Sermons
Archives for December 2021
December 2021
Waiting and growing
The story of 12-year-old Jesus, at the transition between boy and man, is an important lesson for us about God’s timing. Even God’s own Son had to wait, and to grow, in order to become who God had chosen him to be. When it appears that we are merely marking time, God is indeed at work in us, preparing us for what we cannot yet see.
What it means to be human
God coming to earth as the baby Jesus is the greatest love story ever told. He comes to be with us in the dirt and grit of life. He comes to be with us in our pain and our despair. He comes to be with us so he can experience what it means to be human. Immanuel (God with us). What a gift!
Who am I … in all of this?
As we ponder the infinity of the stars, we can feel both awe … and uncertainty. When we consider how small we are, compared with the majesty and glory of the universe-without-end that God created, we can wonder if we are anything more than a speck of dust. Does God even know we are here? Does he care about us? Christmas is God’s resounding Yes!
Letting things go
Jesus is not the saviour we might be expecting. We don’t often think of him wielding a winnowing fork. But separating the important things from the unimportant things in our life is good for us. Jesus invites us to trust him to sift out the wheat from the chaff, to get rid of those unnecessary things we cling to, and to burn them up.
Preparing our hearts
The Jews understood baptism to be a rite of cleansing, conducted by full immersion. But John called not only for cleansing but firstly for repentance – a change of heart. This was new. Repentance had never been associated with baptism before. John was calling for change of behaviour that was connected not to a ritual but to a change of heart.
