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Pastor’s Notebook

How Many Wise Men?

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Sermon C6 Epiphany of the Lord 2013-01-06
Trinity Lutheran Church, London
Theme: How Many Wise men?
Scripture:  Isaiah 60:1-6 ; Matthew 2:1-12 ; Matthew 25:40

Can you name the reindeer that pull Santa’s sleigh?

Dasher                        Dancer                        Prancer
Vixen                          Comet                         Cupid
Donner                       Blitzen                        Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer

Then there is the is the tenth reindeer – Olive – All of the other reindeer smile

Can you name the wise men – the Magi – the Kings – the astronomers from the East?Read More »How Many Wise Men?

BUT WHAT IF?

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Maybe the first card game you ever learned to play was ‘snap’.  I don’t remember learning it but I did teach it to my daughters.  It is really easy … divide up all the cards equally, don’t look at the faces of the cards, then we take turns at turning one over. If that card matches the previous one, shout ‘SNAP’.  First one to shout gets all the turned up cards, and when you get all the cards you win.  See … easy.  So right after you explain the rules somebody will likely say (and maybe you just did), “But what if we both shout SNAP at the same time?”  That’s how we deal with a lot of things in life.  The rule says this, and somebody will go digging to find a “But what if?” question.  This is not just the stuff of lawyers and physicists (yes they like to ask lots of “But what if?” questions too).

This is not just a modern phenomenon. In Jesus day he had to deal with some “But what if?” characters like we find in Mark 12:Read More »BUT WHAT IF?

Keep Watch Christ Is Coming

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Last month in my newsletter article, “Church Words Are Peculiar”, I asked “Can you help me put together a list of Trinity’s peculiar words? “  This was not meant as rhetorical and I did receive a list from one person – thank you Daniel. One of his words was “Advent”,  a word that comes from the Latin word adventus which means “coming”.  It is a pretty unique and peculiar word.

The idea with Advent is for us to reflect and prepare for the coming of Christ.  Not an easy task at this time of year.  Much of our world is already preparing – Christmas music, Christmas wish lists, stores loading up with gift options, Christmas party planning, and the list goes on.  So for the church to say stop, listen, pay attention to the arrival of something extremely important, wait for the arrive of Christ, the world might say, “Later, I’m too busy getting ready for Christmas.”  However, the Christmas story was a once and only act – just like the resurrection was a once only event. The birth of Jesus happened only once.Read More »Keep Watch Christ Is Coming

Church Words Are Peculiar

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One question that I have been asked from time to time is about a line from the Apostles Creed.  In our church life we use a set of words that are sometimes different from everyday life.  But then again, most groups of people, trades, organisations etc. develop sets of words and phrases that mean something particular in their local contexts.

Also given that our English language is a real mixture of linguistic roots from other languages, it is not surprising that the church has its own set of words that are “peculiar”.   Take that word “peculiar” – a word with Latin origins – and it has two different meanings.  The modern usage might often be “different from the usual or normal”.  But the other meaning is also appropriate being “a characteristic of only one person, group, or thing”.   Some of our church words are truly peculiar.Read More »Church Words Are Peculiar