Lutheran Church of the Resurrection

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We beheld Him in the manger, wrapped in swaddling clothes on Christmas day. Now we behold Him in the temple, wrapped in the arms of a complete stranger named Simeon. There’s more here than we can tackle in one sermon, so here’s the plan. We’ll try to cover three of the five parts in our gospel text. First, Mary and Joseph bring Jesus to the temple; second, we’re introduced to Simeon; and third, Simeon takes the baby Jesus and sings his ‘nunc dimittus.’ In each part, we’ll look closely at the text and then make an application. (more…)

If I may, I’d like to add this one more reading from the Word to those we’ve just heard. From Click play to listen to the audio version of this sermon.

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St. Paul’s letter to Titus, chapter 3:4-7. “But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that being justified by his grace we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.”

I remember seeing a “Peanuts” cartoon some time ago that was just one frame. A sagging Christmas tree in the background, a room of torn wrapping paper and open boxes and toys and clothes scattered around as if a storm had just blown through. Charlie Brown and Linus are there. But it’s Lucy who speaks for all them all saying, “we’ve prepared for so long for Christmas, and now it’s all over.” Charles Shultz captured the popular Christmas just right. (more…)

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The most recent census data available is for the year 2004. It shows that there were 4,115,590 babies born in the U.S. In that same year, there were 13,945 babies born in Maine. By far the most babious state in the union was California with a whopping 545,071 births in 2004. The U.S. however supplies only a small percentage of total number of babies born worldwide each year. Unfortunately however, for those who like to count such things or use the information for snappy sermon starters, even Google doesn’t know what that number is.

But it doesn’t matter. (more…)

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I hope that you have all of your Christmas shopping done by now. For those of you who put things off till the last minute, the last minute has arrived. There are officially .5 days left until Christmas. If you have Christmas presents for family members who live far away, I hope that you got them into the mail in time for them to arrive in time for Christmas. If you didn’t, you may find yourself doing what we find Mary doing in our gospel this morning, delivering her Christmas present to family members in person.

“In those day Mary arouse and went with haste into the hill country, to a town in Judah, and she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth.” (more…)

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“Mary, Mary, quite contrary. How does your garden grow?” ‘You’d never believe it if I told you,’ says Mary. ‘Oh but Mary, we do believe. And what we believe in our hearts we confess with our lips.’ “We believe in Jesus Christ… who was conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin – you.” ‘Mary, Mary, we know how your garden grows, and with you, we magnify the Lord and our spirit also rejoices in God, our Savior.’

Even Mary had a hard time believing all of this at first. “How will this be, since I am a virgin?” A virgin and a mother are two mutually exclusive categories to our way of seeing things. A virgin mother is an oxymoron. Mary wanted to know, ‘how can I be simultaneously virgin and mother?’ (more…)

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“Prepare the royal highway; the King of kings is near! Let every hill and valley, a level road appear!” So we sang in our opening hymn this morning. The voice of 40 crying in the sanctuary, “prepare the way of the Lord, make straight paths for him…” Or was that just the echo of “the voice of one crying in the wilderness, prepare the way of the Lord, make straight paths of him.” For the next 15 minutes, lets let our hymn be the echo of John’s preaching in the region of the Jordan. Let’s listen to what this wild man in the wilderness says as if he were talking to us – because he is. Then, after we leave this sanctuary and go out into region of the Kennebec, we can use our own voices to say the same. (more…)

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The preparations for Christmas are underway in earnest now. Houses are being decorated inside and out. Cards and letters are being addressed to family and friends. Special concerts and pageants are being rehearsed and performed. It’s that time of year for parties, exchanging presents, singing carols and a lot of fa-la-la-la-la. Even among us seated here this morning, you can just feel it in the air; that anxious anticipation for Christmas preparations to begin in earnest now that the LWML Craft Fair is finally done with. So “deck the halls,” “jingle bells,” and “roast the chestnuts,” “tis the season to be jolly.” (more…)