What is God to do when he leaves you to your own devices and fall on your face?

Two headlines grabbed my attention this week and not in a good way. Multiple news outlets reported that the good people that created the Cambridge dictionary felt the need to change the definition of the words man and woman. Unique anatomy differentiated the two previously. Scientists later refined the difference by their chromosomes. X and Y chromosomes. Two X chromosomes make a woman and an XY make a man. If I understand it correctly, the good people that put out the dictionary feel that science should be tossed out the window and the primary means by which a man or a woman are differentiated is how one chooses to identify oneself.

Who cannot enjoy watching the children sing and tell the stories of this holiday? I do believe you could be a crotchety old aethist and come in here and watch the children and have a smile on their face. When the rubber hits the road and we're out there living our lives. Sometimes we have so idealized and so lovingly pondered the Christmas story that it doesn't have a relevance to us when we get to living our lives. When we're having difficulty in July and August and when we're up against and we're trying to put up an image of what Jesus was about. Our gospel lesson today was from John the Baptism and it isn't very Christmas-y. The message of Jesus as an infant or thruout his life is so remarkable the promises that he proclaims and embodies on behalf of God...

What could possibly have motivated mobs of people to hike from Jerusalem 30-40 dry dusty miles into the Jordanian desert to listen to a man that was blunt, very unrefined, and for the most part unkempt. The modern word for people like John would be rustic. John was rustic. Back in Jerusalem was the temple in all it's splendor - as we have discussed previously. In Jerusalem there were priests and experts in the law. They had the best degrees from the best schools. They practiced cleanliness and wore the best robes with all the right tassels. All to show how pious they were. They could buy any kind of food they wanted to eat. What could lure people out to a muddy little river, because the Jordan was a muddy little river. Why would you do that?

In occupations such as medicine, maintenance, law enforcement and other emergency responders it is common to be 'on-call' for those jobs. Being 'on-call' as a condition of employment you are expected to, when called, to come to work - you report in. They may not like it when the phone rings when 'on-call', but those persons live their lives prepared for it. I thought about that in todays gospel lesson - living in preparedness. Last week our Bible verse spoke of the disciples excessive emotion about how beautiful the temple was and how Jesus pointed out that in time that temple would not be there. He wanted them to live preparing for the day when God will set all things right. Instead of dreading and fearing, for those of us that trust in Him, it's a day we long for. If you have had dealings with people who live in extreme poverty or unfair governments - they long for the day when things are set right. They thirst for that time when they don't have to turn around to a new injustice.

The last Sunday of the year, the Sunday before Thanksgiving, and the last Sunday before Advent is Christ the King Sunday. In the early 1920s Europe had gone through a big transition. A lot of royal families governing had been done away with. Royalty largely went out of how government was led. People who had lived under royalty for government a long time worried about how their country would survive without royalty as the government. The church's response was that God was still our God and Jesus Christ still our King. I want us to focus on Thanksgiving because it's so central to what we do as people of faith.