Text: Luke 21:25-28 I am so ready for a new year to arrive. I have given serious thought to skipping Advent and even boycotting Christmas. Why not I fast forwarding to Ash Wednesday? After all, it is not too late to blow out the one Advent candle as we walk forward for the imposition of ashes and hear the stark words: “Remember you are dust and to dust you shall return.” Rather than listening to the piercing shouts of John the Baptist that is standard fare for Advent, maybe

Text: Zechariah 7:1-14 [The words of the prophet Zechariah date to a few years after Jewish exiles in Babylon had returned to a devastated Jerusalem, a city still in ruins, around 520 B.C.E. Along with the prophet Haggai, Zechariah urged the rebuilding of the temple and a return to more faithful devotion to the law of God, especially the law of love. The sermon that follows the reading is in the form of a letter from an old man and returned exile to his daughter. Now, listen

Texts: I Thessalonians 5:9-11; II Thessalonians 3:6-13 (After the Thessalonians text is read, a large, dead shrub is set on top of the pulpit. Gary Charles as Estragon walks down one aisle and stops on the chancel. He gazes upon the large dead shrub sitting on top of the organ. Meanwhile, Gregg Korbon as Vladimir walks down the other aisle and climbs the opposite stairs onto the other end of the chancel. Gregg and Gary then perform this short scene from Samuel Beckett’s, Wai

Texts: Mark 12:41-44; The Book of Ruth On this All Saints’ Sunday, we have just read about an unlikely saint, a widow who is now penniless, having given her last coin to the Temple treasury. Jesus does not praise the Temple leaders for draining the widow of her last resources, but he does praise the widow for her sacrificial life. And yet, despite her generosity and faithfulness, we are not told her name. We know the name of some saints like Augustine and Aquinas and Teresa