Sermon: Christmas "Simeon and Anna"

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Simeon and Anna are two people that meet Joseph and Mary as they bring Jesus to the temple in Jerusalem, they have one thing in common, they both are awaiting the hope of the world, a messiah that would save their people.  This hope, which is our hope of Christmas, is found in Jesus not as a great teacher or moral example or but as the "Son of God"proclaimed in the beginning of the Gospel of Mark.  In Jesus, hope enters into the world, because Jesus is Emmanuel, "God with Us".  The hope that we can indeed be freed from bondage and slavery is a reality.  Simeon responds by leaving with God's peace and Anna as a joyful witness.  What is our response?  

Should Christians celebrate Christmas?

Surprising as it may seem occasionally a Christian objects to celebrating Christmas.   One objection is the fact that Christmas took the place of solstices-oriented pagan festival like the Norse celebration of Yule and the Roman celebration of the god Mithras.  When the church decided to celebrate Christmas on Dec 25 it absorbed the traditional pagan holidays.  While this is true there is precedent for its celebration going back to the apostles and the early church.  So much more must be said to understand its importance.  

The church has from its inception observed special days of worship.  Dating back to the Old Testament worship, Israel had a number of special festivals and holy days that were celebrated like Passover, Unleavened Bread, Firstfruits and Weeks.  Early Christians began worshipping on Sunday as the Christian Sabbath in order to emphasize the resurrection of Jesus (Acts 20:7, 1 Cor 16:1-2).  While the resurrection of Christ is celebrated every Sunday, the day of 14 Nisan (the same day as Passover in Judaism) was observed as the historical day of the resurrection.  This was based on apostolic tradition.  

The earliest record of Christmas actually goes back to the Feast of Epiphany, sometimes called the Feast of Theophany which is today celebrated on January 6th.  This is documented in the Apostolic Constitutions, early treatises on Christian worship and by St Clement of Alexandria (150-215) who also mentions the feast and vigil that accompanied it.  Christmas was more actively promoted during the fourth century and by the Council of Tours in 567 Advent, Christmas, and Epiphany were established and celebrated as a cycle.

The significance of this is more than just celebrating the "birthday of Jesus", it is rather, a recognition of the redemptive acts of God in Jesus seen through his birth, baptism, ministry, death, burial, resurrection, and ascension.  The Christian liturgical cycle functions to emphasize those important events that define our faith, it is a time not just to celebrate and commemorate it is a time to reflect, understand and ultimately to believe in what we as Christians are being called to, a life and vocation of discipleship in the footstep of Jesus.

Understanding the historical roots of Christianity is important because it helps us to understand and pass down important traditions, traditions that remind us of what those that came before us valued.  When we lose our history, we lose our grounding.  So, yes, we can certainly enjoy celebrating Christmas with many of our holiday traditions that make this time of the year joyful, but we must always remember that the root of Christmas is in the worship that takes place when Christians gather to praise, read, and hear the word proclaimed and celebrated Holy Communion together on the day the church sets aside to focus on the birth of Jesus, the inauguration of a new and wonderful act of salvation into the history of humanity.

So, should Christians celebrate Christmas?  Of course, but the celebration is truly a life changing one, it is one that calls us to grapple during Advent with the most serious of questions, because only when we can fully understand the nature of the darkness in the world, can we then celebrate the coming of the light that shines brightly directing our paths back to God.  

Sermon: Fourth Sunday in Advent "Advent's Wake-Up Call"

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Advent is a time that calls people to "wake up!"  We are asked to listen for the voice of God in our lives and in our world.  During this season, the lectionary turns our attention to John the Forerunner, who breaks out calling loudly in the wilderness to prepare the way for the Messiah!  The message is simple, God has come to us, God is calling us, God is about to be revealed to us.  Therefore, repent and be baptized for the forgiveness of sins.  John's role as the first witness was simply to point people to the Messiah that would come.  Too often we get this out of focus.  Distracted by other voices it is easy for us to take our focus off of the life and teachings that the scriptures bear witness to.  This time of the year we are asked to refocus on the Christ and prepare our hearts in an attitude of repentance, humility and receptivity to the message we are about to hear.

Advent Devotional Sunday 4

This Advent Devotional invites us to reflect on several pieces of Art during the Advent Season as we prepare our hearts for Christ's coming.

Faith and Art in Advent

Advent Devotional Sunday 3

Year B: St. John Introspective

This Advent Devotional invites us to reflect on several pieces of Art during the Advent Season as we prepare our hearts for Christ's coming.

Advent Faith and Art

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Advent Devotional Sunday 2

Year B:  John the Forerunner

This Advent Devotional invites us to reflect on several pieces of Art during the Advent Season as we prepare our hearts for Christ's coming.  

Accordance Bible Study Program from Oak Tree Software

Accordance Bible Software

I have to give my recommendation to "Accordance Bible Software" as one of the best Bible software product on the market.  If anyone is looking to purchase and begin using Bible study tools in an electronic format on a computer, laptop, app, or tablet, you should look at Accordance. 

Why Accordance?  The easy to use workspaces allow you to bring up multiple window panes and interface with multiple texts, it has very clear and beautiful text font, (which can be easily resized) a user can bring up Bible texts, commentaries, dictionaries, or study notes simultaneously.   An Instant details window at the bottom allows a user to view ancient languages such as Hebrew and Greek parsing, reference notes, syntax or grammatical information.  A very easy to use tool bar allows user to sort and organize their libraries, and it can be personalized.  Timelines, Atlases, and Analytics are all available and easy to use allowing users to graph frequency of words, use pie charts and tables to analyze and study data.  Text comparisons are available as well allowing multiple Bibles for side by side comparison.  It is very easy to do cross text searches instantly between let say, a word in the text of the Bible, to a dictionary, or commentary.  

Besides the powerful search tools, speed, and sleek interface, Accordance boasts a truly broad library ranging from pastoral and devotional, to top of the line commentaries and dictionaries, and very rare ancient texts.  Popular scholarly study commentaries such as the Anchor Bible Commentaries, New Interpreter's, Word Biblical and Hermenia are all available, along with Bibles in numerous languages and translations, Greek and Hebrew tools and texts, several versions of the LXX, Targums, the Mishna, Qumran texts, Critical version of Q, dictionaries, lexicons, Josephus and other historical sources such as the Didache.  Many other tools such as Bible photo guides, and numerous other volumes, including devotional and pastoral are featured in the various collection for sale.  Take some time to go to the Accordance home page and look at their product line and software tutorials.  This is not only ideal for seminary and Bible college students, but pastors, scholars, missionaries, and any one interested in exploring Biblical scholarship.  This truly is the future of bible software study.  

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