New O Antiphons, V: O Jesus Christ, down in the winter solstice...
December 17, 2023 • Katie Lancaster • Isaiah 9:2–7
Every scripture passage we read today too, has an undertone of sorrow, a sense that the world is in dire need of saving. And it is. In the beginning, there was complete chaos, says the book of Genesis. Isaiah says, The people walked in great darkness. The people lived in a land of deep darkness. John Calvin says we are to imagine that they “looked as if no ray of light had ever shone on them.” Or says the Gospel of Luke, the force of empire was so intense that when Joseph took Mary to Bethlehem she had to travel against doctors’ orders at the end of her third trimester for four days on foot from Nazareth to Bethlehem, and by the time she got there, there was no room in the inn.
In the Meantime, III : I Long for Thee Alway!
December 11, 2022 • Katie Snipes Lancaster • Isaiah 9:6
Music transports us, moves us, carries us into the future, and lets us equally feel homesick for days past, even as we hold dear this very moment, here, exactly where we are. What I love about this piece Lisa Bond chose for us today is that, it unites us across so many centuries and so many cultures, and helps us to remember that, in every time and place we have been people, who long for God and who long for God’s way. Today’s text is influenced by the most ancient promises from Isaiah on which we hang our Christmas hopes, six, seven, eight centuries before Christ. The people of Isaiah’s day had their own struggles—wars and rumors of wars, illness, infighting, injustice—their story can so easily be our story when we open our ears to it.
Stewardship to the Third Power, II: Neighbor (Outreach Resources)
November 13, 2022 • William A. Evertsberg • Isaiah 58:6–9
“Stewardship” means caring for the good things the Boss has entrusted to you. At work, we steward the Finances, or HR, or Marketing, or Operations, or Technology, or the Fleet. God entrusts every church member with three aspects of our common life together: the Annual Expenses of Running the Place, Caring for the Neighbor in Need, and the Campus. That’s Stewardship to the Third Power. If we are thrice generous, our impact will be exponential.