Sermons by Rev. Jason S. Glombicki (Page 5)

Well, I hope that you weren’t looking for the familiar Christmas Eve story this morning. Today’s gospel is not the Lukan version with Jesus, the angels, and the shepherds. Rather, today is John’s gospel. Unlike Luke and Matthew, John does not write of Jesus’s conception or birth. John doesn’t care about Joseph or Mary as a part of Jesus’s human origins. Instead, Jesus’ beginnings are described in cosmological terms with an emphasis on Jesus as God’s son…

We live in a world of endless voices. We are directed by the voice of our supervisor. We hear politicians speak very different things. The media, researchers, doctors, therapists, and advertisers urge us to listen to their voice. Some of the voices we hear grate. Others are shrill. Yet, today, there is one voice that rings out in the wilderness…

Today’s gospel has an apocalyptic tilt to it that seems to tell of the end of the world. We heard of wars, insurrections, earthquakes, famines, and plagues. We might easily relate with that vision as we watch Russia slaughter innocent people in Ukraine, and as we relive our collective trauma during the investigation of the January 6 insurrection. So too, we continue to live with the medical plagues of COVID and RSV along the social plagues of racism and sexism. As inflation grips the globe and once generous donors tighten their pocketbooks, the most vulnerable go hungry and homeless. And, the impacts of climate change caused by wealthy nations have brought destruction on the most vulnerable nations. If I didn’t know any better, I’d think we are living in apocalyptic times and the end is near…