Claimed, gathered and sent

  This  is the message I preached last night at our Christmas Eve service. The gospel text is Luke 2:1-20. Have a blessed Christmas and New Year. Finally, we’re here. Our Advent journey is completed and now we have gotten to the part of the story we love so much—baby Jesus has been born. Now we can answer the question that we’ve been hearing for so long, it’s Christmas!!!! At the time of Jesus’ birth, society was very class-oriented. There were distinct stratum of society and shepherding was among the lowliest of occupations. Shepherding in Jesus’ time was far different than it is today.   It was a 24 hour a day job outside despite wind and weather.   These shepherds in Luke’s gospel slept outside with their sheep! They couldn’t go into the house, take a break and go back to the sheep when they felt like it. Because of their working and living conditions, they were probably very smelly. After all, these were not well-to-do men who lived in the lap...

This is the sermon I shared with God's people at Bethel Lutheran Church, Portville, NY. It is based on Matthew 1:18-25. Is it Christmas yet? If you are around small children this time of year, you know what a burning question this is for them. We have two more days to go until Christmas Eve, when we celebrate the birth of Jesus. Perhaps today’s gospel seems a bit misplaced. It is the fourth and final Sunday of Advent, not Christmas Eve. Yet we’re talking about the birth of Jesus---or are we? Only the first and last verses of today’s gospel reading are about the actual birth of Jesus. There is a larger story being played out driven by Mary’s unexpected pregnancy. These birth verses act as bookends to that drama. Divine works and signs permeate Matthew’s account of the events surrounding Jesus’ birth. But for God’s Son to become incarnate with us, a lot depended upon people cooperating with God. Human beings are not automatons without wills where everything happens...