It often takes an attitude adjustment to see things the way God sees them. Seeing Rightly is what Jesus' Sermon on the Mount is all about. When we see rightly, we gain a right standing in God’s eyes.

Luke’s Gospel tells us that after Simon came face to face with Jesus, he left everything and followed him. This is not just a call story. It is a parable about the forgiveness of sins. Before Simon drops everything to follow Jesus, he declares, “I am a sinful man!” Following Jesus requires repentance.

A nonperson is someone regarded as nonexistent. Having no social or legal status, they lack the civil protections of the state as well as the cultural privileges afforded to ethnic tribes. They are persons without an identity. God seeks out these nonpersons and gives them an identity in Jesus Christ. That is the message of the Gospel. It was this message that Jesus preached in his hometown Synagogue at Nazareth.

International Holocaust Remembrance Day is January 27. It was on that day in 1945 that Auschwitz was liberated. The book of Esther tells us to remember these days. Never forget. Memory is the first line of defense against tyranny.

Some people like to jump ahead to the end of a book without reading all the way through. They want the good news of the conclusion without all the drama in the middle. Of course, life doesn’t work that way. There is a meantime. Every story needs its plot. Try as we might to skip ahead to Easter Sunday, we must all pass through Good Friday.

We are living in an age where community is breaking down. The social bonds we once shared are beginning to fray. Paul’s letter to the Ephesians speaks precisely to this problem. The advice Paul gives is rooted in God’s gift to us, the gift of community.

Who is Jesus Christ? John speaks of the Christ as the Word of God (the Logos). Before there was Creation, there was Christ. He was in the beginning. And he was with God. And he was God. All things came into being through him. In this sermon, I touch on the varied philosophical meanings of the term Logos and what they can teach us about the person of Christ.

Spiritual growth isn’t something we talk about as much as we ought to, so it’s important to understand what it is and why it’s important. Jesus lays out the paradigm for our spiritual growth. Every experience he went through in life was an opportunity for growth. Likewise, we grow in wisdom as we journey through life. Spiritual growth is the name we give to the journey of reliance on God’s grace that a community undergoes in unison.

The glory of God shines through the ordinariness of our everyday lives.

John the Baptist comes on the scene, warning people that the ax lies at the root of the tree. Many of us would prefer to skip over John’s apocalyptic message. However, there can be no Bethlehem manger without first traveling through John’s wilderness. John prepares the way for the coming of the Christ child.