Faith, Grace, and Hope

Bethlehem means “House of Bread”. I am going to come back to this later, but it is a thing you need to know from the start. From the Hebrew, “Beit” (house) and “lehem” (bread), the little community had that name for more than a thousand years before Jesus.   Next fun fact: when Luke tells us about the place where there was no room, he uses the Greek word  kataluma . We have become used to the idea of “no room in the inn”, like a Motel 6 or the Lazy J putting out a “no vacancy” sign. A  kataluma , however, was not a roadside inn or shelter. Luke had a different word for that kind of establishment,  pandocheion , which is the word used in the story of the Samaritan who stopped. This is a place where you could pay someone for a room and board.  Since we know Luke has a word for a commercial inn and he chooses not to use it here, we need to ask what a   kataluma  is. It is the same word used later when Jesus sends the disciples to find a "guest room" to ce...

Years ago, when I worked at a church with a preschool, I attended the Christmas program.     This was long enough ago that the Christmas story was told with a flannel board, a cloth covered board with little fabric cutouts. In this version of the Christmas story, there were the usual elements- Mary and Joseph, an outline of a stable, angels, and shepherds. There was also a cut-out of the night sky - a deeply colored piece of fabric with stars and a hint of the Milky Way.  As we watched the story unfold in this particular year, the teacher would tell part of the story and each child would come and put up their piece on the flannel board. As she came to the part about the shepherds watching their flocks by night, one little boy leapt up and said, “I have the dark!”  I have the dark.  I’ve been thinking a lot about that incident this week, not just because today is the solstice.  The little boy wasn’t bothered about what he had. The dark was as much a part of ...

Sermon for the First Sunday in Advent, Year A (2025)   Written for the Montana Synod    Isaiah 2:1-5; Psalm 122; Romans 13:11-14; Matthew 24:36-44   Greetings, siblings in Christ, from your faith family in Big Timber. May the grace and peace of our Lord and Savior be with you all on this day and in the time to come. Happy New Years, friends! This Sunday marks the start of the season of Advent and the beginning of a new church year. For those of you who are interested, this is the beginning of Year A in the three-year church cycle, meaning most of the gospel readings for the year ahead will be from Matthew. In the world around us, especially in commercial spaces, Advent is a season of anticipation and acquisition. It’s time to get ready for the celebration of Christmas and all that comes with it. In the church world, we are a little out of step with that. Yes, Advent is a season of anticipation, but less about Christmas and more about the promises of God’s judgment an...