Author: Chris Kelly
Chris Kelly
– December 30, 2007
Text: Hebrews 2:10-18
After the prayers of the people today in the middle of worship, we will say “Into your hands, God of grace, we commend all for whom we pray, trusting in your mercy, through Jesus Christ, God incarnate.” That last little bit is a somewhat unusual, non-standard. In the rule books, this prayer does not end with “God incarnate.” In the books, it ends with “Jesus Christ, our Lord.” Maybe all these Sundays you have been thinking, why does he say “God incarnate”? Why doesn’t he say it the right way?
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Chris Kelly
– December 23, 2007
Text: Matthew 1:18-25
Other texts: Isaiah 7:10-16
As signs go, it was not much.
A child born of a young woman. As if that didn’t happen every day. A son, too. Odds of that happening were what: one out of two? Not exactly improbable. And his name was Immanuel.
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Chris Kelly
– December 9, 2007
Text: Matthew 3:1-12
Other texts: Isaiah 11:1-8
There is a measuring device out on the street next to the church, down on Tremont Street. The device is called the Discontent-O-Meter. It measures anxiety. It measures how worried people are about the state of the world. It works through trash. If there are hardly any scratch tickets, empty pints, or styrofoam coffee cups in the gutter or on the sidewalk, then things are pretty good. People are feeling more or less OK. But if the street is littered from end to end, and little nips are stashed in the flower pots, then things are tough. I read the Discontent-O-Meter every day as I walk between my house and the church. Right now, things are tough. And have been for a while.
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Chris Kelly
– December 2, 2007
Text: Matthew 24:36-44
Other texts: Romans 13:11-14
Separation. Reconciliation.
Separation and reconciliation. They make the world go ‘round. Literally. Our planet longs to move on in a straight line, free from the sun. Without the sun, that’s just what it would do. But the sun pulls it back, every second the sun pulls the earth away from its headstrong straight-ahead path, and therefore the earth circles the sun. Even though its momentum seeks independence, it is grateful for its constant reconciliation with the sun. For without that, there is no life here. No us. No Advent.
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Chris Kelly
– November 25, 2007
Text: Luke 23:33-43
Other texts: Jeremiah 23:1-6
How is it that in this world today slavery still flourishes, with around twenty million people, mostly women, held as slaves?
How is it that in this world wars still rage, people live in terror, ethnic populations eliminated, people tortured? How is it in this world that people still are left to starve, lack clean water, are infested with parasites? How is it in this world that so few still hoard so much, control so much, while so many have so little and are powerless? How is it in this world that nations still falter in fragility, refugees march, justice is systemically denied?
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Chris Kelly
– November 11, 2007
Text: Luke 20:27-38
On a scale from the most radical and strange to the most reactionary and predictable, worship at Faith is pretty much to the right, to the traditional. We follow a predetermined order from a Lutheran guide to worship, we pick songs from a Lutheran hymnal, we confess our sins in a Lutheran confession. If you were visiting here from most of the other Lutheran churches in the world, you’d feel pretty much at home.
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Chris Kelly
– October 28, 2007
Text: Romans 3:19-28
Other texts: Jeremiah 31:31-24, John 8:31-36
This Wednesday is Reformation Day. It is the 490th anniversary of the day that a young Catholic priest named Martin Luther was said to have nailed a list of 95 arguments, his 95 Theses, or propositions, to the door of the Castle Church in Wittenberg. The event has become the symbol of the start of the the Reformation, a major change in the way the church does business. Lutherans especially celebrate this day and event and movement. And so that’s what we are doing this Sunday.
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Chris Kelly
– October 21, 2007
Text: Luke 18:1-8
It is not always clear what Jesus means to say when he tells a parable. But it sure is clear in this one that we just heard. This parable is about prayer.
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Chris Kelly
– October 14, 2007
Text: Luke 17:11-19
Martin Luther was a young catholic priest. He worked hard at being good. But he was tormented by his conviction that he would never be worthy of God. He was, after all, only human, just a sinner, an imperfect being. Yet he felt that scripture was calling him to be better, better even than anyone could ever be. He felt that scripture was condemning him.
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Chris Kelly
– October 7, 2007
Text: 2 Timothy 1:1-14
Other texts: Luke 17:5
Note: This is a short homily introducing a special combined worship of three churches that make up the Faith community.
I am grateful, my brothers and sisters, when I think of you.
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