January 2013 Archives

Sermon notes from 2nd Sunday after Epiphany (Year C) 

Text for Epiphany +2: John 2:1-11

Click here for an Audio of Sermon

Something has been weighing on my mind over the last couple of weeks. I've had some encounters that have been taking up a lot of real estate in my head.

Last week I was getting on the BART at Civic Center station. Didn't think about it.

Tuesday, I got off at Macarthur. $16 ticket for 8 dollars. I began to get angry as I walked off.

Now, I have no clue where this BART pass came from. I mean, after all, he could be an ordinary person who made a serious mistake and needed the cash. But having been involved with people in need, no, having been in need myself, I know that people give out BART tickets regularly...

Sermon for Epiphany / 01/06/2013

Audio of Sermon is available here 

Sermon text: Matthew 2:1-12

Happy Epiphany!

While kids are already back in school, while people have returned from Christmas vacation, while the after-Christmas sales have been going on for many days now, here in the church, we have only just last night left Christmas season and entered into the new season of Epiphany.

And yet, how is it that Epiphany begins? With our celebration of the the great revelation that teaks place when wise men, Magi, gentiles, really; arrive from the east to bow down in the house of where the newly born messiah is living.

The magi in our passage, the wise men from either Babylonia, Persia, maybe even India have divined that something great is going to be happening. These men aren't Hebrews, they don't even possess characteristics marking good Hebrew practice. The very word magi comes from the same root as magic. they see signs in the sky, in the stars, and the alignment of the planet. They practice divination, they read dreams. And yet, the God of Israel is leading these outsiders to find the one who will free the world from sin and bondage. They have faith and find their way, with highly valued gifts.