MAC KIRK

  Luke 1:26-38----Advent Possibilities and Surprises "The greatest thing about Christmas  is the surprises. When else in life do you get to pile 10, 20, 30, 40 sometimes 50 surprises all together and sit for an hour enjoying each of them? One after another, surprise after surprise. Christmas  is wonderful in that way. I can remember still today the way I felt as a child, the amazement, the astonishment of Christmas morning. Chuck Swindoll writes, "surprises come in many forms and guises: some good, some borderline amazing, some awful, some tragic, some hilarious. But there's one thing we can usually say -- surprises aren't boring." Surprises are woven through the very fabric of all our lives. They await each one of us at unexpected and unpredictable junctures. I like the story about a professor who sat at his desk one evening working on the next day's lectures. His housekeeper had laid that days mail and papers at his desk and he began to shuffle through the

  3rd Sunday in Advent.  Rose Sunday. Rejoice. I Thessalonians 5:12-23; Gospel-John 1:6-8,19-28 That blessed saint, Helen Keller once wrote: "Christmas is the harvest time of love. Souls are drawn to other souls. All that we have read and thought and hoped comes to fruition at this happy time. Our spirits are astir. We feel within us a strong desire to serve. A strange, subtle force, a new kindness animates man and child. A new spirit is growing in us. No longer are we content to relieve pain, to sweeten sorrow, to give the crust of charity. We dare to give friendship, service, the equal loaf of bread and love." Peace, power and purpose. "The light shines in the darkness…" In these very busy days of preparation, may His peace, His power and His purpose dwell in our hearts. Helen Keller DAILY MEDITATION | DECEMBER 14, 2023 Joy Joy does not come from positive predictions about the state of the world. It does not depend on the ups and downs of the circumstances of our

  MARK 1:1-8 Advent II “ The way of the Lord must be prepared within the heart; for great and spacious is the heart of man, as if it were a whole world. But see its greatness , not in bodily quantity, but in the power of the mind which enables it to encompass so great a knowledge of the truth. Prepare, therefore, in your hearts the way of the Lord, by a worthy manner of life. Keep straight the path of your life, so that the words of the Lord may enter in without hindrance.” Origen Today I want to talk about beginnings. Now we are in a time of preparation . The Candle of Hope has drawn us to the Candle of Preparation in today’s Gospel from Mark 1:1-8. Hope draws us to the light of Christ. In that Light we have life. We have Good News. “ The Beginning of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, Son of God …” 1:1 Good News or Glad Tidings. The Greek word here describes the effect of Good News from a distance runner who has come to the battlefield to let the warriors know that the war is over. He holds

  Mark 13:24-37;  I Cor 1:3-9;  Isaiah 64:1-9 --- Advent I "The readings are filled with hope, but also with warnings about what is coming, a doom we cannot grasp or even really conceive. One shall be taken, and one shall be left. People will die of fright in anticipation of what is coming upon the world. Judgment is upon us; as in horror movies, real violence is about to irrupt into our daily round of manageable, pettifogging wickedness. The music is full of a beautiful gloom. Ever since I was a child we sang progressively more verses of “O Come O Come Immanuel” around the dinner table every night, in that characteristic medieval minor key. O come, Thou Dayspring from on high And cheer us by Your drawing nigh Disperse the gloomy clouds of night And death’s dark shadow put to flight " by Clare Coffey "Here is the message of Advent: faced with him who is the Last, the world will begin to shake. Only when we do not cling to false securities will our eyes be able to see thi

  A Juxtaposition of Judgment and Love---a new Take Christ the King Ezekiel 34:11-16, 20-24; Ephesians 1:15-23; Matthew 25:31-46 "Almighty and everlasting God, whose will it is to restore all things in your well-beloved Son, the King of kings and Lord of lords: Mercifully grant that the peoples of the earth, divided and enslaved by sin, may be freed and brought together under his most gracious rule; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen."  BCP Today we see a juxtaposition ( the fact of two things being seen or placed close together with contrasting effect) of judgment and love. It is a literary device to do this.  Moby Dick contrasted the sea with the land for ex.  Other examples of juxtaposition are: " Dark, light. Despair, hope .  Juxtapose means to place two or more things side by side, often with the intention of comparing or contrasting them or to create an interesting effect.  Sweet sorrow is another ex. We see judgment

  Pre-Thanksgiving.  Serving God in the Hard Times Luke 17:10-19 The theme that runs through the lessons appointed for today's study and meditation is one of a question. We must all deal with it,. Some of us have not dealt with it very well. And others see how we react. The questions relate is "How do we serve God/love God/ in the hard times?" My theology professor used to say that God does not give Christians any easier life in this life or all would see the temporary benefits and become Chrislians. NO---God is calling us in grace and love to serve Him, not because we can get something, but because of Who He is. He is worthy of our love and worship. C.S.Lewis said there are two kinds of people: those who say to God " Thy will be done " and those to whom God says" A11 right then, have it your way." Do you see the difference? we talk a lot today about self esteem and how we feel. I would propose that if we do not put God first and our spiritual relation

  Marriage Feast and the Lamps .  Matthew 25     There seems to be no way to get around the final nature of the shut door and , " I do not know you" in this section of Scripture.  Positively, we can say that half of the women with the lamps had their lamps full of oil and were filling it when the Bride arrived unexpectedly and later.  Some of them were not true subjects of the King to be so ill-prepared .     Salvation is not just saying yes to Jesus.  It is really saying yes in our lives , and being aware of what is going on around us in our life and in the lives of others.  We cannot give salvation to those who will not believe and be prepared. This is illustrated by the women who could not fill their lamps .  They had no oil. They were out.    Yet they asked the Lord to open the door despite their lack of preparation .  Lord, , " Lord , open to us."  Vs 11.  The others went in vs 10 being ready.  But the door was shut already.  Those who had prepared were already

 Doing and Finding the One thing - Matthew 22:35---     While meditating on the text this week from Matthew about the greatest commandment in the law according to Our Lord, I read this in the morning reading about Naaman who wanted to be cleansed from his leprosy.  ( II Kings 5:9-19).  He comes to Elisha's door and he is told to wash in the Jordan seven times. With that, he gets angry.He thought Elisha would come out and do something dramatic, " But Naaman was wroth, and went away, and said, Behold, I thought, He will surely come out to me, and stand, and call on the name of the Lord his God, and strike his hand over the place, and recover the leper."  His servants tried to reason with him, " if the prophet had bid thee do some great thing, wouldest thou not have done it? how much rather then, when he saith to thee, Wash, and be clean? "  Seeing they were right, "Then went he down, and dipped himself seven times in Jordan, according to the saying of the man

 Psalm 99.  The LORD is King "God governs the world by his providence, governs the church by his grace, and both by his Son. The inhabitants of the earth have cause to tremble, but the Redeemer still waits to be gracious. Let all who hear, take warning, and seek his mercy. The more we humble ourselves before God, the more we exalt him; and let us be thus reverent, for he is holy." Matthew Henry We can be discouraged and disheartened in our lives as we look at what we see in an unruly world.  It is good to be encouraged that among all the changes and chances of this world that the LORD is King, and He reigns. 1.  Reigning LORD. Let the people be deeply moved, or tremble. If we tremble before God, we will not be disturbed by the plans of men.  He dwells above the Cherubim.  They are an order of angelic beings who never sleep and watch .  Revelation 4:8- "...each had six wings, ....saying , ' Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, which was, and is, and is to come.."

  Philippians 4:1-9   " Think on These Things" " And Do them"   In our current world crisis stage...or should I say another world crisis stage, the Scriptures encourage us through the Apostle's writing to the Philippians to think on these things.  4:8  What things?  He mentions several good things we should be thinking about---good things, virtue, if there be any praise, whatsoever things are lovely, just,honest, and pure and true.    Point 1. is that we are to do just that.Do what? Think, reckon, take into account.  The orig word is logízomai (the root of the English terms "logic, logical") – properly, compute, "take into account"; reckon (come to a "bottom-line"), i.e. reason to a logical conclusion (decision).biblehub.com ( In vs 9 Paul says to do them and so our thinking is a practice if we truly believe it and in Him) It means much more than keep in mind.  "It means to take into account , reflect upon and then allow these

  Philippians 2.  The Mind of Christ   Although the Philippian Church was commended for their financial giving and support to Paul,  4:10, 14 , there were problems with disunity.  Interesting and encouraging as we think we are alone in these things.  We are not. We see it in our reading today 2:2-4, and the Apostle appeals to them to see the mind of Christ working through them to work around their divisions and quarrels.     After mediating on this reading , it seems the bottom line question is " How do we get the mind of Christ ( v. 5)"?  Some have called it, " The Journey to Humility".     It is a " voluntary submission to humility" as one commentator called it.  1.  It is in the imperative, verb command form " Let this mind be in you" ( " which also was in Christ Jesus") This word is described here in Bible hub, phrḗn, "the midriff or diaphragm; the parts around the heart," J. Thayer) – properly, regulate (moderate) from wi

  Worthily   Philippians 1:27 Some of my favorite vs are in the Philippians letter.  1:6, "  being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ" 1:21 " For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain." Ch 2 talks about unity through humility and being like Christ, doing things with the mind of Christ.Ch 3 is great too about our citizenship being in heaven and awaiting the Savior from heaven, Jesus Christ who will transform our lowly bodies at the Resurrection Ch 4 may be the best with not being anxious and to cast all our care upon Him and not being anxious.  But in vs 27 of ch 1 we are exhorted to " walk worthily of the gospel of Christ"    As a noun, axiom refers to a statement that is accepted as true and serves as the basis for argument or inference. It can also mean an established rule, principle, or self-evident truth.  Walk worthily of the Gospel of Christ, v. 27 recognized as

  Matthew 18:21-35  John D. Rockefeller built the great Standard Oil empire. Not surprisingly, Rockefeller was a man who demanded high performance from his executives. One day, one of those executives made a two million dollar mistake. Word of the man's enormous error quickly spread throughout the executive offices, and the other men began to make themselves scarce, not wanting to cross his path. One man didn't have any choice, however, since he had an appointment with the boss. So he straightened his shoulders and walked into Rockefeller's office. As he approached Rockefeller's desk, he looked up from the piece of paper on which he was writing. "I guess you've heard about the two million dollar mistake our friend made," he said abruptly. "Yes," the executive said, expecting Rockefeller to explode. "Well, I've been sitting here listing all of our friend's good qualities, and I've discovered that in the past he has made us many mo

  The Cross and Communion Meditation:  Matthew 16:21-28      Sun and the rain.  Both are needed .  Without either , there is no growth.  But with the sun, the ground yields fruit.  Storms produce fruit as well, and the water is necessary for growth.  This is so true in the Christian life.  Today's Gospel lesson reminds us of the need for difficulties and trials.  Many of us are like Peter,  “God forbid it, Lord! This must never happen to you.”        I have a little backyard that one day for some reason I put a chair out there from the front porch set.  And I left it there.  Perhaps I was too lazy to move it back to the front porch, but for some reason it is a nice place to just sit and look.  We are so busy we forget to hear, listen and look at what is going on in our lives.  Silence can be golden in terms of growth.  There are no commercials out there in the back chair.  Self-examination is necessary in our taking of Holy Communion.  Our whole lives for some of us can be boiled d