Retired & Thinking

 Dave Boon and his wife June and a 13-year-old boy, Gary Martinez were headed to a youth group ski trip when they were slammed over a guardrail by tons of snow avalanching down the hillside. It was tossed clear of the avalanche by a tree that the car struck and was left upside-down and pointed back up the hill. Freeing themselves, they were amazed there were no serious injuries. In reflecting on the accident David said, “ The signs say, 'Avalanche Area, No Stopping,' We've driven by their hundreds of times…. We have skied avalanche chutes, worn (emergency) beepers, always carried an avalanche shovel. We've seen avalanches. But in our wildest dreams, we never imagined getting hit in a car by one (O’Driscoll)." Unexpected Jesus comes as the unexpected one. His incarnation was debated, prayed for, and sought but as the warrior king who would displace Rome. N.T. Wright wrote, "Christmas is not about the living God coming to tell us everything's all ri...

  I started to add up the number of blocked calls on my cell phone but stopped at 140 because I still had to write a sermon. We block calls for a variety of reasons, but it calls down to this. ‘We don’t want to listen to them.’ Both passages this morning deal with God’s calling of us to be His people. These are positive examples of those who did ‘block’ God’s call but sought to understand them and do what God says. Samuel is awakened 3 times by a voice. The third time Eli, Samuel’s mentor, tells him to answer the voice with “Speak, for your servant is listening” (9). In the Gospel of John two followers of The Baptizer, John points out to them ‘ the lamb of God’ (36) so they follow and when confronted by a simple question asks, “Rabbi where are you staying” (38)? In the rest of the verses of John, you hear other calls to those who are gathered. To what does God call us? There are endless answers as to what or where God’s call leads. But His call will not go against Jesus’ de...

 Apparently, 2020 was not strange enough to keep people from stealing baby Jesus from nativity scenes from community and church displays. From sorority sisters to the Walmart employee who posted a photo of himself with the stolen statue of Jesus on Facebook (Cooper) and (Kulze). But it is not a new phenomenon. December 1953, the year I was born. Detective Friday took on the case of “The Big Little Jesus” on Dragnet. In this case, Friday and Smith (this is before Harry Morgan was on the show) tell the priest they can’t find Jesus. In the midst of the dialogue a young boy, Paco Mendoza, shows up with baby Jesus in a wagon. He had promised the Baby Jesus the first ride in his new wagon for which he’d prayed. Father Rojas explains that Paco’s family is poor to which Friday replies, “Are they Father (Snauffer)?” Case closed. Jesus has been stolen as a prank or as an act of hatred. Paco fulfilled his promise of the first ride in his new wagon. Sadder is that Jesus is often just over...