Texts: Isaiah 6:1-8 [9-13]; 1 Corinthians 15:1-11; Luke 5:1-11
 
If you listen to the Bible, I mean really listen, you realize that pretty much no one is ever prepared for, or worthy of, God.  No one in our cast of bible characters today is ready, that’s for sure.  Pretty much every time the Holy One shows up people suddenly remember how desperately unready they are for an up close and personal visit.

Texts: Zephaniah 3:14-20; Philippians 4:4-7; Luke 3:7-18
December can be a colossal struggle.  For people with depression, for people in poverty, for people in the midst of personal struggles.  And so in this month, this season, we often hear stories about how to reach out and help.  But not everyone gets press coverage, though their struggles in December are monumental.  Jenny, a Lutheran minister recently told this story, about her son, an upper elementary school age boy named Ian.

Texts: 1 Kings 17:8-16; Hebrews 9:24-28; Mark 12:38-44
 
Is it right to call God an unrepentant meddler?  Technically to meddle means to interfere in other people’s matters without right or invitation.  You could argue that God, as author of…well…
everything… has every right, and needs no invitation.  Furthermore, God answers to no one, so could God ever even be repentant? 

Texts: Isaiah 25:6-9; Revelation 21:1-6a; John 11:32-44
 If you take a walk in the forest of the Pacific Northwest and pay attention, you’ll see graves everywhere.  Not that people know what they’re seeing most of the time.  No, most of us will walk right past a forest grave without so much as a brief pause of quiet reverence.

Texts: Jeremiah 31:31-34; Romans 3:19-28; John 8:31-36
 Yesterday, on the Jewish Sabbath, another act of violence was perpetrated against a community of Jewish people gathered to worship God.  No one knows yet what precipitated the synagogue shooting, and no explanation will ever speak comfort to the deaths of innocent people.  We can only hope that this won’t turn out to be another instance of hatred toward Jewish people that is justified by invoking Martin Luther’s teaching.  Especially today, as we mark the great Reformation of the Church that Luther helped initiate. 

Texts: Amos 5:6-7, 10-15; Hebrews 4:12-16; Mark 10:17-31
Those of you who are not connected to the internet will shake your heads once again at what is going on there.  If you are connected, well, then you know already.  Social media giants like Facebook are continually targeted by scam artists.

Texts: Proverbs 9:1-6; Ephesians 5:15-20; John 6:51-58
 “Be careful how you live, not as unwise people, but as wise…”  This advice comes to us from the letter to the Ephesians, and it seems pretty contemporary.  Especially with social media and the smartness of our communication gadgets.  Because, people are watching, don’t you know?

Texts: 1 Kings 19:4-8; Ephesians 4:25 – 5:2; John 6:34, 41-51
Jesus saves.  You can only see the message from one place – between the golf course and the south end of the Friday Harbor airport as you come in to land.  It’s stenciled in fading white letters on the flat rooftop of a vintage single-wide trailer.  It makes you wonder.  Was the trailer’s owner hoping to recruit a few lost souls from the coming and going planes?  Was it an urgent commentary on the spiritual condition of the flying community?