A Famine Not of Bread

"Bethlehem" by Vasily Polenov Click here to listen to this sermon. But you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah,     who are too little to be among the clans of Judah, from you shall come forth for Me     One who is to be ruler in Israel, whose origin is from of old,     from ancient days. Therefore He shall give them up until the time     when she who is in labor has given birth; then the rest of His brothers shall return     to the people of Israel. And He shall stand and shepherd His flock in the strength of the Lord,     in the majesty of the name of the Lord His God. And they shall dwell secure, for now He shall be great     to the ends of the earth. And He shall be their peace. (Micah 5:2-5a). Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ! “A special memory from a pilgrimage to Palestine by one of the great American preachers of the nineteenth century led to the writing of this beloved Christmas carol. In 1865, Episcopal clergyman Philips Broo

"St. John the Baptist in Prison Sends His Disciples to Question Jesus" by Ermenegildo Lodi Click here to listen to this sermon. “And John, calling two of His disciples to Him, sent them to the Lord, saying, ‘Are you the One who is to come, or shall we look for another?’” (Luke 7:18-19). Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ! Elizabeth, Gabriel, John, Mary, Zechariah—these are the usual names we hear each Advent. Their inclusion in the story by name makes our understanding of the Incarnation inseparable from their particular parts in the story.” [i] But there are others in Scripture who, even though they had a significant role to play in relation to Jesus, remain unnamed. I am thinking, for example, of the shepherds keeping watch by night, the thieves crucified with Jesus on Golgotha, and the owners of the colt Jesus rode into Jerusalem. The biblical authors did not feel compelled to tell us their names, but this does not diminish the signi

"John the Baptist Preaching" by Paolo Veronese Click here to hear this sermon. And [John] went into all the region around the Jordan, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. As it is written in the book of the words of Isaiah the prophet, “The voice of one crying in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord, make His paths straight. Every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be made low, and the crooked shall become straight, and the rough places shall become level ways, and all flesh shall see the salvation of God’” (Luke 3:3-7). Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ! “All flesh shall see the salvation of God.” It is the last line in a string of Isaiah’s greatest hits in our reading from Luke 3. “After drawing from Isaiah 40, 57, 49, 42, and 45, Luke concludes by recalling a promise of God from Isaiah 52.” [i] “All flesh shall see the salvation of God.” The day will come when, as St. Paul wr