Sermon by Rev. Gary W. Charles, December 20th, 2020 This is the last Sunday of Advent. In the blink of an eye, Christmas will be here. Presents will be exchanged and opened. And, the countdown to next Christmas will begin, hopefully, it will be an unmasked and unquarantined and sitting in the sanctuary with good friends, kind of Christmas. As a child, Advent was unknown in the Charles household and Christmas often arrived long before December 25, even before all the Thanksgiv

Sermon by Rev. Gary W. Charles, December 13th, 2020 Long before I was his pastor, I was a huge fan of John Grisham. John is best-known for his legal thrillers from A Time to Kill to his marvelous new novel, A Time for Mercy. A few years back, though, John switched genres and wrote a comic, touching, seasonal piece called, Skipping Christmas. It is a story of how hard it is to “skip Christmas” in America today, even if you try, or in the case of this story, especially if you t

Sermon by Rev. Gary W. Charles, December 6th, 2020 It was the most money I had ever made. Home from college, I spent eight hours each day sitting in an 8’ by 8’ hut at a D.C. military base. My job was to watch for a spike on an electrical panel and to push the red button whenever I saw one. On a typical eight-hour day, I pushed that button about 6 times. Meanwhile, I just sat back and watched. It was the most mind-numbing work I have ever done. I had no idea why I was watchin