12-17-17

Tim’s Tidings

Joy and celebration.  That’s what God experiences when we “come home.” 

Perhaps no other story illustrates this better than the parable Jesus told of the “wayward” or prodigal son in Luke 15:11-32.  This son insulted his father by asking for his inheritance early.  In his culture, this was a slap in the face, saying in effect, “you are dead to me.”

 

The son left the father and left the lifestyle that would bring health to the body and life to the soul.  He ended up bottoming out and resolving to return to the father as a slave.  Before he makes it even all the way home the father meets him with joy and orders a celebration “for this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found!” (Luke 15:24).

 

For those of us who have been, far off to God, this Season is a time to “come home.”  It is a time to ask forgiveness of wrongs and resolve to live in the hope, peace, joy and love of our heavenly Father.  It is a time to forgive those who have hurt us.

 

But there is more.  For those who remain faithful, it is a time to realize the bounty that the Father offers us in all times and Seasons.  We are heirs to God’s kingdom.  We are alive to God in Christ.  We too are “found, forgiven and free” to love God and others.

 

May the world “know we are Christians by our love” as we radiate the love and light God has for us.  When the early Christian communities gathered, one of the remarks recorded in Scripture about them is “see how they love each other.”  I am gratified for the love that is in this church, and I know it spills out from here into the world.  Thanks be to God!

 

This Christmas, why not share that love by inviting others to Eastminster this afternoon at 3 p.m. for Eastminster’s Musical “O Come Let Us Adore Him?” Other wonderful times of joy include December 23 at 6 p.m. for an “EPiC Christmas” celebration in contemporary style, December 24 for lessons and Carols at 10 a.m., and December 24 at 5 p.m. (Family Christmas Eve Candlelight), 8 p.m. (Traditional Candlelight), or 11 p.m. (Candlelight Communion).  It’s time to “come home” for Christmas in worship, praise and outreach, for we too have been “lost and now are found!”  God is delighted and compassionate when we “come home!”

 

Blessings,

Pastor Tim

12-10-17

You don’t hear many sermons from I Kings these days, but you will today.  I Kings begins the history of Israel as a monarchy beginning with the anointing of Samuel and ends with the fall of kings with the Babylonian captivity.  In many ways it is a retrospective history, it looks back and explains the roots of Israel’s exile, but it also looks forward to a future with hope.

 

The story of Elijah begins in I Kings 17.  Ahab has been named king.  He marries Jezebel and they begin to serve Baal and Asherah and “did more to provoke the Lord, the God of Israel, to anger him than did all the kings of Israel before him” (I Kings 16:33).  Elijah orders a drought on the land and is led by God to a brook where he is fed by ravens.  Then he is led to the widow of Zarephath’s home where she is about to die of hunger, but she makes Elijah bread from the little flour and a jar of oil she had.  That flour and oil did not run dry throughout the years of drought.  In I Kings 18 Elijah encounters King Ahab on Mount Carmel with 450 prophets of Baal and 400 prophets of Asherah.  He ordered that two bulls be brought and put on two separate piles of unlit wood.  He told the prophets of Baal to pray for their god to light the wood.  After several hours he taunts them.  They prayed and danced and slashed themselves but nothing happens.

 

Then Elijah repairs an altar to the Lord which was in ruins.  He takes twelve stones, one from each tribe of Israel and puts them around it.  Then he places the wood in and ordered it to be drenched with water three times.  After praying the “fire of the Lord fell.”  The people proclaim the Lord God and killed the prophets of Baal.  Jezebel then vowed to kill Elijah and he ran as far south as he could go.  He slumped under a broom tree and asked God to take him. There he was fed by angels and then journeys to Horeb, the mountain of God and spent the night in a cave.

 

In that cave on the holy mountain God tells Elijah that he will encounter his presence and he did.  We will talk about encountering the presence of God today, even as sometimes it comes not in the “grand” or “awesome” moments of life, but in the presence of simple Peace.

 

May the God of Peace bless you this season.  May we each take time to listen for the “still small voice,” the “gentle whisper,” “the sound of sheer silence” that is God in our midst. There is a lot of noise, a lot of conflict, claims, posturing, lies, deceit, and wrongdoing.  Yet the voice of God may be heard even this Advent.  Listen.  Expect.  Be aware.  Rejoice!

Blessings,
Pastor Tim