Saint + Elizabeth + Ann + Seton + Parish

Sharing the Faith—sharing what we know to be the key to eternal happiness, sharing the joy we have in relationship with God the Father in Jesus Christ—is a fundamental part of who we are as a Church. 

Abraham learned to walk with God. Abraham learned to listen to the things of God and pay attention. Abraham learned to trust God over the course of his lifetime. That’s what Lent is all about. We’re given a certain period of a few weeks a year when we’re asked to change the way we live in a way that helps us to listen to the voice of God amid all the voices we hear in the course of a day. To pay attention to the things of God amid all of the distractions that come to us in life. And to trust God among all those things that call out to us in the course of a day. 

A popular misunderstanding of Christian faith––we can even dare to call it a heresy––is that salvation is only forgiveness of sins. All of us surely need forgiveness, but the salvation that leads us to eternal life is so much more. We come to God and ask for the gracious forgiveness of sins because of the death of Christ, but we need to understand it is so that we can be healed of the tragic brokenness that affects all of us. 

Create a clean heart in me, O God . . .  As we begin our Lenten observance so aware of our sinful failures, we must remember that God offers us new hearts. For man this may be impossible, but for God, all things are possible. 

The Church is being very honest about a natural tendency that we have. If left to ourselves—let’s admit it—we had rather life always be comfortable and convenient. And so the Church says, you need to do some things sometimes to be reminded that our hearts do not always want to go in the right direction. 

We no longer banish persons with leprosy. In fact, more than 16 million people in the world have been cured of leprosy in the last 20 years. But sadly, we still neglect and reject the sick.Download Transcript

We are called to become instruments of God’s love—to touch each and every one with love, with mercy, and with kindness . . . In a world that is threatened by hate and divisiveness, you and I as Christians, we are called to become imitators of Christ. 

What we learn from Job and what we learn from Saint Paul is that, in those difficult struggles of life—when we are facing the anguish of a faltering faith, when we find it hard to believe in God, when we find it painful to face a prayer that appears unanswered, when our hopes are dashed—we do not suffer this way alone. Rather, the Church prevails for us. We pray for each other. We hold each other up. This is what it means to belong to the Church, to be a member of the Body of Christ. 

What kind of friend are you? The friend who sits like Job’s friends—commiserates but really does nothing—or the kind of friend who brings one who is not well . . . not healthy . . . not in a good place . . . brings that person to Jesus. 

Realistic optimism is the fact that, truth be told, sometimes life is not fair. Sometimes innocent people suffer. Sometimes things you don’t deserve come to you in life. Sometimes sickness and pain you don’t deserve comes to you. That is reality. That is the reality of life. But the optimisim is that we believe there is hope, because we are fundamentally a people of hope. And so for us as Christians, pain does not define life. Suffering does not define life. 

What caused people to realize that with Jesus and the kingdom he proclaimed there was a distinctive power and authority? By all external observations he was an ordinary man, even a nobody. But when he talked, people were amazed. When he acted, people were astounded. And as he talked and acted, people could not help but be attracted.Download Transcript

What Jonah learned [in today’s readings] is that those prejudices often are false. And if we leave the door open—if we leave the possibilities in place, if we make the effort, and if we are prompted by the Spirit and we go with that prompt—as absurd as it may seem, then suddenly what we imagined to be impossible becomes reality. And not only are those who we make an appeal to, transformed, but we are transformed ourselves in the process, and our lives are open to new possibilities by learning from those unlike us. 

 Let’s be honest: in a merely human sense, these “wise ones” had to have been disappointed at first in what they found. Theirs was a dream of finding a new world order, a solution to the troubling times of their world, but they found a poor couple rejected by their family and society, nursing and protecting an infant among animals.Download Transcript

By affirming Mary as Mother of God, we affirm Jesus as Emmanuel, God With Us, God born as a fellow human being. How this dignifies humanity. How this dignifies womanhood. How this dignifies motherhood. This is just what Christmas and Christianity and the Church is all about. This is the essence of the Gospel. 

If you’ve been looking in your life for fulfillment, run to the Lord, pick Him up, and hold Him close to yourself. And there, close to your heart, recognize—in the longings, the hurts, the hungers, the loneliness of the human heart—there is only One who will fulfill. That is the person of Jesus Christ.Download Transcript

We don’t live in a world where all is calm and all is bright. We live in a world of constant tension and strife . . . . But still, there is something about this feast that every year draws us in, and draws from us hope, peace, prayers—a vision of what could be, and what we want so much to be, in this world. 

 What are you expecting God to do in your life because he sent his Son? It seems the world at large hardly expects to see Christians living from day to day any differently from anyone else.  Maybe we think our sins disqualify us from God using us. If that idea comes into your mind, think of David. Maybe we think we are too insignificant––as Mary would have appeared to be. But the story is true and our Faith is true: on this fourth Sunday of Advent we live our days in the presence of the God who, through the angel, told Mary: nothing will be impossible for God. Download Transcript

 The fact that God Himself has taken human flesh means that you and I have now been dignified in the image and in the likeness of God. The very fact of the Incarnation simply means that God—the light of God—now shines in the human experience. We are now a people of hope. We are now a people of joy. 

Regardless of what circumstances you may find yourself in right now, or what emotions Christmas might evoke in you, I’ve got a word for all of us this morning. The word is that the Lord God now ministers to your heart this morning, and ministers to my heart—and speaks the word of peace, the word of comfort, the word of courage. 

When we feel needy, empty, lonely, crushed—remember, “There is a Messiah.” And then when the gifts come in plenty, when we’re at the top of our game—remember, “I am not He.” My response is not pride. My response is not egotism. “There is a Messiah. And I am not He."