Preachrblog

Advent 4 December 24, 2006 Micah 5:2-5a “Oh Bethlehem” Oh little town of Bethlehem, how still we see thee lie… Bethlehem, in the region of Ephratha. From you will come forth a ruler over all Israel, with ancient origins. A strong and good shepherd who will bring security and peace. You, the little town of Bethlehem. You, oh Bethlehem, whose name means, “House of Bread”. From you will come the One who will feed his people with everlasting spiritual bread – mana from Heaven. He, who will also give his own body in the bread of a Holy Sacrament. You, Oh Bethlehem, the little town where David was born. Little David the shepherd boy, who became great King David, ruler of Israel in its heyday. From you, Oh Bethlehem, will come the Son of David, the shoot from the stump of Jesse. And David’s Son will be David’s Lord. They will welcome him with shouts and palm branches and fanfare as a king, when he comes to Jerusalem. They will cry out, “Hosanna to the Son of David”. But then they will shout, ...

Christmas Eve 2006 Luke 2:1-20 “Christmas Light” Tonight we celebrate Christmas Eve with a “service of light”. We light candles, especially that white Christ candle in the center of the advent wreath. Later in the service, we will all hold a lighted candle and sing “Silent Night”, which includes the line, “Son of God, love’s pure light”. So many of our other Christmas hymns mention light somehow too. “In thy dark streets shineth the everlasting light”, “Break forth O Beauteous Heavenly Light”, “Light and Life to all he brings”, etc. etc… Most of our homes have some sort of Christmas lights up for decoration. Sometimes we even drive through certain neighborhoods known for elaborate Christmas light displays. Christmas and light seem to go together. Light is one of the foundational symbols of the Christian faith. Scripture begins and ends with light. God’s first recorded words, “Let there be light” open up the creation account, just as Revelation closes with the promise that there will be...

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Born this morning, Morgan Faith Chryst 7 lbs, 10 oz. 19" long. Mother and baby are both doing fine! Thank God for his many blessings.

Sermon – Advent 3 December 17th, 2006 Phillipians 4:4-7 “Advent Anxiety?” As we have said many times, Advent means “coming”. And so Advent is a season of expectation, and watching, and waiting. Waiting. And more waiting. Waiting isn’t always easy. We wait in line at the post office to mail our cards and packages. We wait in line at the grocery store behind the person with too many items in the express lane. We wait for the traffic light to turn green, and hope that the car ahead of us will hurry up so we can make it too. We wait. We wait for our loved ones to call or write or visit. We wait in the doctor’s office and then we wait for the test results. We wait for God to answer our prayers and give us what we think we need, want, or even deserve. We wait for Christmas to come. And sometimes we want it to come quick, sometimes we want to get it over with, and sometimes we would just as soon not have it at all. But we can only wait, and watch, and wait some more. One of the si...

The finals of "Lutheran Survivor: Politicians" have been quite interesting. Two remaining players, Muhlenberg and Preus are locked in a duel to the death. Ok, they're both already dead. But you know what I mean. It's going to be a photo-finish! As of this blog posting, the votes are tied at 50% each! If you haven't already voted, get over to Lutheran Survivor! DO IT NOW!

I am a firm believer in the aphorism, "Know Thine Enemy". I believe Christians need to be informed about those whose teachings oppose the truth. Especially those with a wide following and deep influence. It is important to understand these falsehoods so that we can better combat them with the truth. In that vein, I have been viewing some interesting videos online. The very popular work, "The God Delusion" by Richard Dawkins, is a recent bestseller. But there is also a free full-length PBS version of Dawkins' presentation, available here . Particularly fun is his confrontation with recently disgraced Evangelical leader Ted Haggard. The second part of the series is found here. If you have about 90 minutes and are interested in what the "other side" has to say, this could be a good use of your time. Caution: There are some real howlers in here. Like, "Religious upbringing is child abuse" and "religion is a virus" and such. ...

A grand posada: Church brings Mexican holiday tradition to Racine Our local (Racine) LCMS Hispanic congregation, Primera Iglesia Luterana , made the local paper today with this story. Check it out.

I had to bring my notebook computer into Best Buy for repairs, and the "Geek Squad" tells me it will be 3 weeks or so before I get it back. The good news is, it's under warranty. The bad news is, I may not be blogging or online as much for a while. Well, maybe that's not so bad. Everyone needs to take a break sometime, eh?

I've heard, and so have you, the warning against trying to put "God in a box". It's a fair enough warning, though used by many people to dispute someone else's conception of who God is, what he says and does and expects. To be sure, we can't put God in a box. He is above and beyond us. And we do have a tendency to want to limit him. We think God thinks like we do, rather than acknowledging his ways are higher than ours, and his thoughts are greater than ours. If God isn't answering my prayer the way I want it, then God must be wrong, not me, we think. If there's suffering in the world, or more importanly, in MY world, then God must either not care or not know what to do. We shrink God down to be someone who should take orders from the likes of us. We make ourselves "bigger" than him. We "put God in a box". But the great irony of God is that he, himself, puts limitations on himself. "God in a box" might make us think of th...

I have officially dumped Firefox. I am sick of losing all my preferences every time it updates. Plus, now Explorer does tabs anyway...

Advent 2 December 10, 2006 Luke 3:1-20 “A Fire and Brimstone Preacher” One of the Bible personalities we expect to see this time of year is John the Baptist, who prepared the way for Jesus. John was an odd character to say the least. His unusual fashion sense (camel skins), his different diet (locusts and wild honey), his solitary lifestyle in the wilderness. If John the Baptist were to walk into our church today, you’d probably hope he didn’t sit in your pew. John is kind of a scary guy. When I lived in Detroit for a year the church I served as a vicar had an annual drama, presenting the life of Jesus. It was very elaborate, with church members all in character and costume. The man chosen to play John the Baptist was a police officer with a commanding voice. And I will never forget when he appeared at the back of the room, bellowing out, “REPENT! REPENT!”. His deep, loud, voice startled the adults and actually made one little girl cry. He was a good John. He was scary. But what is mos...

"Hm. Updates." I've taken the plunge, as it was finally offered today, and switched over my blogs to the new Blogger Beta. So far, so good.

Advent 1 December 3, 2006 Luke 19:28-40 “Palm Sunday in December” Now that the holiday season is upon us, and American consumerism is in full swing, the stores have trotted out their decorations and touted their Christmas bargains. Yet some stores and specialties businesses (I can think of two here in Wisconsin) are open year-round with a specific Christmas theme. I don’t know how they stay in business. Who wants to buy ornaments for the tree in the middle of the summer? Likewise, I’ve never understood the point of having “Christmas in July” sales. But yet it seems during the hottest days of the year some car salesman is dressed in a Santa suit to sell some cars. Today we have another somewhat strange combined occasion. For here we are on the first Sunday of Advent, the beginning of the Church Calendar, with our eyes on December 25th just a few weeks away – and suddenly – our reading from Luke takes us to Palm Sunday. Jesus, riding on a colt, makes his triumphal entry into Jer...

The Pope, on his visit to Turkey, wrapped things up by praying in the direction of Mecca, like Muslims do. I can't tell you how disturbing this is. This action of the pope is disturbing, disgusting, cowardly, and drags the First Commandment right through the mud. And to think that the pope had a golden opportunity to proclaim Christ on his visit to Turkey in a way that no one else would have been allowed to do. And he chooses instead to do this. Terrible. This is just as bad as when John Paul II kissed the Koran. Seems the pontiffs have become universalist sell-outs. HT: Texas Hold'em Blogger

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