring weather arrives. For me, it’s the beginning of autumn that triggers these emotions, and once the snow starts to fly, I’m fine! So I’m not sure SAD is really my problem.

One thing I do know, and I learned this from watching my uncle farm his land in western Kansas: the life cycle never stops. Even when things look dormant, something keeps the cycle going so that new life can sprout and grow and flourish. A great example of this is winter wheat, a crop that gets planted in the fall, before winter sets in. To develop into a good harvest, the wheat must experience sustained cold over the winter months, the very time of year when you wouldn’t normally expect plant life to survive.

It may seem, at times, that our spiritual lives suffer from SAD, that we have a hard time sensing God’s presence through difficulties and pain. We may get caught up in memories and regrets that prevent us from seeing the future God is putting in front of us. But God is not dormant. Like winter wheat that must experience extreme cold for part of its growing season, we are being formed into new life, life that will bear good fruit.

“You did not choose me but I chose you.
And I appointed you to go and bear fruit, fruit that will last,
so that the Father will give you whatever you ask him in my name.” ‑ John 15:16