Merry Christmas from all of us here at the Sermon in the Valley. Here is Pastor Rob's Christmas Eve sermon on the light of Christ breaking through the darkness in the world.

Today I'm happy to share a good update about our neighbors at the Friends of the Homeless of Tuscarawas County and their pursuit for a new shelter building. Please continue to advocate and donate to them, their website is https://fothtusc.org/

Today we take a deeper look at one of the final prophecies from Isaiah and the Magnificat from Luke and what those texts means for us as we await for the light of Jesus to break through the darkness.

On today's episode, we look at a Washington Post article from over the summer that is making the rounds again about the supposed clergy shortage and what is really happening to smaller churches around the country.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/religion/2023/07/31/churches-shrink-pastors-retire-creative-workarounds-are-redefining-ministry/

On this Monday Sermon Episode of the podcast, we look at the readings from Isaiah 40 and Mark 1 that tell us to be voices in the wilderness crying out for change in the world and that it's ok to be abrasive if we're smoothing out the roughness of the world.

Today we look at the importance of the season of Advent and why we must slow down and be intentional as we prepare for the coming of Jesus on Christmas.

Happy St. Nicholas Day! On this episode we will look at who St. Nicholas was, the man, the myth, and the legend. He has an interesting story that we will dive deeper into.

Happy Advent! Today we look at the readings for the first Sunday in Advent and explore why we must sit in the darkness and wait for the coming of our Lord and not rush to the big day of Christmas.

Today we look at the He Gets Us ad campaign that has made a come back for the holiday season, why it's problematic to say the least, and what other people whom we least expect say about the church.

On this episode, we look at the gospel reading from Christ the King Sunday from Matthew on the parable of the sheep and goats and how what we do we Christians matters more than saying we are Christians.