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Love Brings Hope, Peace and Joy |
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Monday, 19 December 2005 17:43 |
"Hail, O favored one, the Lord is with you!"
But she was greatly troubled at the saying, and considered in her mind what sort of greeting this might be.
And the angel said to her, "Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. Luke 1:28-30
In the sixth month of her cousin Elizabeth?s pregnancy, Gabriel, the angel of God comes to Mary.
Like the shepherds who hear of Jesus birth, she is frightened.
No doubt.
Just think about it. Here is a teen age girl like any teen age girl going about her business. She was not a school girl, but would have been helping out with the household chores. Perhaps she was sweeping or doing laundry for her mother.
Maybe she was alone so the angel could talk with her privately. Perhaps on her way home from some errand, alone in her thoughts when the angel appears to her.
How would he appear? As an angel in glowing tunic, or like they did with Abraham and Sarah, as ordinary travelers?
However he appeared, what he said clearly frightened Mary. He says, "Greetings, you who are highly favored. The Lord is with you."
So you are a young girl going about your business and . . .
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Saturday, 10 December 2005 20:35 |
Have you ever wondered what it would be like to hear the fist sermon Jesus preached?
We heard part of it when Isaiah 61 was read this morning. In Luke?s gospel, shortly after His baptism, Jesus goes to the synagogue in his hometown of Nazareth, reads from Isaiah 61 and then is seated. Luke says everyone was waiting to see what he might say concerning the text. Their eyes are all fixed on him, waiting. He does not disappoint them and His commentary on it was to say, "This scripture is being fulfill today." He could have added, "before your eyes, even as we speak." Apparently He didn?t need to as the people understood the implication and began muttering to themselves to the effect of "who does he think he is?"
Not only did Jesus? words not go over well, but the congregation tried to throw him off a cliff immediately after the sermon.
I prefer our custom of having coffee and cake.
What Jesus is saying is "this is why I have come...to bind the brokenhearted, proclaim freedom and release for those in slavery."
You would think a message like that would be wildly popular. Who wouldn?t want to hear a message of freedom?
It all depends on which side of the bars you are standing, I suppose.
Jesus said to a man who was . . .
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Monday, 05 December 2005 16:00 |
Another of the common jokes of our time begins with a person receiving the news from his doctor that he has only days to live. Here is one version:
A man went in for his annual checkup and received a phone call from his physician a couple of days later.
The doctor said, "I?m afraid I have some bad news for you."
"What?s the news?" the man asked.
"Well, you have only 48 hours to live."
"That is bad news!" said the shocked patient.
"I?m afraid I have even worse news," the doctor continued.
"What could be worse than what you?ve already told me?" the patient stammered.
"I?ve been trying to call you since yesterday."
God tells Isaiah, "Cry out!"
"What shall I cry?" asks Isaiah.
"All flesh are like grass, and all their glory is like the flowers of the field."
God says to Isaiah, "Go up on a mountain and call out to the people, ?Here is your God, coming with power."
In the early part of the book, that announcement would have been an announcement to bring terror, but not this time.
God says, "He comes like a shepherd who gently leads his flock and holds them close to his heart."
Isaiah forty begins with the words, "Comfort, . . .
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Wednesday, 30 November 2005 16:00 |
It?s December 24, 1914. The day has dawned bright and sunny, if cold, instead of the miserable rain which made life more miserable in the stinking mud of the Western Front of WW1. Along a 27 mile front from Ypres to the La Basse canal, British troops and the German troops, at times less than 100 yards apart heard something amazing. The guns fell silent and here and there at first, they heard the sound of carolling. The songs would be picked up from men in the opposite trenches and before long, men who hours earlier would have killed each other were celebrating Christmas Eve, and in one case, engaged in a friendly game of soccer. The famous "Christmas Truce" of the First World War was hardly more than a momentary blip in one of the world?s most bloody conflicts. But it happened.
And the world still waits for evidence that the Prince of Peace is upon the throne of God.
But we wait in hope, because Jesus has come and has offered us the hope which comes from feeling His love.
When I worked at counselling, a young woman came to see me. She had the usual litany that comes from a life of abuse: alcohol addiction, a series of broken relationships, lack of confidence and a deep lingering pain from the center of her being. She came to talk to me over about three years. Not weekly, but . . .
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