Church of the MediatorTelling Stories There is a wonderful celebration in the Jewish community at the end of Sukkoth, also known as the Feast of Tabernacles – which recalls the people of Israel wandering in the wilderness for forty years. The celebration is known as Simcat Torah, which means “Rejoicing in the Torah.” In this celebration, the final […]
Baptism Today our celebration centers around the Baptism of our Lord by his cousin, John the Baptist. This feast is always celebrated on the first Sunday after the Epiphany and marks the close of our Christmas observance. This entire Epiphany season invites us to reflect on Jesus’ baptism and its importance for us who follow […]
We’ve Got Work to Do Merry Christmas! Happy New Year! This year we are blest with having two Sundays in the Twelve Days of Christmas. Depending on what day of the week Christmas falls determines how many Sundays in Christmastide we’ll have. In this morning’s Gospel, Luke tells us about an incident in Jesus’ life […]
Christmas’ Meaning Merry Christmas! Today we shift our focus from the events in the stable to asking what does this all mean? Luke told us about that marvelous night when Jesus was born – the angels and the shepherds – Mary pondering all these things in her heart. This is great story telling. Now John […]
What I Want for Christmas Merry Christmas! Every year in my family it was the same question over and over – what do you want for Christmas? The answer from every member of the family was, “I don’t know.” Unfortunately, our gift-giving was reduced to gift cards which more often than not wound up in […]
It’s Not Christmas, Yet. Today is the Fourth Sunday of Advent. Four tapers burn on our Advent wreath, and many of will begin in earnest to prepare for the holiday later this week. It’s not Christmas yet. If your family’s custom is to set up a Nativity Crèche you may do so, including the animals […]
The Prophetic Voice We continue our journey through Advent, now two candles bear silent witness to our coming Lord. Advent’s purpose is to help us prepare our hearts and minds for the mystery that will unfold for in about three weeks from now. This morning we turn our attention to the work of the prophets. […]
A Promise of Hope Happy New Year! This morning marks the beginning of a new church calendar year. Once, again, we, as Christians, demonstrate that we are deliberately out of step with the rest of the world – especially the consumer world. Just look around, the stores have been decorated for Christmas since sometime in […]
Instilling Hope We are approaching the conclusion of Ordinary Time, next Sunday we celebrate the Feast of Christ the King which will be the culmination of the journey we have traveled over the past twenty-five weeks. The Gospel for this morning is often called “the little apocalypse” or “revelation” where Jesus tells the disciples what […]
The Saints at Rest Today is the transferred commemoration of All Saints’, which is actually a merging of three holy days: All Hallows’ Eve on 31 October (which gives us the holiday of Halloween), All Saints’ Day on 1st November and All Souls’ or the Commemoration of All the Faithful Departed on the 2nd. These […]