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...