A Voice is Heard

In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

The voice of one crying in the wilderness, prepare the way of the Lord. The voice of the angels proclaiming the Savior's birth. The voice of the shepherds telling the whole town of the strange and glad tidings they heard and saw. Voices of joy and mirth. Voices of praise and thanksgiving.

And then the voice of Rachel, crying in Ramah. The voices of the mothers of Bethlehem, weeping and wailing over their slain baby boys. The voices of the subjects of Herod crying out against the violence and bloodshed committed in fear and anger.

This Little Babe

In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen

This little babe so few days old,
is come to rifle Satan's fold;
All hell doth at his presence quake,
though he himself for cold do shake;
For in this weak unarmed wise

the gates of hell he will surprise.

“The Word became flesh and dwelt among us.” The very Word of God, the Light of the World, the Creator of the Universe, on this day, has become flesh and took up residence among us men. The God of God, Light of Light, very God of very God, took on human flesh and blood and was born a baby in a stable in Bethlehem.

Think of a newborn baby. So soft, so warm, so innocent, so vulnerable. So cute and huggable and nice. A newborn baby is worlds away from what God should be, according to the minds of this world. What god would appear as a baby, so easily hurt, so easily killed? What god would expose himself to that sort of weakness and vulnerability?

"On This Day Earth Shall Ring"

On this day angels sing; 
        with their song earth shall ring, 
        praising Christ, heaven's King, 
        born on earth to save us; 
        peace and love he gave us.

On this night, we wait in anxious expectation of the One who comes to save us from our sins. On this night, we wait for the birth of the very Son of God come in the flesh. On this night, we anticipate the blessed Incarnation of our Lord and Savior. On this night, we hear the fulfillment of the ancient prophesies. On this night, we eagerly await the coming of the One who will rend the heavens and come down, the savior of the nations, the consolation of Israel and the joy of the world.

Love, Doubt, and Angels

In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

The history of St. Joseph is a familiar one to us, albeit short. He is betrothed to Mary, finds out she is pregnant, the angel appears to him, he takes Mary to Bethlehem for the census, Jesus is born, they run off to Egypt, and that's about all we hear of Joseph.

We tend to think of Joseph as a hero of the faith. He is the husband of the Virgin Mary, the guardian of our Lord, the first defender of the Faith. He is the model of obedience to the Lord's command. But suppose we consider the situation more closely. They live in a small town, in a hyper-religious community. I know you know how fast news travels in a small town, especially news about scandal. Mary is found to be with child, and Joseph knows it is not his. He was probably heartbroken, and not a little embarrassed.

"Are You the Coming One?"

In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

“Are you the coming one, or shall we look for another?” This was the question which John the Baptist, languishing in Herod's prison, asked Jesus. Was Jesus the one foretold in sacred Scripture, or was John mistaken? Would Jesus free the people from their oppression? Would the reign of God commence forthright?

One can only imagine John in that dungeon, wondering if the man he thought was the Messiah would rescue him, and the rest of the people, from the hands of their enemies. After all, there was no great upheaval in Judah. The Romans were still in power. Herod still afflicted the land from his paternal throne. The prophet unlike any other was in prison. The people were still poor and needy and suffering.

+ RIP Eloise A Gesell +

In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

“Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.”

Eloise Gesell was many things in her life. She was a daughter, sister, wife, mother, grandmother, great- and great-great-grandmother. She was a member of the community and a member of this parish. She was a skilled homemaker and gardener.

None of these things could have been accomplished without loss, in some measure. To be a child means acknowledging that you cannot provide for yourself, that you are reliant upon your parents to nurture you in body and soul. To be a sibling means that you must give up any exclusive claim upon the affections of your parents; you must learn to share. To be a husband or wife means that you must give up a measure of your independence and live not for yourself but for the one to whom our Lord has bound you. To be a parent means that you must look not only to your own needs and wants, but to those of the children God has given to you; you must be responsible for them and their well-being. Even to be a successful gardener requires sacrifice – you must submit the toil of your hands and the sweat of your brow to the ground, and pray for the bounty of the earth to spring forth.

"The Kingdom of Heaven is at Hand"

In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

“Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand!” This was the message John the Baptist was called to proclaim to the crowds who thronged to see and hear him in the Judean wilderness. This is a two-edged message which cut everyone in the crowd.

The vast crowds came from every walk of life to hear the one whom Isaiah had foretold, “the voice crying in the wilderness”. There were flocks of average, believing Jews who came to hear the latest and greatest prophet. Maybe they liked hearing him condemn the priests and scribes. Maybe they liked hearing him give the Herods what-for for their idolatrous and lustful dalliances. But no one was safe from the preaching of this prophet.

Savior of the Nations, Come!

In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

“Be not so terribly angry, O Lord, and remember not iniquity forever. Behold, please look, we are all your people.” O God, do not be angry with us because of our sins! If You kept a record of wrongs, O Lord, who could stand? Remember not our iniquity forever! On account of our sins, we rightly deserve only Your righteous condemnation and all-consuming wrath. Because You are the God of all the living, do not look upon us in judgment!

+ RIP Warren Aaron Ewy +

In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Today we stand at the foot of a mountain. Our whole lives are spent in circling this mountain, in paths through a strange and wild land. However, today, we praise the Lord God that He has called Warren Ewy from his path of wandering up onto the high mountain, into the House of the Lord.

Throughout these many years, Warren wandered a wide and varied path. As he moved often in his younger years, he probably felt some of the same trials as the Israelites wandering in the desert. Who are we? Where are we going? When will we settle in one place? Even as he settled on the farm in his adult years, there was never stillness about him. Even up to the end, Warren was a man of diligence and hard work. There is no rest along the path of life. Days progress. Seasons change. The land yields its bounty only through hard work and the sweat of the brow. The lawn is not going to mow itself.