Pastor: In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. People: Amen. Pastor: With all the host of heaven, from every nation, in every language, we cry out: People:...
John 1:14, Philippians 2:6-8, Luke 2:6-7, Isaiah 7:14, Hebrews 2:14-17, Colossians 1:15-17
Imagine for a moment becoming a baby again. Imagine giving up language and muscle coordination. Imagine losing the ability to eat solid food and control your bladder. God as a fetus! Or imagine yourse...
Luke 1:44, Psalm 100:1-2, Luke 1:39-45, Psalm 96:1-2, Luke 2:20, Luke 2:8-20, Isaiah 9:6, Luke 2:13-14, 2 Corinthians 5:17, Revelation 21:5, Luke 2:25-38, Philippians 2:10-11, Psalm 150:6, Revelation 5:11-14
Our hearts for very joy do leap Our lips no more their silence keep: We too must sing with joyful tongue That sweetest ancient cradle-song: Glory to God in highest heaven, Who unto us a Son has giv...
Micah 7:18-19, Colossians 3:13, Matthew 5:44, Philippians 2:3, Romans 5:8
Lord of Hosts, We come before you today in a tone of solemnity. We recognize that while it was Judas who betrayed you for 30 pieces of silver, that we often betray you as well. We know what is right,...
Luke 1:26-38, Luke 2:6-7, John 1:1-3, 14, Luke 2:8-20, Colossians 1:15-17, Luke 2:22-35, Philippians 2:6-7
He was created of a mother whom He created. He was carried by hands that He formed. He cried in the manger in wordless infancy, He the Word, without whom all human eloquence is mute.
Philippians 2:5-8, Matthew 26:36-39, Matthew 4:1-11, Matthew 3:13-17, Luke 4:16-21, John 6:5-14, Matthew 17:1-5
Jesus loved the will of His Father. He embraced the limitations, the necessities, the conditions, the very chains of His humanity as He walked and worked here on earth, fulfilling moment by moment His...
Isaiah 9:6, Philippians 2:6-7, Luke 2:10-12, Micah 5:2, Matthew 2:1-2, 11, John 1:14
For this purpose, then, the incorporeal and incorruptible and immaterial Word of God entered our world. In one sense, indeed, He was not far from it before, for no part of creation had ever been witho...
Luke 2:22-24, 2 Corinthians 8:9, Isaiah 9:6-7, Philippians 2:6-8, John 1:14, Isaiah 61:1
They were poor. We know this because the two young turtledoves Joseph and Mary brought was the smallest offering they were allowed as devout Jews and yet the largest they likely could afford. With tw...
"Maundy" What? Maundy Thursday takes its name from the Latin version of John 13:34: "A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are ...
Luke 2:6-7, Isaiah 53:2, Matthew 2:1-2, Philippians 2:6-8, 1 Corinthians 1:27-29
If you lacked simplicity, how then should this fall to you that midnight skies are a shine with? God, who stoked at men mild in you now comes to mortal eyes. That he’s not more great—does this surpris...
Pastor: "Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by tak...
Isaiah 9:6, Philippians 2:6-7, 1 Corinthians 1:27-29, Luke 2:10-12, Micah 5:2, Matthew 2:1-2, 11, John 1:14, Isaiah 52:2-3, John 18:36
Politicians compete for the highest offices. Business tycoons scramble for a bigger and bigger piece of the pie. Armies march and scientists study and philosophers philosophise and preachers preach an...
Philippians 2:5-8, John 1:14, 1 Corinthians 10:13, 1 Peter 2:24, Romans 8:3, Matthew 20:28
What self denial! What self abasement! What self emptying! He, whom no infinitudes can hold, is contained within infant’s age, and infant’s form. Can it be, that the great ‘I AM THAT I AM’ shrinks int...
John 15:13, Philippians 2:6-7, Matthew 2:13-15, Matthew 5:44, Romans 5:8, 1 John 4:19, 2 Corinthians 9:15
Jesus – Savior: Praise You. Thank You. We’d never have done what You did We’d never give up so much for someone else who cared so little about us. … and we can’t imagine anyone doing it for us. But Yo...
Proverbs 15:18, Ephesians 4:2-3, Matthew 5:9, Philippians 2:3-5, Luke 10:25-37, Romans 12:17-21, Colossians 3:12-13
Just before Christmas, my whole family piled into our kid-moving vehicle and rushed to the nearest mall to grab some last minute Christmas presents before dashing to a holiday party. As usual, we were...
Isaiah 9:6, Philippians 2:6-7, Luke 2:10-12, Micah 5:2, Matthew 2:1-2, 11
Who can add to Christmas? The perfect motive is that God so loved the world. The perfect gift is that He gave His only Son. The only requirement is to believe in Him. The reward of faith is that you s...
John 1:1-4, Philippians 2:6-8, Colossians 1:16-17, Isaiah 7:14, Micah 5:12, 2 Corinthians 8:9, Luke 2:11-12
He by whom all things were made was made one of all things. The Son of God by the Father without a mother became the Son of man by a mother without a father. The Word Who is God before all time became...
John 1:12-14, John 1:14, 2 Corinthians 5:17, Luke 4:18-19, John 15:4-5, Philippians 2:5-11, Galatians 6:2
God became man that dehumanized men might become true men. We become true men in the community of the incarnate, the suffering and loving, the human God.
Isaiah 9:6-7, Micah 5:2, Luke 2:1-20, John 1:5, Philippians 2:6-7, Luke 2:7, Revelation 3:20
It was a time like this, war and tumult of war, a horror in the air. Hungry yawned the abyss— and yet there came the star and the child most wonderfully there. It was a time like this ...
Philippians 2:6-8, 2 Corinthians 8:9, John 1:14, Luke 2:7, Isaiah 9:6, John 3:16
The incarnation has often been described as “The Great Exchange,” whereupon God took on human form so that we might participate in God's divine life (through the Holy Spirit). In a sermon on the n...
John 1:46, 1 Corinthians 1:26-29, Matthew 20:16, Luke 1:51-53, James 2:1-9, Matthew 11:25, Isaiah 52:2-3, Philippians 2:5-8
The world has always despised people from the wrong places and with the wrong credentials. We are always trying to justify ourselves. We need desperately to feel superior to others. And everything abo...
John 1:1-15, Isaiah 9:2, Luke 1:78-79, Philippians 2:6-7, 2 Corinthians 8:9, Micah 5:2, Matthew 1:23
Just when everything is bearing down on us to such an extent that we can scarcely withstand it, the Christmas message comes to tell us that all our ideas are wrong, and that what we take to be evil an...
Isaiah 9:6-7, Luke 2:10-11, Luke 2:8-20, Psalm 24:7-10, Revelation 5:13, Matthew 21:1-11, Zechariah 9:9, Matthew 21:9, John 12:12-15, Philippians 2:9-11, Revelation 19:1, Revelation 7:9-12
Hark the glad sound! The Savior comes, The Savior promised long; Let every heart prepare a throne And every voice a song. Our glad hosannas, Prince of Peace, Your welcome shall proclaim, And heaven’s ...
Luke 1:26-38, Luke 2:1-7, John 1:14, Luke 2:10-11, Philippians 2:5-8, John 10:14-18, Isaiah 53:4-5, Matthew 20:17-19, Mark 15:33-39, 1 Peter 1:3-4
The Christmas message is that there is hope for a ruined humanity--hope of pardon, hope of peace with God, hope of glory--because at the Father's will Jesus became poor, and was born in a stable s...
Luke 2:1-3, Micah 5:2, John 1:9-11, Isaiah 9:2, Philippians 2:6-8, Matthew 2:13-15, John 4:9-10
This is no time for a child to be born, With the earth betrayed by war & hate And a comet slashing the sky to warn That time runs out & the sun burns late. That was no time for a child to be b...
Luke 1:26-38, Luke 2:1-7, Luke 2:8-14, Matthew 2:1-12, Luke 2:25-35, John 1:14, Philippians 2:5-8, Matthew 3:13-17, John 3:1-21, Matthew 17:1-8
We consider Christmas as the encounter, the great encounter, the historical encounter, the decisive encounter, between God and mankind. He who has faith knows this truly; let him rejoice.
Galatians 5:22-23, Matthew 23:11-12, 2 Corinthians 3:18, 1 Peter 5:2-3, James 1:19, Proverbs 15:1, Philippians 2:3-4
On Monday morning, February 2008, every sports page in the world heralded the New York Giants’ astonishing Super Bowl upset over the undefeated New England Patriots. And the big story within the story...
Matthew 2:1-2, Ephesians 3:6, 1 Kings 10:1-13, John 1:9, Philippians 2:10-11
In many Christian lands Epiphany is the most important feast of Christmas. Especially in Latin countries the arrival of the Wise Men, the Three Kings, looms large in the imagination. My native city, N...