Month: December 2011

Okay… three homilies in 24 hours, each slightly different but on the same basic theme… hmmm….

Here they are:

Family Service: One Holy Night

On this night, and in fact during this entire season we view as unique and holy, much of the world puts its normal routines on hold. We gather with family, even that crazy uncle we’d like to pretend wasn’t related to us. Some will enter Christian houses of worship after many months, sometimes years, away. We celebrate our Savior’s birth, or at least go through the routine of celebrating that birth, even if we give salvation little or no thought for most of the year. We declare this to be one holy night. Continue reading “Christmas Homilies”

Preparations for Christmastide are going well. I’ve written an original script for our brown-bag pageant called “Meanwhile in Hollywood,” have both Christmas Eve services ready, and am now working on our informal Christmas morning “pajamas” service. This is the prayer we will use to open that morning.

Brother Jesus, you came to us in love, closing the gap between the divine, the quantum swirling mysterious Creativity that calls the world into being. You shared in our humanness, and marked us forever with your holiness. In your life you taught us how to be fully human, how to align our lives with God’s great purpose, how to boldly proclaim God’s just and caring realm. In your death you showed us how to come to our own ends, and in your resurrection you taught us that the forces of sin, evil and death will not triumph. But this day, this holy day, we recall the various stories your followers used to understand how you came into the world, unique, Emmanuel, God-with-us. Bless this gathering, reminding us always that we are people of the promise walking along the Way, together in love. Amen.

There was once a pastor who was settling in quite nicely into the pulpit of a church he had served for three years. He loved his new community, had made great friends, and had benefited from the wisdom of several of the congregation’s elders. One particular gentleman, we’ll call him Wallace, had been a deacon many times over, had even served on the search committee that had selected the pastor, and was especially cherished. So it broke the pastor’s heart when he noticed Wallace falling asleep during the sermon. And not just falling asleep, falling asleep there in the front pew, where everybody could see the head nod, hear the gentle snore. The pastor was determined to make his sermons more interesting, spent hours tweaking, all to no avail. Finally it dawned on him… maybe it wasn’t the sermons. Wallace was getting up in years, maybe there was a health problem. And like a good pastor, he switched into care mode, gently dropping hints, and finally just coming right out and asking Wallace if there was a health issue they could address in prayer. No, Wallace assured the pastor, everything was just spiffy. Continue reading “Path to Peace”

Used as the Prayer of Confession on Advent 2

Our lives hum along,
the hum of dozens of electronic devices,
the capacitors of our lives holding us captive,
the hum of our tires on the road as we zip about,
free to drive and trapped in our driven-ness.
Our lives are musical,
the music of ringtones demanding,
interrupting our concentration,
the music of jingles designed to fuel our need,
the squawking heads of desire.

Amidst all this noice,
this captivity and squawking,
you come,
Our Savior and Our God.

Forgive us our willingness to be held captive,
and grant us your liberation,
grant us your peace,
for we know you still call,
still call,
always calling us to peace,
to freedom,
to reconciliation. Amen.