December 5
Preacher: Gary Dennis
Special Event: 2nd Sunday of Advent; Christmas Market
Scripture: Genesis 38:1-30 — It happened at that time that Judah went down from his brothers and settled near a certain Adullamite whose name was Hirah. 2 There Judah saw the daughter of a certain Canaanite whose name was Shua; he married her and went in to her. 3 She conceived and bore a son; and he named him Er. 4 Again she conceived and bore a son whom she named Onan. 5 Yet again she bore a son, and she named him Shelah. She was in Chezib when she bore him. 6 Judah took a wife for Er his firstborn; her name was Tamar. 7 But Er, Judah’s firstborn, was wicked in the sight of the LORD, and the LORD put him to death. 8 Then Judah said to Onan, “Go in to your brother’s wife and perform the duty of a brother-in-law to her; raise up offspring for your brother.” 9 But since Onan knew that the offspring would not be his, he spilled his semen on the ground whenever he went in to his brother’s wife, so that he would not give offspring to his brother. 10 What he did was displeasing in the sight of the LORD, and he put him to death also. 11 Then Judah said to his daughter-in-law Tamar, “Remain a widow in your father’s house until my son Shelah grows up”—for he feared that he too would die, like his brothers. So Tamar went to live in her father’s house.
12 In course of time the wife of Judah, Shua’s daughter, died; when Judah’s time of mourning was over, he went up to Timnah to his sheepshearers, he and his friend Hirah the Adullamite. 13 When Tamar was told, “Your father-in-law is going up to Timnah to shear his sheep,” 14 she put off her widow’s garments, put on a veil, wrapped herself up, and sat down at the entrance to Enaim, which is on the road to Timnah. She saw that Shelah was grown up, yet she had not been given to him in marriage. 15 When Judah saw her, he thought her to be a prostitute, for she had covered her face. 16 He went over to her at the road side, and said, “Come, let me come in to you,” for he did not know that she was his daughter-in-law. She said, “What will you give me, that you may come in to me?” 17 He answered, “I will send you a kid from the flock.” And she said, “Only if you give me a pledge, until you send it.” 18 He said, “What pledge shall I give you?” She replied, “Your signet and your cord, and the staff that is in your hand.” So he gave them to her, and went in to her, and she conceived by him. 19 Then she got up and went away, and taking off her veil she put on the garments of her widowhood.
20 When Judah sent the kid by his friend the Adullamite, to recover the pledge from the woman, he could not find her. 21 He asked the townspeople, “Where is the temple prostitute who was at Enaim by the wayside?” But they said, “No prostitute has been here.” 22 So he returned to Judah, and said, “I have not found her; moreover the townspeople said, ‘No prostitute has been here.’” 23 Judah replied, “Let her keep the things as her own, otherwise we will be laughed at; you see, I sent this kid, and you could not find her.”
24 About three months later Judah was told, “Your daughter-in-law Tamar has played the whore; moreover she is pregnant as a result of whoredom.” And Judah said, “Bring her out, and let her be burned.” 25 As she was being brought out, she sent word to her father-in-law, “It was the owner of these who made me pregnant.” And she said, “Take note, please, whose these are, the signet and the cord and the staff.” 26 Then Judah acknowledged them and said, “She is more in the right than I, since I did not give her to my son Shelah.” And he did not lie with her again.
27 When the time of her delivery came, there were twins in her womb. 28 While she was in labor, one put out a hand; and the midwife took and bound on his hand a crimson thread, saying, “This one came out first.” 29 But just then he drew back his hand, and out came his brother; and she said, “What a breach you have made for yourself!” Therefore he was named Perez. 30 Afterward his brother came out with the crimson thread on his hand; and he was named Zerah.
Sermon Theme: This sermon is about mercy. I want to talk to anyone here this morning that thinks that some mistake you made in your past excludes you from faith. I don’t care what you did, I’ll bet you would have a hard time having your story of dumb things you have done top what is described in this story. Yet, we must understand that having done dumb things does not separate us from God. What separates us from God is unwillingness to face the dumb things we have done, and confess them to God and the people we have hurt. Even though we do dumb thing after dumb thing, we are still somehow invested in being perfect.
For you who think God cannot forgive you, listen to Martin Luther’s comment on the inclusion of Tamar in the family tree of Jesus. He wrote,
“In this strange story of Tamar God’s desire to show how much love He has for sinners [is seen].”
Luther continues,
“It is as though God intended for the hearer of the genealogy to say, ‘Oh, Christ is the kind of person who is not ashamed of the sinners – in fact, he puts them in his family tree.’”
Then, Luther brings this truth home,
“Now if the Lord does that here, so ought we to despise no one … but put ourselves right in the middle of the fight for sinners and help them” (“Sermon on the Day of Mary’s Birth,” 8 September 1522, 11:2371).
Can you imagine including this line in the family tree of Jesus?
“Judah the father of Perez and Zerah by Tamar.”
You can imagine including it once you realize that Matthew’s genealogy is about mercy. Matthew wants to stress that God can even use people like your pastor and you to accomplish his purpose in the church and the world. That gives me great hope and encourages me to explore further God’s mercy.
Sermon Title: Tamar and Judah — A Salacious Story about God’s Mercy
December 12
Preacher: Gary Dennis
Special Event: 3rd Sunday in Advent; The Lord’s Supper; Christmas Market
Scripture: 2 Samuel 11:1-27 — In the spring of the year, the time when kings go out to battle, David sent Joab with his officers and all Israel with him; they ravaged the Ammonites, and besieged Rabbah. But David remained at Jerusalem.
2 It happened, late one afternoon, when David rose from his couch and was walking about on the roof of the king’s house, that he saw from the roof a woman bathing; the woman was very beautiful. 3 David sent someone to inquire about the woman. It was reported, “This is Bathsheba daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah the Hittite.” 4 So David sent messengers to get her, and she came to him, and he lay with her. (Now she was purifying herself after her period.) Then she returned to her house. 5 The woman conceived; and she sent and told David, “I am pregnant.”
6 So David sent word to Joab, “Send me Uriah the Hittite.” And Joab sent Uriah to David. 7 When Uriah came to him, David asked how Joab and the people fared, and how the war was going. 8 Then David said to Uriah, “Go down to your house, and wash your feet.” Uriah went out of the king’s house, and there followed him a present from the king. 9 But Uriah slept at the entrance of the king’s house with all the servants of his lord, and did not go down to his house. 10 When they told David, “Uriah did not go down to his house,” David said to Uriah, “You have just come from a journey. Why did you not go down to your house?” 11 Uriah said to David, “The ark and Israel and Judah remain in booths; and my lord Joab and the servants of my lord are camping in the open field; shall I then go to my house, to eat and to drink, and to lie with my wife? As you live, and as your soul lives, I will not do such a thing.” 12 Then David said to Uriah, “Remain here today also, and tomorrow I will send you back.” So Uriah remained in Jerusalem that day. On the next day, 13 David invited him to eat and drink in his presence and made him drunk; and in the evening he went out to lie on his couch with the servants of his lord, but he did not go down to his house.
14 In the morning David wrote a letter to Joab, and sent it by the hand of Uriah. 15 In the letter he wrote, “Set Uriah in the forefront of the hardest fighting, and then draw back from him, so that he may be struck down and die.” 16 As Joab was besieging the city, he assigned Uriah to the place where he knew there were valiant warriors. 17 The men of the city came out and fought with Joab; and some of the servants of David among the people fell. Uriah the Hittite was killed as well. 18 Then Joab sent and told David all the news about the fighting; 19 and he instructed the messenger, “When you have finished telling the king all the news about the fighting, 20 then, if the king’s anger rises, and if he says to you, ‘Why did you go so near the city to fight? Did you not know that they would shoot from the wall? 21 Who killed Abimelech son of Jerubbaal? Did not a woman throw an upper millstone on him from the wall, so that he died at Thebez? Why did you go so near the wall?’ then you shall say, ‘Your servant Uriah the Hittite is dead too.’”
22 So the messenger went, and came and told David all that Joab had sent him to tell. 23 The messenger said to David, “The men gained an advantage over us, and came out against us in the field; but we drove them back to the entrance of the gate. 24 Then the archers shot at your servants from the wall; some of the king’s servants are dead; and your servant Uriah the Hittite is dead also.” 25 David said to the messenger, “Thus you shall say to Joab, ‘Do not let this matter trouble you, for the sword devours now one and now another; press your attack on the city, and overthrow it.’ And encourage him.”
26 When the wife of Uriah heard that her husband was dead, she made lamentation for him. 27 When the mourning was over, David sent and brought her to his house, and she became his wife, and bore him a son.
But the thing that David had done displeased the LORD,
Sermon Theme: David and Bathsheba – why did Matthew include them in the genealogy of Jesus? In the preaching series, I am contending that people like David and Bathsheba are included to demonstrate the depth of God’s mercy.
Mercy is choosing to stay in relationship with a person, without affirming or enabling the destructive things that you know the person has done. Mercy is choosing to love them, something that they can’t do for themselves. You exercise mercy not because you have been forced to do it or because you are compelled to do it, but because you want to love people in the same way that God for Christ’s sake loves you. Mercy always focuses the rationale for the commitment to the other, not on advantage to you, as the one who offers mercy.
The story of Jesus is a story of mercy. It describes how God has chosen to stay in relationship despite the fact that he knows every destructive thing that we have ever done. Mercy describes how God will forgive us, if we will admit what we have done wrong. God’s mercy and forgiveness doesn’t take away the consequences for what we did wrong. We have to live with those consequences our whole life long, but now we have a way to begin to address the consequences and to grow through them.
David received God’s mercy but there were still consequences to be paid. His first child with Bathsheba died. His marriage with Abigail ended. Plus, he ended up spending his life with Bathsheba, who in his later years became quite a thorn in his flesh, often creating disharmony with his other children. Yet, out of his great mercy, God chose to stay in relationship with David and to work through him as king of the nation and to include him as one of the ancestors of the Savior of the world.
Sermon Title: Mercy and Arrogance – The Story of David and Bathsheba
December 19
Preacher: Gary Dennis
Special Event: 4th Sunday of Advent
Scripture: Matthew 1:18-25 — Now the birth of Jesus the Messiah took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been engaged to Joseph, but before they lived together, she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit. 19 Her husband Joseph, being a righteous man and unwilling to expose her to public disgrace, planned to dismiss her quietly. 20 But just when he had resolved to do this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife, for the child conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. 21 She will bear a son, and you are to name him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.” 22 All this took place to fulfill what had been spoken by the Lord through the prophet:
23 “Look, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son,
and they shall name him Emmanuel,”
which means, “God is with us.” 24 When Joseph awoke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him; he took her as his wife, 25 but had no marital relations with her until she had borne a son; and he named him Jesus.
Sermon Theme: This is the final sermon on God’s mercy and how it is expressed in our lives. This is the story of Mary (and Joseph) and the challenges they experienced when Jesus was born.
Yet for Mary (and Joseph), the hardest experiences were yet to come. This is hard to believe but it’s true. Yes, the birth of Jesus was hard, unbelievably hard. There was all the misunderstanding, the move to Bethlehem and then the years in Egyptian exile, but that was only the beginning of the challenge. Things were about to get a lot tougher for Mary and Joseph.
Do you understand that every decade in life gets harder? Don’t expect it to get easier. The operative word is “harder.” That certainly was true for Mary in her relationship with Jesus, and it is true for us. Each decade in life demands growth and maturation. This is the challenge. We must learn well the lessons of one decade, to be well positioned to then learn the new lessons that must be learned in the face of the bigger challenges in the next decade.
The problem comes when you don’t learn one decade’s lessons and then the next decade produces even bigger challenges. Suddenly, you find yourself trying to do remedial work in the midst of a storm, remedial work that must be done before the new lessons of the next decade can be learned. If you try that remedial game too many times, you will be overwhelmed by life. While it pushes against everything we want to believe about life, it’s true. Every decade does indeed get harder.
This was certainly Mary’s experience. Do you think that the rest of her life with Jesus was smooth sailing? Being Jesus’ mother got harder and harder, right up to his death.
In Mary we see an expression of mercy that we rarely consider. It is Mary expressing mercy toward her son who did not make it easy for her to be his mother. It was mercy that gave her a way to keep pushing into the life of her son who she did not always understand and who didn’t always seem very responsive to her. Mercy can do the same thing for us. It gives us a way to keep pushing into the worlds of people who we don’t always understand. Yet, that’s what Christ’s people in the world are supposed to do.
Sermon Title: Harder Every Decade – A Lesson in Mercy
December 24 – Christmas Eve
Preachers:
CHRISTMAS EVE, Friday, December 24, Worship Services (NOTE NEW TIMES)!!!
4:00 & 5:30 PM
Led by the Children’s Choirs and designed for families with children of all ages, and grandparents too!
7:30 PM (NOTE NEW TIME!)
Praise Band and Candle Lighting
10:00 PM (NOTE NEW TIME!)
LCPC Choir, featuring Alfred Burt carols, plus a pre-service concert commencing at 9:40 PM.
Scripture: Luke 2:15-20 — When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let us go now to Bethlehem and see this thing that has taken place, which the Lord has made known to us.” 16 So they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the child lying in the manger. 17 When they saw this, they made known what had been told them about this child; 18 and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds told them. 19 But Mary treasured all these words and pondered them in her heart. 20 The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, as it had been told them.
Sermon Title: “Ordinary Things and the Presence of God”
December 26
Preacher: Chuck
Scripture: Isaiah 63:7-9
I will recount the gracious deeds of the LORD,
the praiseworthy acts of the LORD,
because of all that the LORD has done for us,
and the great favor to the house of Israel
that he has shown them according to his mercy,
according to the abundance of his steadfast love.
8 For he said, “Surely they are my people,
children who will not deal falsely”;
and he became their savior
9 in all their distress.
It was no messenger or angel
but his presence that saved them;
in his love and in his pity he redeemed them;
he lifted them up and carried them all the days of old.
December 31
Preacher: Chuck
Special Event: New Year’s Eve
