In the name of the God of all Creation, The God alive in each of us as God was alive in Jesus, And the power of God known in the Spirit. Amen.

Some of you were here the Sunday that my youngest brother Chad, and his wife Amy, surprised me by showing up at church. They live on the coast of North Carolina and had come down for one of Chad’s friend’s sixtieth birthday. I was just about to read the Gospel when I looked at the back row and there they were. I literally had to take a second look ... it was so out of place ... and it took my breath away.

In the name of the God of all Creation ... the One who brought us into being The God alive in each of us ... as God was alive in Jesus And the power of God known in the Spirit ... the Spirit who blessed Mary with God’s Son. Amen.

The Feast of the Incarnation. The Nativity of Our Lord. The birth of Jesus ... the Christ child. Christmas. It is the gift of God’s Son to the world, the divine presence of God coming alive in human form. It is God’s blessing upon us so that we, too, might be a blessing in return to God’s world. What a glorious night, made all the more glorious in this beautiful little church.

Not too long ago I passed a church with a portable sign out on the street, the kind to which you can affix plastic letters that spell out the message of your choice. This sign proclaimed simply: Another Chance – 9 A.M. Sunday. It may have been the clever simplicity of the message that caught my eye and made me wonder whether “Another Chance” was the name of a particular church program or worship service, or whether the sign just meant that if you missed church last Sunday morning at 9, you could catch it this Sunday morning at 9. But what most captured my imagination was the stark reminder that this is what we have spent Advent preparing for ... another chance.

In the name of the God of all Creation, the God alive in each of us as God was alive in Jesus, and the power of God known in the Spirit.  Amen.

What a wonderful morning for a baptism … and not just any baptism, but the baptism of a sixth 
generation child of this congregation. Lalita’s great, great, great, grandmother was one of the 
original members of St. Cyprian’s! What an honor to have this child and her family here today.

During this Advent season we have been singing … or at least trying to sing … the Magnificat as 
our Hymn of Praise as we begin our liturgy. The Magnificat … The Latin name for the Song of 
Mary … is one of several hymns in the first two chapters of Luke’s gospel, and it is always one of 
the options for a responsorial reading on the Third Sunday of Advent. 

In the name of the God of all Creation, the God alive in each of us as God was alive in Jesus, 
and the power of God known in the Spirit. 

In the United States the national holiday of Thanksgiving is always the fourth Thursday of 
November. It was first declared Federal holiday by President Abraham Lincoln in 1863 during 
the Civil War. Believe it or not, there were no WalMarts, Macys, Targets, Bealls, or shopping 
malls at the time, and so there was no Black Friday sales encroaching upon the reverential 
nature of this special day. However, Thanksgiving has become more about the beginning of the 
Christmas shopping season than it is about giving thanks to God for our blessings.