Posts from 2023

It seems hard to believe, but this is the final Sunday—the final day—of 2023. Tonight at midnight, we will close the book on this year and then embark on 2024 (the beginning of our seventh year here, incidentally, which is also hard to believe!). We are probably all focused on the challenges of the coming year, the changes we would like to make, the improvement we would like to see. As we think about that as it relates to the…

Most of you are probably at least somewhat familiar with J. R. R. Tolkien. He was a philologist by training, a professor of English Language and Literature at Oxford. But he is best known today as a writer, particularly for his epic works of fantasy, The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. Tolkien was famously a devout Catholic. His religious beliefs clearly influenced a number of his works in terms of their worldview, though he did not write much…

Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth; break forth into joyous song and sing praises! Let the sea roar, and all that fills it; the world and those who dwell in it! Let the rivers clap their hands; let the hills sing for joy together before the Lord, for he comes to judge the earth. He will judge the world with righteousness, and the peoples with equity. – Psalm 98 Isaac Watts is considered the father of…

And in the same region there were shepherds out in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. And an angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were filled with great fear. And the angel said to them, “Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. For unto you is born this day in the city of…

And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.” (Luke 2:13- 14) Joseph Mohr was born in Salzburg, Austria in 1792. In 1815, he was ordained to the priesthood in the Roman Catholic Church and served in a number of parishes in the Salzburg area. As of Christmas 1818, he was the assistant priest at St. Nicholas church…

The Apostle Paul encountered opposition to Ephesus. The silversmiths, who made trinkets to honor the pagan goddess Diana, were concerned that the growth of the Christian Faith would cut into the profits of their trade. Bringing some of the leading Christians before the civil magistrates, they delivered the charge: “These men who have turned the world upside down have come here also” (Acts 17:6). While intended as a rebuke, in one sense, this charge was a great compliment. The pagans…

It has been my practice every year now in this space to print a historical Thanksgiving Proclamation. Though we typically associate the origin of this practice with the Pilgrims, special times for giving thanks for blessings as well as celebrations of bountiful harvests are ancient traditions in a number of cultures. In the New World, both the Spanish and French conducted thanksgivings in the 16th century. English settlers in Jamestown held a thanksgiving in 1610. By comparison, the celebration in…

All of us at some time or another get depressed and discouraged. Sometimes we just want to give up and quit. In the heat of a moment we’ll say, “That’s it, I’m quitting this job.” Or, “I’m going to leave this town and never look back.” Or even, “I’m done with the church – they’ll never miss me.” How often have we felt that life was seemingly stacked against us? That the harder we try, the worse things get? That…

When we look at the church in the New Testament, we cannot help but be impressed by its impact. On that first Pentecost, there were 120 disciples huddled together, waiting for the Spirit promised by the Lord Jesus. After he poured it out and Peter preached to the crowd that gathered in response, there were 3,000 baptized; that number soon grew to 5,000. Within a few years, there were churches planted all over the ancient world. What accounts for the…

We are drawing near to the end of the book of Ecclesiastes in our Sunday morning sermon series. In our text today, we will see the Preacher famously urge us to Remember your Creator in the days of your youth. But there is a flipside to that which we will not have time to explore in detail in our lesson, but is absolutely worthy of our consideration: even if we do not always remember Him, our Creator remembers us. He…

We are in the midst of a loneliness epidemic in our world. It is severe enough that earlier this year, the Surgeon General of the United States, Dr. Vivek Murthy, released an Advisory to call attention to it as a public health crisis. Countries such as Japan and the UK have gone so far as to appoint Ministers of Loneliness in their government. Our isolation and lack of connection to one another creates myriad physical problems that are worthy of…

Last week, we considered a question many people have asked over the years: will we know each other in heaven? While Scripture does not address this directly, it seems clear that the answer to that is affirmative, both from the great principles of the Bible as well as implications of passages found in both the Old and New Testaments. But there are some objections that have been raised to that idea before; let’s consider those here. Sometimes it’s suggested we…