Rev Chris Roth

Jeremiah 1:4-10; Psalm 71:1-6; 1 Corinthians 13:1-13; Luke 4:21-30 We sometimes say, “Familiarity breeds contempt”. It can be a common experience. As we become used to something, it loses its specialness- our respect diminishes. As a teenager, the brand-new shoes that we were so careful about not getting dirty, within a few months, walk through everything we normally would. … This can be true in relationships, too. When we first get into a romantic relationship, our beloved is our whole world, but after the wedding we can snap at our partner over petty annoyances that we couldn’t have imagined bothering us before. We get a dream job we longed for, but over time it seems like all we notice are the things we don’t like about it. Jeremiah experiences this internally as he hears God’s call. Who is he that God would call him? He responds to God’s call  “Ah, Lord God! Truly I do not know how to speak, for I am only a boy.”  His familiarity with himself led to him dismissing himse...

  1 Cor 12:12-31 Before we talk about Paul’s letter to the Corinthians, it might be helpful to say something about the city of Corinth. The city had been almost completely destroyed at one point, but by Paul’s day the city had been rebuilt for about 100 years as a Roman colony. So it had the feel of a new city. There wasn’t really any aristocracy because it was a recently rebuilt city that was populated mostly with Roman soldier, freedmen (which were a step above slaves on the social ladder), and slaves. It was now an important city with lots of things going on. Don’t think of a sleepy backwater. This town was buzzing. There was tourism, with people coming to watch athletic competitions. There was lots of trade, which brought in lots of different people traveling from all over to do business. It had the feel of a boom town. It also had a reputation in ancient literature- to “act like a Corinthian” became a phrase meaning “to commit fornication” (see Aristophanes (430-385 BC) who co...

  Isaiah 62: 1-5; Psalm 36:5-10; 1 Corinthians 12: 1-11; John 2: 1-11 I love the story about Rabbi Akiva and the Song of Songs. He was a second century Rabbi, who was asked by his students if the Song of Solomon should be in the Bible since it seems to be a kind of love poem with some fairly risqué bits. He replied, “Heaven forbid that any man in Israel ever disputed that the Song of Songs [is holy], for the whole world is not worth the day on which the Song of Songs was given to Israel, for all the Writings are holy, and the Song of Songs is the Holy of Holies” (Mishnah Yadaim 3.5). [1] Rabbi Akiva’s high regard for the Song of Song relies on a theme that we find throughout Scripture. We see this theme in our reading from Isaiah  “For as a young man marries a young woman, so shall your builder marry you, and as the bridegroom rejoices over the bride, so shall your God rejoice over you” (Is 62:5). There are many times in the Bible when the people of God are described as God...

As we near 2 years of measures to deal with Covid, I’ve been trying to process how I’m feeling about things that have been going on for the last couple years. On the outset, I have been double vaccinated. I’m married to a woman with a molecular biology degree who worked in a Gov’t disease lab. I am obviously not an expert in medicine, so this is the result of things I’m hearing, reading, and from my own experience. I have been trying to understand the spectrum of opinions. There are extremes on each end. On one end of the spectrum there are mind-controlling microchips on the end of Covid test swabs or in the vaccine itself. On the other end of the spectrum there are those who want to blindly trust government officials without question. Places to have conversations in the middle feel somewhat rare. The positions are entrenched and associated with politics and moral declarations. Near the beginning of the vaccine roll-out, the AZ Vaccine was being offered. Someone I trust was reading me...

  Isaiah 43:1-7; Psalm 29; Acts 8:14-17; Luke 3:15-17, 21-22 The English word "Epiphany" comes from a Greek word that has the implication of "appearing", "revealing", “manifestation”, or “showing”. When we suddenly realize something, we say we have had an “epiphany”. So, the season of Epiphany focuses on ‘revealings’. In particular, the season of Epiphany is about God breaking into the world through Jesus. It is a season where Jesus is revealed as the Messiah and God’s Son. … On the feast of the Epiphany (on Jan 6th) we focus on the visit of the Magi, where we see Jesus being revealed to the nations of the world, as represented by the Magi. … Today, we focus on the revealing of who Jesus is through Jesus’ baptism by John the Baptist. At the beginning of our reading we see the people  “filled with expectation” and “all were questioning in their hearts concerning John, whether he might be the Messiah” (Lk 3:15).  The air is full of expectation. They feel...

  Sirach 24: 1-12; Wisdom of Solomon 10:15-21; Ephesians 1:3-14; John 1:1-18 We are still in the season of Christmas and one of the major things we think about at Christmas is the incarnation. Incarnation means ‘enfleshed’- It means to put skin on- to become ‘embodied’. The Nicene Creed has its roots in the Council of Nicaea in 325AD. It includes the familiar lines-  “We believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ, the only Son of God, eternally begotten of the Father, God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God, begotten, not made, of one being with the Father. Through him all things were made. For us and for our salvation he came down from heaven” The lesser known Athanasian Creed is found at the back of the Book of Common Prayer. It was probably written in southern France, in Latin, and is probably from the late 400’s or early 500’s. The name Athanasius is attached to it probably because St. Athanasius was a defender of a particular view of the divinity of Jesus at th...