Sermons from 2020

Gospel Reading Luke 1:39-56 Mary Visits Elizabeth 39 In those days Mary set out and went with haste to a Judean town in the hill country, 40 where she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth. 41 When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the child leaped in her womb. And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit 42 and exclaimed with a loud cry, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb. 43 And why has this happened to me, that the mother of…

Gospel Reading Luke 1:26-38 The Birth of Jesus Foretold 26 In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a town in Galilee called Nazareth, 27 to a virgin engaged to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. 28 And he came to her and said, “Greetings, favored one! The Lord is with you.”[a] 29 But she was much perplexed by his words and pondered what sort of greeting this might be. 30 The angel said to…

Gospel Reading Luke 1: 1-25 Dedication to Theophilus 1 Since many have undertaken to set down an orderly account of the events that have been fulfilled among us, 2 just as they were handed on to us by those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and servants of the word, 3 I too decided, after investigating everything carefully from the very first,[a] to write an orderly account for you, most excellent Theophilus, 4 so that you may know the truth concerning the things about which you have been…

Background Information Before moving into the season of Advent, we can conclude our journey through the Hebrew Bible with the intriguing stories of Daniel and Esther. Daniel’s story begins at the start of the exile as he interprets the dreams of the Babylonian king, Nebuchadnezzar. Daniel is still around during the Persian conquests of Cyrus, whose leadership is followed later by Darius and eventually King Xerxes. The message in Daniel is one of God’s sovereignty: “The Most High God is sovereign over…

Background Information Integrating the books in the latter part of the Hebrew Bible and matching up timelines can be challenging.  Instead of stories about God’s people and their relationship to God, we encounter quite a number of prophets speaking to the people – and even to other kingdoms. As you might recall, the distinction between “major” and “minor” prophets merely refers to the length of their writings. Around 930 B.C., following the death of Solomon and the start of the reign of…

Notes Having spent time reading and reflecting on Samuel and Kings, what about the following book(s) of Chronicles, which was also divided into two sections by the Greeks? From a quick glance, Chronicles appears to be repetitive to the earlier books and the story of Israel’s kingship. There’s truth to that, as about half of the writings overlap. Then again, the Greek designation for this section – “paraleipomena” – means “things left out.” The earlier books were written for the exiled…