This Sunday is the first Sunday of Advent. That means we are in a new church year. Happy New Year, Church. Happy New Year, Pope Francis. Happy New Year to you all. And in this new church year, we have an amazing gospel for this Sunday. It is Jesus saying to us, “Please stay awake. You do not know when the Lord will come.” And so I think a great question to ask is, when your head hits the pillow and you’re going into dreamland, what’s the thing that keeps you up at night? Is it a relationship? Is it your family? Is it work? Is it studies? Is it trying to figure out when the Chicago Bears are actually gonna be good?
And hearing Jesus’ words in this new church year, can we think about him before we go to bed? Can we let the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit be the persons that we think about before we go to bed? And so, what do you think Jesus thought about when he was going to bed at night? What do you think kept him up at night? What do you think he thought about? I think the answer is obvious. He was thinking about you.
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Fear of Being Less of Ourselves
One of my favorite scenes from The Lord of the Rings is when Gandalf heals King Theoden from Saruman’s possession. This is such an awesome scene of healing. At one point, the possessed King Theoden says to Gandalf, “If I go, Theoden dies.” And that’s precisely what we see in the gospel today. The demon spirit tells Jesus, “What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us?” We say that to…
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Sacrifice For Jesus
Okay, so in the gospel for this Sunday, Jesus is not trying to be an economist. He’s not concerned about what happens to the S&P 500. He is not worried about how much Bitcoin to give to the poor. Jesus is talking about our sacrificial hearts. In the gospel, the rich provide some of their money, and the poor widow gives all she has. Jesus is not concerned with numbers. He’s concerned with our…
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Jesus In The Present
So it is finally Advent, which means it is a new church year. So happy New Year, Mother Church. Happy New Year, Bing Crosby. Happy New Year to you all. What I love about Advent is that the church teaches us that we experience three Advents and three comings of Christ. He comes in the past. Jesus is also coming in the future. But the third Advent is that Jesus always desires to come into our hearts…
