https://joelssermons.files.wordpress.com/2019/01/20190106sermon.mp3
This sermon contains musical interludes and is best heard (above) rather than read. Many thanks to Tom Blosser (piano) and Jim Myers (clarinet), and to Rick Leonard for doing a first draft physics fact check, resulting in some editing that makes me sound like I know more than I do about such things.
Texts: Isaiah 60:1-6; Matthew 2:1-18
Sitting down a while back to plan this worship series, one of the tasks was assigning which sense would go with which week. Seeing and hearing could go anywhere, but when, exactly, in the Advent to Christmas to Epiphany plot is it time to taste, to touch, to smell? Fortunately, the texts help us out. It’s not every week frankincense and myrrh get hand delivered into the story line. And so, we finally arrive at the wafting wonder of Epiphany. A time to breathe in the fresh air of a new year. Do you smell what I smell?
Do You See What I See?
Matthew’s birth narrative has a distinctly different smell than Luke’s. Luke has the infant Jesus laid in a manger, a feed trough for animals. Do you smell what I smell? Mary and Joseph are soon...