To watch to this Gospel and Sermon on YouTube please click here. To many as received him…gave he power to become children of God. [Jn 1:12] Today we celebrate gladly, despite the restraints, the Incarnation of God – that God took flesh in Jesus Christ, to dwell among us. A merry Christmas to you all! But we cry out inwardly…Just let us touch each other, embrace and kiss.Just let us gather as one in large…
Last Wednesday, on Christmas Day, we celebrated the coming of God in Jesus Christ into this world. This is one of the great feasts of the Christian year and we longed for it during the season of Advent. As with all good things but especially with Christmas, we can’t wait till we have it, and open our presents a bit earlier, which sometimes means we run the risk of having had our Christmas joy before…
The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world.(St John 1:9) Many of you will know that Monday was a scary time for Rebekah and Frank Boneschanscher. Rebekah began to have contractions at 5 months in her pregnancy. She is in hospital now receiving the very best care, and the contractions have stopped for now – they have both asked for your continued prayers. I saw Rebekah in hospital in Zwolle and she…
“The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world.” [John 1:9] Late Monday night we started our Christmas celebrations in darkness – and with one lit candle – and we recognized a kind of fragility. A slight wind could blow the first candle out. And yet that flame passed from one person to another…and soon the whole church was aglow with the warmth of candlelight. I think we find it so…
I don’t know how you would start a gospel, but Matthew – from which our Gospel this morning is taken – starts most excitingly as follows (1-3): The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham. Abraham was the father of Isaac, and Isaac the father of Jacob, and Jacob the father of Judah and his brothers, and Judah the father of Perez and Zerah by Tamar, and…
“And the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us.” [St John 1:14] On Saturday we had our Crèche service for the children and we went through the story of the incarnation told in children’s songs and in very simple story telling. We all know it well, it is a story most of us have heard since we were children. How is this more than a nice story? I’d like us to think about what…
“For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given.“ What a year this has been in politics and in the media…it’s been a year full of surprises about the world we live in. On the political front, there have been the surprises of Brexit and of American politics. Never have we seen such strongly held oppositions on so many issues – with people claiming the high moral ground on both sides…
“And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us full of grace and truth….and we beheld his glory“ Today is a day for joy and for peace; it is a day for songs and for feasting! We have a simple message to us from God – it comes to us in our Bible readings and in the crèche scene here. God loves us and took flesh to become one of us that we might…
No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father’s side, he has made him known. Our souls have been made with the desire to see God and to be united with God. The highest aspect of souls, of our rational nature, had this ability in the beginning. And whether a person believes in God or not, that desire to see God still shows itself in various ways. In the modern…
“And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us…full of grace and truth.“ A Happy Christmas to you all! Today we celebrate and ponder the great gift of God coming into our midst to save us and to lift us into the divine life, the life that is eternal. God made that promise of salvation in ancient times. Our first lesson today is from the prophet Isaiah, through whom God spoke to the people of…