Rev Chris Roth

  Isaiah 63: 7-9; Psalm 148; Hebrews 2:10-18; Matthew 2: 13-23 We are in the midst of the 12 days of Christmas, but our Gospel lesson today is not necessarily one you would want to read next to a cozy fire and the Christmas tree, while sipping eggnog. And yet, from his very birth, danger seems to be always looming for Jesus. The birth of Jesus disturbs the balance of power. The messiah will bring with him a kingdom that is in opposition to the tyrannical powers of this world. The Pharisees are bothered by him. The Sadducees are bothered by him. And eventually, the Roman Empire (represented by Pontius Pilate), are all troubled by Jesus. We might have paired Revelation 12:1-6 with our Gospel reading. I’ve sometimes labelled this passage “The Christmas Dragon”. “And a great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars. 2 She was pregnant and was crying out in birth pains and the agony of giving...

  Isaiah 9:2-7; Psalm 96; Titus 2: 11-14; Luke 2: 1-20 At Christmas, we remember the Incarnation. “Incarnation” means “to be made flesh”. It is when we remember that God the Son, the second person of the Trinity, took into himself human nature and became Jesus the Christ, the Messiah. He became a human being. The Creator became a creature. The God who has no image, took on an image. … He grew within the Virgin Mary’s body, through the Holy Spirit, becoming flesh by drawing from her flesh. … This glorious event is announced by a heavenly host of angels, and a star (Stars are often associated with angels in the Bible). God enters into human history- birthed as a human being. … And this is not a moment that comes out of the blue. It is, arguably, the culmination of the Biblical story. … The story begins with an intimate relationship between God and Adam and Eve. They knew God in the garden. They heard His voice. They knew the sound of him moving through Eden. … But that relationship ...

  Genesis 2:4b–9,15–25; Isaiah 40: 1–11; Jeremiah 31:31–34; Baruch4:36–5:9; Isaiah 65:17–25: Luke 1:26-38 In our Gospel reading, the angel Gabriel announces God’s plan to Mary. She would be the mother of the Messiah, Jesus. This moment has been coming for a long time. Some think it has been coming since God’s words to the Serpent in the Garden- “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will strike your head, and you will strike his heel.’” (Gen 3:15). St. Irenaeus comments on this text that  “from then on it was proclaimed that he who was to be born of a virgin, after the likeness of Adam, would be on the watch for the serpent’s head” (Against Heresies 5.21.1.).   Some saw in this curse the mysterious prophecy that There would be a man, born of a woman, who would strike the head of the serpent, and he would also be struck by the serpent, feeling its deadly venom, through his death on the cross. [1] … From the b...

  Meditation for Holden Evening Prayer- Blue Christmas-  Advent 4 Romans 1:1-7 1:1 Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God, 1:2 which he promised beforehand through his prophets in the holy scriptures, 1:3 the gospel concerning his Son, who was descended from David according to the flesh 1:4 and was declared to be Son of God with power according to the spirit of holiness by resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord, 1:5 through whom we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith among all the gentiles for the sake of his name, 1:6 including you who are called to belong to Jesus Christ, 1:7 To all God's beloved in Rome, who are called to be saints: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Well, there is a lot packed into this introduction to Paul’s letter to the Romans. … There is the idea of slavery to Christ. There is the idea of calling, and apostleship, and t...

Isaiah 35: 1-10; Luke 1: 46-55; James 5: 7-10; Matthew 11: 2-11 Misunderstanding who Jesus is, is a running theme in the Gospels. Jesus asks his disciples at one point “Who do people say that I am?” (Matt 16:13). And a variety of answers are given. We might even say that is the point of the Gospels- clearing up misunderstandings and helping us to know who Jesus really is. In our Gospel reading today, John the Baptist asks Jesus a question through his disciples- “Are you the one who is to come, or are we to wait for another?” At the time of Jesus there were a variety of theories about the arrival of the Messiah. The people were trying to piece together a number of clues from the prophets to put together a kind of timeline for the Messianic Age, but there were a few different theories. The Dead Sea Scrolls indicated a belief in there being two Messiahs- a Davidic Kingly Messiah and a Priestly Messiah. There was also an understanding that Elijah was to come first, but it was...

ISAIAH 2:1-5; PSALM 122; ROMANS 13:11-14; MATTHEW 24:36-44 In Advent we begin the church year once again. We enter into a season of anticipation. With ancient Israel, we yearn for the messiah to come, and we yearn for the kingdom that will come with him. … Isaiah expresses a yearning for a time when the ways of God would be respected by a united humanity. The profound peace that would be found on the earth would render weapons useless, and they would be refashioned into tools. They don’t even have to be put into the closet (just in case). They can be reworked and used for other purposes because they can’t even imagine a future when they will be needed. … This yearning stands against the present reality - violence, conflict, disunity, and the rejection of God’s ways. Isaiah’s voice cries out with a hopeful vision of a time when things will be different. Ancient Israel’s yearning for the Messiah and his kingdom is also our yearning for the day when Christ will come again. … We ...

Jeremiah 23:1-6; Luke 1:68-79; Colossians 1:11-20; Luke 23:33-43 We have reached the end of the Christian Year. We might even consider it the height of the Christian year. The Christian calendar follows the story of Christ. It begins in Advent with the expectation of the Messiah, and then birth of Christ at Christmas. Epiphany is about the revealing of Christ’s identity. 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. At Ascension, Christ ascends into heaven, and remains present to the Church through The Holy Spirit, which is what we celebrate at Pentecost. The same Spirit that came to Mary to constitute the Body of Christ in her womb, would now constitute his body through his disciples. We learn to live as his disciples, following his teachings, throughout the season after Pentecost, until we arrive at today- The Reign of Ch...

Malachi 4:1-2; Psalm 98; 2 Thessalonians 3:6-13; Luke 21:5-19 Our reading from the prophet Malachi is about the Day of the Lord. An anticipated day of Judgement when all things will be set right. Some scholars think that Paul’s words against being idle in 2nd Thessalonians is a warning to people who stopped working because they were sure Jesus was going to come right away. Our Gospel reading is speaking about the destruction of the Jerusalem Temple and the Second Coming of Christ, and this is anticipating the Reign of Christ, which we celebrate next week, and is the end of the Liturgical year. In a way this is a little mini-Advent. Advent is a time when we prepare for the coming of Christ, both at Christmas, and the 2nd Coming. How do we prepare for the coming of Christ? Paul warns us against being idle. We shouldn’t just laze around waiting. There is work to be done. … Jesus warns us to not be led astray by people who come in his name, and to not connect wars and earthquakes to his ...

Daniel 7:1-3, 15-18; Ps 149; Ephesians 1:11-23; Luke 6:20-31 Today we are celebrating the feast of All Saints. The word “saint” means “holy one”. To be a saint means to have such a close relationship with God that God’s holiness is reflected- Sort of how the moon reflects the sun’s light. This is what all Christians are called to be. The French novelist Leon Bloy once said,  "the only real sadness, the only real failure, the only great tragedy in life, is not to become a saint".  To not become a saint means to miss God’s call on our life. Paul refers to the people in his churches as “saints”. So, in a sense, it is both what we are because of Christ’s work to save us, and what we are called to be because of how Christ is transforming us. Saints are what we are, since as Christians, we are the Body of Christ. So, St. Paul writes to the Ephesians saying,  “To the saints who are in Ephesus…” (Eph 1:1). At other times Paul will write saying,  “To all God’s beloved in Ro...

    Deuteronomy 8: 6-11; Psalm 92: 1 – 4; Luke 17: 11-19 The suffering of our lives and of the world has a tendency to drown out our gratitude. If we went around the room, I suspect we could pretty easily share things that weigh on our minds from our lives or from what we see on the news. What does it mean to give thanks in a world like this? Some might suggest we shouldn’t give thanks at all. Maybe we should just lament and mourn on behalf of the suffering in the world. We can imagine someone saying, “How dare we be happy and celebrate when such things are happening in the world?” In the ancient world there was a heresy called Gnosticism. One of the general beliefs of Gnosticism is that it believed that the world we live in was created by an evil power and we needed to escape this world to become free to go to the good immaterial world created by God. The physical world is a kind of a horrible prison for our souls. The Gnostics were named a heresy by the early Church becaus...