For You

But Jesus does something remarkable with these words. Without any further comment or interpretation, without any explanation, he simply says: “Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.” Today, these words are for you.

Enough is Enough!

We have this obsession with having enough. I mean, I guess that's not a bad thing. There are plenty of things we need enough of to live. If we don't get enough air, we die in minutes. If we don't have enough water, we die in a few days. If we don't have enough food, we die in a few weeks. If we don't have enough shelter, we die from exposure to the elements. We're hard-wired to make sure that we always have enough for our survival, and it's a constant search for enough.

If Only…

It seems to me that there's a natural human instinct to look at our lives, to see all the ways in which it doesn't make us fulfilled, and to say, “If only...”

The Light Shines in the Darkness

This is who we are. This is what Christmas reminds us: that we, too, have seen the light, that it enlightens us, that through it we have received grace upon grace. This is not the light that comes up every morning and goes to sleep at night without us noticing. This is a light that penetrates down to the deepest, darkest, collapsed mines of our hearts, a little spark that bores its way into a wide tunnel that lets the light in and our new selves, our new lives, back out into the world. What has come into being in this is life, the light that is the light of all people.

We Are Not Alone

But into that fear, that heart of darkness, there is another voice, another message. It's hard to hear, amidst the cries of danger, especially those that call for overreactions to those things that scare us. It's a small voice, easily buried and forgotten, but it's there. And it's the reason we are gathered here tonight.