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Delivered by The Rev. Kevin R. Maly, PhD
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08 January 2012
Isaiah 60:1-6
Psalm 72:1-7, 10-14
Ephesians 3:1-12
Matthew 2:1-12
In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
What in the world is Matthew up to, telling this story about the magi? Trying to burnish, to polish up Jesus’ reputation? Heaven knows it needs some shining up after the way Matthew has thoroughly tarnished Jesus’ pedigree in the chapter previous to this morning’s reading. I mean really Matthew, you begin your Gospel by outlining Jesus’ ancestry in a very, very peculiar way. Proper genealogy of the times is confined to a listing of one’s forefathers – and I do mean fore fathers. Women were next to nobodies and really didn’t count much as ancestors; but Matthew, you choose not only to include some women in Jesus’ ancestry, but women who not even the most ardent feminist is going to be all that thrilled about.
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The First Sunday of Christmas |
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Delivered by The Rev. Kevin R. Maly, PhD
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01 January 2012
Isaiah 61:10-62:3
Psalm 148
Galatians 4:4-7
Luke 2:22-40
In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
This past week while I was home visiting my mom and the rest of our sprawling family I read a Letter to the Editor in the Duluth News Tribune in which its writer lamented how quickly the secular, commercial world brings Christmas to a close. The author of the letter was reminding us, his readers, that Christmas begins the night of the 24th of December and continues on until the Feast of the Epiphany on January 6th. “Why are we so quick to bring this delightful season of peace and goodwill to so swift an end?” he asked, explaining that he loves the Twelve Days of Christmas, a time for relaxed celebration, when all the frenzy of preparation has passed. “Why can we not observe the fullness of Christmas? And oh, by the way,” the writer said in his last paragraph, “I am a Jew, and I love Christmas.”
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Delivered by The Rev. Kevin R. Maly, PhD
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24 December 2011
Isaiah 9:2-7
Titus 2:11-14
Luke 2:1-20
“Harumph,” went the angel Theodore, with a kerfluffle of his wings. “It’s quite obvious that Archangel Gabriel has mis-programmed her GPS device.”
“Oh, hush!” snapped the angel Melvin. “Gabriel knows exactly where she’s going – and besides, those GPS things aren’t going to be invented for another two-thousand years. And furl those wings a bit, dear – I don’t enjoy them flapping in my face.”
Angel Melvin, however, wasn’t at all that sure Gabriel did know where she was going. Here they were, the whole lot of the heavenly host, trailing after Gabriel, getting ready to sing their celestial lungs out to . . . to . . . to a bunch of mangy sheep and their even mangier shepherds. “I will admit,” said Angel Melvin, a bit more gently this time, “I will admit that this all seems highly . . . peculiar, down-right odd.”
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