Intersections

  In our journey through the lectionary texts, it brings us to this passage in Isaiah, which I’m not sure if it would normally stand out on its own, but here we are.   We have brief words of thanksgiving from Isaiah, which seems appropriate today in all of our reflections we may be having about the year that was and the year we want to have. You may have had this week off of work, and are gearing up to return, and this week between Christmas and New Year’s is kind of time without structure, or liminal time. It just passes without any real organization.  I wish it had been like that for me this week. As some of you know, my uncle died on Christmas Eve. I was planning to spend this week with Ali & Aaron, but I also knew that I needed to make the journey to see my uncle’s funeral. So I caught a ride with my parents and off to Wisconsin we went.  But as I was traveling to a place where I had gone so many times as a child, lots of those memories came back. I had...

What are you looking forward to doing tonight? Hopefully, this is the highlight of Christmas Eve for most of you. I know it is for me. I am blessed to be worshipping and celebrating the birth of our Lord & Savior, Jesus Christ. After the service, my family and I will go to Tadj’s cousin’s house to visit with family we don’t see as often as I think we would like. We’ve packed the kids’ pajamas, so we know we’ll leave late. Those kids need to get into bed once we get home because you know who will stop by.  We’ve been preparing for weeks, and now here we are. I hope tonight lives up to all the ads which have been touting how you’re supposed to feel on Christmas. I hope you’re warm (especially tonight) and loving, even if your wallets are empty. Tonight is a night for peace and joy.  Several years ago, when Aaron was just a baby, we went through Franke Park for the light display. But we went on Christmas Day, at five o’clock, right after it got dark - or maybe it was seven. B...

Two men made their way to the city’s edge one day. One was quite young, only 20 years old, but with an awesome responsibility on his shoulders. The other was more mature. He’d been around for a while and seen a few things. As they walked, he tried to encourage the young man. He had advised for a long time that Judah should stay out of entangling alliances, promising that God would intervene, God would protect the descendants of David, and that God was their hope. The year was 735 BC. The older man was the prophet Isaiah. The younger was Ahaz, King of Judah. When he came to power, the Assyrian Empire was asserting itself far to the north. Nearer at hand, the kingdoms of Syria and Northern Israel, from whom Judah had split a generation before, were feeling threatened by Assyria and forming an alliance to protect each other. These small kingdoms wanted Judah to join them. King Ahaz, like his father and grandfather, realized that any such alliance might threaten Egypt to the south and caus...

               Let me start out this morning with what seems to be an obvious question - we are about two weeks from Christmas - how many of you are FILLED to the BRIM with JOY? Now, we are an authentic community, so let’s be real with one another - is there anyone here who can say they are overflowing with joy that we can come to you to be filled?   It’s hard not to have your heart be moved by our scripture today - this whole 35th chapter of Isaiah. Even the title makes our ears perk up a little bit - the Joy of the Redeemed. Well, I’d like to be redeemed, and I’ll have some of that joy too, please? I’m pretty sure that’s what we are all doing here. Starting with this scene in the desert, that this land will be GLAD, and rejoice and blossom. Why? Because the Lord is coming. The barren, the weak, the scared, the sick, all will be redeemed. They will be able to wear this joy as a crown. Verse 10, especially the end, is one that I’d lik...