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The Evil Eye---Septuagesima

1/27/2013

Sorry, I can't get the audio off my iPhone today. Maybe later. I actually have a voice again! Thanks be to God.

Exodus 17:1-7
1 Corinthians 9:24-10:5
Matthew 20:1-16

In the name of the Father and of the +Son and of the Holy Spirit, Amen.

The master of the house said, “Or do you begrudge me my generosity?” The Master had done nothing wrong. He’d gone out to the marketplace early in the morning and found idle, hopeless loafers, looking for salvation. They were looking for what they needed: a day’s wage, which would provide food for their table and a roof over their head; hope and security. They needed someone to hire them and thereby save them from poverty. He had come along early in the morning to do just that. He promised to give them what they needed. He called them and made them His. Instead of the hot, stifling market place and withering heat of the sun they enjoyed the cool breezes and waters of His vineyard and its well, the shade of its hedges and vine rows. Instead of the hopeless uselessness of an idle day without work, they enjoyed the satisfying labour of accomplishing something useful, something meaningful that provided what others needed too.

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God is in the Details---The Transfiguration of Our Lord

1/20/2013

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Exodus 34:29-35
2 Peter 1:16-21
Matthew 17:1-9

In the name of the Father and of the +Son and of the Holy Spirit, Amen.

God is in the details. That’s a common saying these days, but there is some truth to it, especially if you let God tell you which details He is in, which details He is hiding behind. In the past people often wondered if God was gracious. These days we wonder if God exists at all. We live in a world of doubters and skeptics, of people who think their wisdom is wiser than God’s. But God in His wisdom hides Himself in details of His own choosing, so that He is present in this world, hidden but present; hidden so that it takes faith to see Him.

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"Smoke" on the Water---The Baptism of Our Lord

1/13/2013

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epiphany1_-_13_01_2013.mp3
File Size:	3326 kb
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Joshua 3:1-3, 7-8, 13-17
1 Corinthians 1:26-31
Matthew 3:13-17

In the name of the Father and of the +Son and of the Holy Spirit, Amen.

Moses was raised up by God to set His people free. They were enslaved by Egypt. They were in bitter suffering. So they cried out to God and He raised up His servant Moses to set them free. He did this by letting them cross over the Red Sea on dry ground. On one side of the water they were slaves. On the other side of water they were free! Their lives of freedom were ruled by the covenant God gave them at Mount Sinai. And they rebelled against this and thus suffered terribly. Earning forty years of wandering in the wilderness, rather than quick transit to the Promised Land.

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A Myrrh Wrapped Mummy or More?---The Epiphany of Our Lord

1/6/2013

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-this sermon preached with laryngitis while sucking on a cough drop

the_epiphany_-_06_01_2013.mp3
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Isaiah 60:1-6
Ephesians 3:1-12
Matthew 2:1-12

In the name of the Father and of the +Son and of the Holy Spirit, Amen.

The Star appeared. The wisemen of the nations came. They brought with them the wealth of the East: kingly gold, priestly incense, myrrh for embalming. They came to bow before a baby wrapped in swaddling bands. They reverenced He whom they named King of the Jews. A King, not a priest, yet they brought Him incense. Incense which burns in the presence of God both in the old earthly temple and in that temple above not made by hands. Except there, it is not aromatic resins burnt to produce mystical smoke that fill the temple, but the prayers of the saints which arise before the Almighty. For this King is a Priest who intercedes for you—prays for you. But not priest of the old order. Not born of the old priestly line, of Moses’ brother Aaron, of the tribe of Levi. Not a priest according to the Old Covenant. He is born of the kingly line, of David, out of the tribe of Judah. He is born of the tribe which the promise of the Messiah, the one anointed to save His people, had been given to. This King of the Jews is that Messiah. He is a priest whose life shall be expended as a prayer that God our Father hears on behalf of sinful mankind. That is why these non-Jews, to whom the promises of the Old Covenant were not given, also brought myrrh, the embalming spice, the calming, soothing perfume. For this King’s death will be a prayer to God not merely for Jews but for those wisemen too, and all who fall before Him asking for His mercy.

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The Evil Eye---Septuagesima

God is in the Details---The Transfiguration of Our Lord

"Smoke" on the Water---The Baptism of Our Lord

A Myrrh Wrapped Mummy or More?---The Epiphany of Our Lord

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