Rev Chris Roth

  Isaiah62:6-12; Psalm 97; Titus 3:4-7; Luke 2:1-20 With all the celebration and decorations surrounding Christmas we can sometimes miss the ordinariness that was a part of the birth of Jesus. There was nothing special about when Jesus was born. Jesus wasn't born on Yom Kippur, which was the highest holy day in the Jewish year- the Day of Atonement. That would have been a very interesting and theologically appropriate time for Jesus to be born. … But he wasn't, he was born on an ordinary day. The kind of day where you buy your groceries, go to work, clean the house, play with your kids, have coffee with friends. That's the kind of day Jesus was born on. Jesus was born to an ordinary couple- Joseph and Mary. He wasn't born to a king and queen. Or to a high priest and his wife. We probably couldn't pick Joseph and Mary out of a crowd. Joseph was a carpenter, and Mary seemed to be an ordinary peasant girl. … Jesus has some royal blood, be...

  Isaiah 52:7-10; Psalm 98; Hebrews 1:1-12; John 1:1-14 Christmas Eve is a magical evening. Even those of us who aren’t usually into tradition will find ourselves caught up in the nostalgia of this evening. The Christmas Tree. Christmas carols. The lights. … And at the center of it all is the nativity scene- Mary, Joseph, and the baby, surrounded by a shepherd or two, along with a few animals. … And all of it bathed in a warm glow, perhaps with the faint smell of peppermint in the air. Often, on Christmas Eve, we tell the Gospel story of Joseph and a very pregnant Mary journeying to Joseph’s hometown of Bethlehem because of a Roman census that required people to register in the place of their birth. It seems that Bethlehem was a bit crowded when they got there, and there was no room for them in the inn, or in the spare room (depending on how you read it). While visiting Bethlehem, Mary gives birth to Jesus, and without a crib to put him in, she swaddles him and places him in an a...

Isaiah 61:1-4, 8-11; Psalm 126; 1 Thessalonians 5:16-24; John 1:6-8, 19-28 In C.S. Lewis’ The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe four children arrive in a mystical land called “Narnia”. It is a land ruled by a witch who has caused the whole land to fall under and enchantment that makes it always winter, but never Christmas. It is an oppressive enchantment where nothing grows. There are still good creatures there, but it is an oppressed land. The potential of the land is locked away. The green grass is frozen under the snow. The trees are locked in a winter hibernation. The good people have to avoid the eyes of the witch’s minions. The potential for joy, for love, for laughter, for goodness is frozen. The four children are at the home of Mr. and Mrs. Beaver when they hear that someone is coming to help. … Lewis writes,  “’They say Aslan is on the move- perhaps has already landed.’ And now a very curious thing happened. None of the children knew who Aslan was any more than you do; but...

Isaiah 40:1-11; Psalm 85:1-2, 8-13; 2 Peter 3:8-15; Mark 1:1-8 When we think about the Second Coming of Jesus it can be easy for us to get caught up in the dramatic apocalyptic imagery. There is imagery of angels gathering people, of being caught up in the air, the sun and moon being darkened, and consuming fire. The book of Revelation is full of this imagery, and it is often reusing imagery from Old Testament books. There are Christians who get very tangled in trying to create timelines, and attach present day countries and leaders to these symbols. Within the lifetime of the people in this room there have been various predictions offered. I remember my Opa talking about the founding of the state of Israel and the wars that followed, and how people were connecting those events to predictions of the end times. When I was a kid, I remember seeing the televangelist Jack Van Impe on TV and (without any doubt in his voice) connecting the USSR to various apocalyptic images from the Bible...

Isaiah 64:1-9;  Psalm 80:1-7, 17-19;  1 Corinthians 1:3-9;  Mark 13:24-37 Advent begins today, which means that today is the start of a new church year. Advent comes from a Latin word that means “coming”, and it a time when we think about the coming of Christ. … This creates a level of tension with our surrounding society. … Just as Lent prepares us for Easter, Advent prepares us for Christmas. Like Lent, Advent is a time of introspection. It is a time of preparation. Society wants to skip the fasts, and go straight into the feasts. So, this is a time when we can feel out of step with our broader society, which is skipping Advent and diving straight into Christmas. We think about Christ’s Advent in three ways. First, we think about the yearning of God’s people for a messiah to save them. We think from the perspective of the past. We think about the brokenness of life, the suffering of existence, and the yearning to be saved from the mess. We think about the words o...

Ezekiel 34:11-16, 20-24;  Matthew 25:31-46 We have reached the end of the Christian Year. We might even consider it the height of the Christian year. The Christian calendar begins in Advent with the expectation of the Messiah, and moves into the celebration of the birth of Christ at Christmas. Epiphany tells the story of the revealing of Christ’s true identity as God-With-Us. In Lent, we follow Christ into the wilderness in preparation for the cross on Good Friday. And from that deep sadness we enter into the joy of the resurrection on Easter Sunday. But the story doesn’t end there. Christ ascends (Ascension) into the reality of heaven, and becomes present to his people in a new way. Christ remains present to the Church through the Holy Spirit, and continues to act through his body on earth, which is what we celebrate at Pentecost. Throughout the season after Pentecost, we learn to live as his disciples, following his teachings, until we arrive at today- The Reign of Christ, or Ch...

  Judges 4:1-7; Psalm 123; 1 Thessalonians 5:1-11; Matthew 25:14-30 We have very interesting readings today. First, we have our judges reading, where we see an example of the cycle of apostacy. The Israelites are in the Promised Land. God has brought them there by rescuing them from slavery in Egypt. Through Moses God did dramatic miracles to rescue them. Then Joshua took over from Moses to lead the people into the land. The Jordan river is parted, just as the sea was parted. God miraculously destroyed the strong walls of Jerico. They eventually settle in the land. … And then, instead of living holy lives dedicated to the Lord, who did all these amazing things for them, they turn from God and do evil. … This results in them being attacked and oppressed by another group of people. … The people cry out to God for help. … and then God gives them someone to help them. … This is a cycle we see over and over in the book of Judges, but we find it elsewhere in the Bible too. It seems to be...

  Matthew 25:1-13 The parable Jesus tells today is about the arrival of God to set things right at the end of human history set in the metaphor of a wedding feast. In the Old Testament, God is sometimes described as the groom, and God’s people are the bride. Interestingly, Jesus constantly places himself in the place of the groom, which is a hint about his divinity. In Jesus’ time, marriage had three steps. First, there was an engagement, which was a contractual agreement between a groom and the father of the bride. (Sorry, women). The second step was the betrothal, which involved a ceremony, and gifts were given to the father of the bride. The covenant is then sealed with a cup of wine, and from this point the husband and wife are officially bound together. The groom then returns back to his father’s house, and he spends the next year preparing a place for them to live together. [1] The third step is the actual wedding ceremony and feast. This is the context for our parable. The...

  Matthew 23:1-12 In our Gospel reading today Jesus is speaking about the religious leaders of the day. The Pharisees were highly respected teachers of their day. They sought to follow the Law perfectly. They even made new rules (sometimes called the Oral Law, or the Traditions of the Elders) to protect them from breaking the law. It was like creating a hedge around the law, so they could be extra sure they wouldn’t break that particular law. They created an intricate system for living according to the law. … This could be a heavy burden, especially for those who were too poor to have the leisure to study the Law and the ways of the Pharisees. Jesus even acknowledges the validity of their role as teachers of the people. He says,  “The scribes and the Pharisees sit on Moses’ seat; therefore, do whatever they teach you and follow it”.  That is high praise from Jesus. But he doesn’t stop there. He follows it, saying,  “but do not do as they do, for they do not practic...

This is a difficult topic to write on because it is so complicated and divisive. People don't seem to think that you can, at the same time, see what Hamas has done as absolutely horrifying, and also see the resulting death toll of Palestinian civilians as also horrifying. War is horrifying. It is also a war that was completely predictable given the actions of Hamas.  I want to say 3 things.  First, I don't care how oppressed you are, killing, raping and torturing defenseless civilians (including children) and desecrating their bodies, parading their dead bodies, and celebrating any of this is horrifying and evil. Hamas is no different from ISIS, Boko Haram, Al Qaeda, or any number of other Islamic-supremacist groups that desire to suppress all the world's people under a caliphate; to impose their understanding of sharia law on all the world; to place Jews and Christians under the jizya tax so that they feel themselves to be subdued and second class citizens; and kill or co...