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Philemon Don’t you just love all the Hallmark Christmas movies with their happy endings of peaceful reconciliation between estranged family embers? Scrooge gets redeemed. He goes to his nephew’s dinner party after all and apologizes so sweetly for years of venom. In other movies the estranged son comes home and hugs the dad he fought with all his life. Or, the angry dad comes to church and gives his heart to the Lord. We love those stories because that is the way life is supposed to be. We love reconciliation and restoration that brings peace to the tension filled family. All these stories are just illustrations of the biggest reconciliation of all, between God and humankind. And it’s beautiful!   The letter from Paul to Philemon exists in the Bible to paint that same kind picture for us. But before I actually read this letter, I want to set the scene. That way, instead of reading the letter first and then explaining each part, perhaps you will have the kind of experience that yo

Listen here:    https://www.lcepc.org/sermons Scripture: Colossians 1:11-22 How many of you are familiar with Disney’s movie about Aladdin? I just want you to remember one small part, and even if you haven’t seen the movie, I think you’ll get my point. The scene I am thinking of is where Aladdin meets the genie for the first time and learns about his captivity as a genie in the lamp. The genie describes it like this, “Phenomenal cosmic power! Itty bitty living space.” That is a pretty good picture of the incarnation, the birth of Jesus as a human, or as it says in Philippians, “Jesus gave up his divine privileges. He took the humble position of a slave and was born as a human being.” Now the genie was trapped in this situation and he didn’t like it. He wanted to be free! But we know that Jesus was not trapped. He chose to confine all his magnificent glory in the itty-bitty living space of a human body. And really that started out as the even ittier and bittier size of a human e

Scripture: Romans 5:1-9 Listen here:   https://www.lcepc.org/Sermons Have you noticed that the sanctuary is pretty bare of Christmas decorations? We’re going to fix that a week from Wednesday. I hope you come to help, and enjoy each other’s company. But, unlike many of our stores that are already celebrating Christmas with all kinds of decorations and sales, we are holding back. But I do have something to say that may be more jarring than seeing Christmas decorations right after Hallowe’en. Happy New Year! You might not have expected that. But it’s legit. Today is the first Sunday of the year according to the Church calendar. We call it the beginning of the Advent Season. Advent is from the Latin word adventus, meaning "coming."   So, the advent season means the season of the coming of Christ. We begin the Christian year by taking time to celebrate the first coming and declare our faith and hope in his Second Coming. The Advent season is used by the church to build