Every Christmas we hear these same lessons from Isaiah, Titus, and the Gospel of Luke.  Most of us grew up hearing the story of the birth of Jesus read to us as children, and we saw depictions of the story in art, and holiday cards and manger scenes on our mantles.  The stable with the animals, the angels and the shepherds, the stars in the heaven.  And we sang songs that told us how peaceful and serene the event was. The story of the birth of Jesus is so very familiar to us that we sometimes have a tendency to not listen as closely to the story as we would if we were hearing it for the first time.

Preached by the Rev. James Vande Berg

​THERE ARE DISTINCT LIABILITIES BOTH IN BEING AND IN LIVING WITH A TEACHER --- PARTICULARLY A MUSIC TEACHER. THERE ARE ALSO MANY ASSETS INVOLVED IN TEACHING, ASSETS THAT FAR OUT-WEIGH THE LIABILITIES. PRIMARY AMONG THEM ARE THE FOLLOWING: IT IS VIRTUALLY IMPOSSIBLE TO TEACH MUSIC WITHOUT TEACHING ABOUT LIFE, ABOUT RELATIONSHIPS, HUMAN COMMUNITY, AND VALUES SUCH AS LOVE, PEACE, JUSTICE AND UNDERSTANDING.

SECONDLY, THERE MAY NEVER BE A SUBSTITUTE EXPERIENCE FOR THE GRATIFICATION THAT COMES TO THE FACE OF ONE WHO UNDERSTANDS, INTERPRETS AND MASTERS A DIFFICULT FEAT FOR THE FIRST TIME OR FOR THE THRILL THAT COMES TO THOSE WHOSE JOINT ACCOMPLISHMENTS FAR EXCEED THEIR INDIVIDUAL EFFORTS AND EXPECTATIONS.
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AND FINALLY, BOTH TEACHERS AND THOSE WHO LIVE WITH TEACHERS ARE CONTINUOUS RECIPIENTS OF THE EDUCATIONAL EXPERIENCE --- AT THE DINNER TABLE NIGHTLY, ON TRIPS, IN BED, AND ALMOST ANYWHERE ELSE ONE IS, TO A REASONABLE DEGREE, A CAPTIVE!

I don’t know if this has ever happened to you, but you say something to someone and all at once you hear your own words in a way you never heard them before.  “Did I really say that?”  Not in the sense of “Oh my God.  I’m sorry.”  But rather in the sense, “Where did that come from?  I didn’t know I had that thought in me?”

In my forty plus years of ministry I have probably preached on John the Baptist more than any one biblical character other than Jesus.  His story is always included in our Advent season.  And it is included at the story of the Baptism of Jesus on the Sunday after the Feast of the Epiphany.  It is sometimes also included elsewhere in our liturgical year.  Yet he always seems relevant … probably more so today.