Sermon for John 1:10-18

Happy Epiphany! In case you didn’t know, epiphany means something like “making clear upon us”. In other words, making that little invisible light bulb go *plink* over our heads (hold light bulb over head – and the angels sang!). It’s like discovering that something totally unexpected is actually true, or becomes clear. Which is good, because today’s gospel reading is pretty unexpected if you think about it. Stars and weird magicians and kings afraid of babies, and virgin birth. Someone should make a movie, right (!)? But if we know a little of the context, some pretty unexpected things become clear upon us, so let’s jump in.

Sermon for Matthew 22:1-14

Have you ever noticed that our worship is a lot like a wedding banquet? I mean, take a look around.
We’ve got this beautiful hall. We’ve got the flowers. We’ve got the banquet table. Candles. Music. I’ve got my robe on. I *think* we’re all….. whoa! Friends, where are your robes!?!? How did you get in here without wedding robes? Got you! Goes to show you that’s the kind of mess you can get into with Jesus’ parables. And funny, he tells a lot of them, doesn’t he? Anyway, today’s gospel is pretty challenging – just what is Jesus telling us here?

Sermon for Luke 13:10-17

So, do any of you like Chik-Fil-A? It’s fast food, but I think they serve really good chicken sandwiches (they’re not paying me for that by the way). Probably, if I had a nickel for every time I’ve gotten out of church on Sunday and wanted Chik-Fil-A, I’d be rich. But unfortunately, they’re closed on Sundays. And it’s fairly unusual these days for a store or restaurant to actually be closed on Sunday. I know some of you are old enough to remember when this was common, and for me, I think I grew up on the tail end of that. But these days it’s unusual, unless you’re shopping for a car, or beer or wine. And when we do encounter it, it seems pretty inconvenient. Or at least, maybe we resent them just a little bit for not being open when we need them to be.