Luke 2:22-40
1st Sunday after Christmas - Year B
January 01, 2012
The Rev. David Lewicki
(
PCUSA)
Last year was the first Christmas that the bulk of a congregation's pastoral care needs fell on my shoulders. I was warned by other pastors to prepare myself--the need for my presence would mysteriously increase right around the holiday. I would get "the calls." And sure enough, beginning two days before Christmas, two broken hips, a nursing home-related family crisis, an accelerated kidney failure. Those were just the physical emergencies. For reasons that remain a mystery, Christmastide is a time when, deep within our subconscious--at the place where the body and the spirit intertwine--people prepare to die.
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Isaiah 61:1-4,8-11
3rd Sunday of Advent - Year B
December 11, 2011
The Rev. Dr. Kenneth Carter
(
UMC)
I'm going to reveal something very personal about myself here at the outset. When I was a child, one of my favorite programs was HeeHaw. A few of you may remember that show. It had a lot of bluegrass and country music. Folks were laying around in the hay, thinking about going down to the corner of town to watch the stop light turn green. It had other characters that must have made an impression on an adolescent boy, but I won't get into that.
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The Rev. John Gunn
(other)
This episode of Be Still and Know addresses depression and dour mood. Perhaps we can't keep away the blues, but we don't have to yield to them. If we will look for them and use them, there are always remedies for curing our worried spirits and getting rid of our blues.
The Rev. John Gunn
(other)
This episode of Be Still and Know revels in the wonders of the world. "One is something less than human", writes The Rev. John R. Gunn, "if these wonders do not provoke one to wonder."
The Rev. John Gunn
(other)
This episode of Be Still and Know discusses the modern perspective on sainthood and how it often differs from God's expectation of saintly living. The Rev. John R Gunn writes, "A saintly life demands nothing that is not harmonious with successful business life. A man can handle large sums of money and be absolutely free from the taint of the love of money."
August 22, 2010
The Rev. Gerald Williams, Jr.
(UMC)
At the core of the Christian faith, says the Rev. Jay Williams, is an irrational exuberance--a sense of profound goodness that defies human cognition. There is good news even in the shadow of the cross.
July 09, 2006
The Rev. Dr. William L. Self
(CBF)
The Rev. Dr. William L. Self, senior pastor of Johns Creek Baptist Church, Alpharetta, Georgia, takes a look at the debilitating role of fear in our lives.
May 28, 2006
The Rev. Joy Yee
(CBF)
The Rev. Joy Yee, pastor of Nineteenth Avenue Baptist Church in San Francisco and moderator of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, considers what is expected of us as we live in the in-between time full of tears, work, and hope.