Nehemiah 8:1-3,5-6,8-10 Luke 4:14-21 When we first went into COVID quarantine, back in March of 2020 we thought it would be for a couple of weeks. That was only the beginning of our COVID delusions. The season of Lent passed. Then Easter passed. I remember telling people we were going to come back by Pentecost with a blow-out celebration, for the sake of all the things we had missed. We would wave palm branches, set out Easter lilies, and have red balloons to represent the flames of Pentecost. We would hug each other and sing all the hymns we had missed, with gusto. But then Pentecost came and went…and we were still waiting. A whole year passed before we came back together in the sanctuary for worship. And it wasn’t the massive, multipurpose celebration I had envisioned. We were few in number. We were carefully spaced. We were masked and […]
Continue readingMonth: January 2022
When the Hour Arrives
John 2:1-11 When Kim turned 50 years old, I threw him a surprise birthday party. I invited all our friends and family; it was a great celebration. And we ran out of beer. I didn’t panic, though. Because in Pennsylvania you just call up your local beer distributor and they will deliver a case right to your door. So I did. And my brother-in-law happened to answer the door when it arrived, and he paid for it. Which was a nice bonus. So everything turned out well. I know how important these things are. I learned at my mother’s side that the very worst thing that can happen to a host is to run out of something a guest might want. It is the stuff nightmares are made of. Still, I know that there are plenty worse things that can happen in life. Running out of your beverage of choice? […]
Continue readingWhere Everybody Knows Your Name
Isaiah 43:1-7 Luke 3:15-17,21-22 There is a pretty good chance you know the origin of the sermon title: “Sometimes you want to go where everybody knows your name, and they’re always glad you came.” It’s the theme song from the old TV show Cheers. Set in a Boston bar called Cheers. There was a crew of regulars who appeared in every episode. One of them, Norm Peterson, would always walk through the door and be greeted with a chorus saying, “Norm!” Then Norm would go sit down on his regular seat at the end of the bar. The place where everybody knows his name. It’s great to have a place like that. On some level, we all long for a place where everybody knows our name. Someplace where you feel comfortable, where you have friends. It might be a coffee shop, a bar, a barbershop, the YMCA. It is a place where […]
Continue readingForgetting
Philippians 3:12-13 Graham Greene was a great English novelist, and among the many wonderful books he wrote was a slim volume called Monsignor Quixote. It’s about a priest who is traveling with a companion, someone with whom he does not always agree. They have very different beliefs and somewhat different values and a lot of “discussion” about these differences. One morning, after a night of heated disagreement, his companion comes to the priest to apologize about last night. Father Quixote says he has no idea what he is concerned about, for he hasn’t any recollection of whatever they discussed the night before. “I am trained to forget what I am told,” he says. Even when it’s not in the confessional? “It’s much easier for a priest to treat everything as a confession. I make a habit of never repeating anything to anyone – even to myself, if possible.” Most people, including […]
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