Mark 9:2-13 My all-time favorite opening sentence from a work of fiction has to be the first line from Franz Kafka’s The Metamorphosis. It goes like this: “As Gregor Samsa awoke one morning from uneasy dreams he found himself transformed in his bed into a gigantic insect.” Kafka proceeds in a perfectly deadpan fashion to describe the sad fate of this transformation of the life of Gregor Samsa. This morning we read in a work of non-fiction, the Bible, about... Read more
Matthew 3:13-17 Have any of you ever been a marked man – or woman? I mean, have you ever had the feeling that someone, perhaps because of something evil you’ve done and perhaps not, is just out to get you? Maybe you had an enemy who was hell-bent on tracking you down and seeing you brought down at whatever cost – or maybe you feel as if you have a big X marked all over you. Though you wouldn’t guess... Read more
Matthew 2:1-12 There have always been 2 ways to respond to Jesus Christ: the wise way and the foolish way. Isaiah 60 prophesied that the kings of the earth would come and bow down before Christ. But there was at least one king who refused. Herod the Great was a selfish and foolish man – more concerned about himself. He refused to worship the Messiah – in fact he hated Him and wanted to kill Him. This Herod the Great... Read more
1 John 5 St. John wants you to know something. He wants those who believe in the name of the Son of God to know and remember that you have eternal life, and he wants you to continue to believe in the name of the Son of God (verse 13.) This is the same John who wrote in his Gospel, “but these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing... Read more
1 John 3:13-24 St. John has a one-track mind. Now normally we say this as a negative thing, meaning that a person is so fixed on one aspect of life that he doesn’t experience some of the other aspects that he should. But if your one-track mind is fixed on God and His commandments, then having a one-track mind is a great blessing. In this passage, St. John joins the choir of voices that teach us that love, like faith,... Read more
1 John 3:1-12 “You are a child of God.” That’s what God tells you in 1 John 3:1. What a wonderful way for God to greet us in the New Year! Here is the source of St. John’s teaching about how we ought to love one another: it is that God first loved us. We know from this same John that God the Father so loved the world that He gave His only-begotten Son. But what enraptures John here is... Read more
Luke 2:11-22 Happy New Year! Though the lesson from today is taken from Ephesians 2:11-22, on the Circumcision of Christ, we should not forget about one, unobtrusive verse that most of us skip over each year. It’s tucked away right after the justly famous Christmas passage in St. Luke’s Gospel. But after the angels have sung and announced, after the shepherds had watched their flock by night, had come to the Lamb of God, and had gone home, Jesus was circumcised.... Read more
St. John’s message this morning is a timely one, coming as it does at the end of another civil year. December 31 is a time to contemplate the sorrows and joys of the previous year, to anticipate with hope the new year, to examine ourselves for what we did wrong last year, and to resolve to be more faithful in the new year. And so John’s theme of abiding in Christ is a most timely one. John is concerned that... Read more
1 John 2:1-17 John says so much in such a little space, but his main points seem to be two: Jesus Christ is the propitiation of sins for those who turn to Him, and if anyone knows God and loves Him, he will keep His commandments. Both seem to be an amplification of John’s gospel from Chapter 1. They are another way of saying that we are to walk in the light and have fellowship with the Father. John offers... Read more
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January 9 – 1 John 1
1 John 1 1 John 1 could be called the Gospel of St. John because in it is contained the essence of the Good News of Jesus Christ. The good news Great News is that God has made it possible for man to have eternal life with the Father. Before, this was not the case, because we walked in darkness and were children of darkness, separated from God by our sins. But at Christmas, God the Father so loved the... Read more