Here’s a link to the worship video of this sermon which is also embedded at the bottom of the post.
Joshua 24: 1-2a, 14-18
Ephesians 6:10-20
And that building – it isn’t even half as old as our texts.
As some of you know, I spent almost 2 weeks in Scotland earlier this month. I spent some of my time exploring the city of Glasgow, but for most of my trip I was a guest of the Iona Community at the 13th century abbey where they live in community and offer programming for pilgrims, learners, and visitors. Every morning and every evening in the sanctuary of that abbey I found myself in complete awe of the continuity of our faith – of the generations upon generations those stone walls had held, of the songs they had heard song, the prayers that were held in their crevices, the words of scripture that had echoed across their surfaces. It was breathtaking and centering and unifying every time we gathered, to be a part of something so ancient and so contemporary all at the same time.
It’s kind of amazing when you stop to think about it, that these words that we read on a Sunday morning (and hopefully more often than that!) have been read or heard for as long as the they have – a little less than 2,000 years for the text from Ephesians, at leas 2,600 years for the current form of Joshua. And still we turn to them. Still we read them. Still we question them. Still we listen for what God is saying to the church today through them.
That’s the good news about really old Scriptures.
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lower gathering space, I was thrilled to learn about this tradition here at Fox Valley Presbyterian Church. I have a collection of nativity scenes that some might say borders on an obsession. In fact, I’m pretty sure the movers who will load their many boxes onto a moving truck in about 10 days will confirm that obsession. I was excited in particular that the crèche tradition here in this church includes encouraging the children to touch the pieces and interact with them instead of constantly ushering them away lest the treasures get broken. This is a lovely tradition, and I even brought my own kids in to see it midweek while they were visiting since they won’t be here until Christmas Eve. 
The Song of Zechariah found in Luke 1:68-79, are some of the first words the priest uttered upon the birth of his son, John, the cousin of Jesus, the one we know as John the Baptist. Zechariah had been made mute by the angel Gabriel at the start of his wife’s pregnancy because of his fear and disbelief, but when the child was born and Zechariah and Elizabeth named him John as Gabriel had instructed them, his tongue was freed and filled with Holy Spirit John’s father, Zechariah, spoke this prophecy. Listen now for the words he proclaimed.
For Some Reason 