2011
Sermons
Dez 28 - Sorrow, Hope, and Fulfillment
Dez 25 - Et incarnatus est
Dez 24 - Extreme Humility
Dez 24 - Becoming Simple Gifts
Dez 18 - Annunciation
Dez 11 - Rejoice! Good News!
Dez 7 - Separated
Dez 5 - Greetings!
Dez 4 - Heralds!
Nov 27 - Look back, look ahead, look around
Nov 20 - Accountable?
Nov 13 - Encouragement of the Future Present
Nov 11 - Key Words for Veterans' Day
Nov 6 - To Pray without Ceasing
Okt 30 - The Spirit's Work Continues
Okt 23 - Holy Is and Holy Does
Okt 9 - Welcome to the Banquet
Okt 2 - Judgments Final and Otherwise
Sep 25 - Invitation to the Dance
Sep 18 - What kind of Life?
Sep 11 - Forgiven Living
Sep 4 - Debt-free
Aug 28 - Did Jesus say "Pick up your sox." or "Be who you truly are."?
Aug 21 - The Community of Storytellers
Aug 15 - Baptized into Hope
Aug 11 - Sacrifice
Aug 7 - Called and Sent through Water
Aug 5 - In Spite of Sorrow
Jul 31 - Extravagant Abundance
Jul 24 - Kingdom, Crisis, Opportunity
Jul 17 - It's God's Harvest
Jul 10 - Unexpected Results
Jul 3 - A Burden
Jun 26 - True Hospitality
Jun 19 - Gather in awe; go with resolve and joy
Jun 12 - Church Disrupted
Jun 11 - An Argument with God
Jun 10 - Abide with us, Lord
Jun 5 - Silent Action, Active Silence
Mai 29 - Hollow or Full?
Mai 22 - Stoned because of a Sermon
Mai 15 - Life Abundant
Mai 14 - And Jacob Was Blessed
Mai 13 - Fresh Every Morning
Mai 12 - Of First Importance
Mai 8 - Emmaus keeps happening!
Mai 1 - So Great a Treasure
Apr 24 - Easter Earthquake
Apr 23 - Storytellers
Apr 22 - Completed
Apr 22 - The Tomb, Jonah, and Jesus
Apr 21 - Anamnesis – Remembrance
Apr 17 - What Kind of King?
Apr 10 - Can these bones live?
Apr 3 - Nit-pickers, Wound-Lickers, Goodness-Sakers, and Arm-Wavers
Mrz 27 - Inside, Outside, Upside-down
Mrz 20 - More Contrasts
Mrz 13 - Contrasts
Mrz 9 - Stop...and Turn
Mrz 7 - We're So Blessed
Mrz 6 - The Fellowship of Fear
Feb 20 - Holy and Perfect
Feb 13 - Blessed, for what?
Feb 12 - Barriers Broken
Feb 6 - Salt and Light
Jan 30 - The Future Present
Jan 23 - Come and See, Go and Do
Jan 16 - Come and See
Jan 13 - Time
Jan 9 - Servant of the Most High
Jan 5 - Rise, Shine
Jan 2 - The World's No and God's Yes
Jan 2 - Word and words
Becoming Simple Gifts
Early Christmas eve - December 24, 2011
The sermon in a single sentence tonight is the final one that we all sang:
The gifts that are simple
are the gifts of love,
As the Child is a gift
from God above.
There are two halves to that sentence, and we need to keep them together but not confused.
The gifts of love which we are able to give are possible because of the prior gift of God's love in creation for the sake of Jesus.
We have to think about this carefully:
It is not that Jesus is a little something extra tacked onto an independent creation;
the whole reason for the creation is so that there be a place and a time for Jesus to have relationship with us!
God wants to bring us into a conversation with himself, not by force but by gift and invitation that are received and acknowledged and acted upon.
He is willing to talk with anyone, the rich young man as well as the crippled beggar, the foreign woman and the Roman governor.
Not all of them, or even many of them, are willing to listen with joy to what Jesus says and does, but still he makes that invitation to each of them, just as he does with us.
Such a simple gift...time to speak and time to listen;
time to hear news that is truly and ultimately good, and time to practice sharing it.
So often we want to reduce the gift-giving at Christmas to things, objects, maybe even pay-offs.
To think that way is to keep other people at arms-length.
What we are really giving at Christmas is a part of ourselves, following God's pattern.
The objects we give may cost lots of money or only a little, but the real gift is beyond the usual ways of measuring: it is a life, fully lived and shared.
That is what Jesus does; that is what we are called to do.
So when we open a Christmas card or rip off the wrapping paper from a gift,
the call of the Gospel this night is to look beyond the object to the giver and his or her offer of relationship with us,
and to thank God for the model of self-giving which Jesus offers.
We should pay attention to the words that we sing in the church's Christmas carols.
Tonight we use the words of that great 19th century preacher Phillips Brooks when next we sing:
The wondrous gift is given.
So God imparts to human hearts
The blessings of his heaven.
O Holy Child of Bethlehem,
Descend to us we pray;
Cast out our sin, and enter in,
Be born in us today.
O come to us, abide with us,
Our Lord Emmanuel.
Come, abide with us, not just with the people of ancient Bethlehem, but with us today.
Come, and give us not just one chance, but again and again reach out to us, Lord Jesus.
Come, and not just once offer that gift, but be persistent until we fully understand and are ready to receive it completely.
Come, and offer not just one attempt, but help us again and again to pattern our lives on the model of Jesus and his expansive love.
It is such a simple gift and yet so profound:
God for us, Emmanuel; (a Hebrew word)
and us for others, Christophoros, (a Greek word)
Are there any persons named Christopher here this evening?
Actually, it is a name for all of us.
The name means Christ-bearer.
The legend of St. Christopher involves him carrying a stranger across a swollen stream.
It was just a stranger, but in offering that service and giving the gift of himself, Christopher discovered that the stranger was the Christ-child is disguise.
So our call is for all of us to be named Christopher, to be God-bearers,
to be the gifts that God intends us to be, one to another.
The gifts that are simple
are the gifts of love,
As the Child is a gift
from God above. Amen
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Please note: The preceding sermon is provided as a resource for the thought, prayer, and meditation of the members and friends of St. Mark's. It is the residue of a verbal event, and thus it does not have academic footnotes and other details that would be expected in a written document. The writer gladly acknowledges the prior thought and work of many Christians before him. |