Rev Chris Roth

  Deuteronomy 18:15-20; Mark 1:21-28 In our reading from Deuteronomy Moses tells the people that God will raise up a prophet like Moses from among the people. God, through Moses, performed great signs and wonders in Egypt in order to rescue the Hebrew people from slavery. Moses also acted as a mediator between God and the people. The people discovered what God was like, and what expectations God had of them. There was no equal to Moses among the prophets in the Old Testament. … The Bible tells us  “… the Lord used to speak to Moses face to face, as one speaks to a friend” (Exodus 33:11). God established the Covenant on Mt. Sinai through Moses. And Moses let the people know the state of their relationship with God as they wandered through the wilderness on their way to the Promised Land. … The role of the prophet is to make the mind of God known. A prophet calls people to turn back to God. A prophet reminds them of the Covenant they have made with God, especially when they ha...

  1 Samuel 3:1-20;  Psalm 139:1-5, 12-17;  1 Corinthians 6:12-20;  John 1:43-51 We continue to be in the season of Epiphany, which is a time when we consider how God has made Himself known to us. It is a time of revealing. So, in our readings we see the epiphany of the priest Eli as he realizes God is revealing Himself to little Samuel. We also see the epiphany of Nathaniel as he realizes Jesus is the Messiah because he saw him under the fig tree, which was a common place for study and prayer in hot weather. Our readings today are also marked by a theme of God’s call. God called little Samuel into the life of a prophet. And Jesus calls Philip and Nathaniel to Follow him. The book of Judges is a book about the deterioration of God’s people. By the end of the book they are in a deep dark hole. This is what’s happening when we meet Samuel. The spiritual state of the people probably has something to do with why it says,  “The word of the LORD was rare in those days...

Genesis 1:1-5; Psalm 29; Acts 19:1-7; Mark 1:4-11 Our readings today begin with Genesis 1. … As our Christian ancestors read these words carefully, they saw God in the beginning, creating. They also saw the Spirit of God “hovering over the waters”, which is almost bird-like (Imagine a bird brooding over eggs). Then, God speaks. … The Church has often seen in these opening versus the presence of the Father, the Spirit, and the Word. And the beginning of John’s gospel tells us that Jesus was God’s Word made flesh. So, at the beginning of creation, the Church saw the Trinity being revealed. This didn’t come out of nowhere. Before the birth of Christ, Jewish scholars were already seeing a kind of mysterious distinction in God. The Bible speaks about God and God’s Spirit; The Word of God; The Son of Man; the Angel of the Lord; and Wisdom. (This becomes more clear when we look at Second Temple literature) … There are times when these are described in ways that don’t seem to draw a thick line...

  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...