Blog of FPC Lebanon

Bible Reference(s): Luke 2:1-20 Sermon by Rev. Terri Thorn Each year as I begin to prepare the Christmas Eve service, I ask myself, "What will you say that hasn't already been said? What message could you possibly offer that might begin to capture the significance of this night? Not to mention, there are no words that could ever have as powerful of an impact as the music and the scripture does, nor would any capture attention the way the NORAD Santa tracker does!" And every year I come to the same conclusion...perhaps this night is mostly about keeping our traditions intact. After all, there is tremendous comfort in tradition. We all have those things in our life that we say, Christmas isn't Christmas without them. For some folks Christmas isn't Christmas without a trip around the county to look at the lights, or until you've attended the Christmas Cantata, or when you've finally signed, sealed and mailed your annual Christmas letter. And, for...

Bible Reference(s): Luke 4:18-19 Sermon by Rev. Terri Thorn The dramatic reading for today should have come with a spoiler alert - it gave away the happy ending to the sermon series! Then again, we had a pretty good idea what would happen when Scrooge woke up on Christmas morning, right? We knew he would be a changed man - with new priorities and a different perspective. After visits from his dead business partner, Jacob Marley, as well as the Christmas Ghosts of Past, Present and Yet to Come, we know his life of utter misery will be transformed to one of abundant joy. Scrooge will not miss Christmas - not the day, nor the meaning, nor the opportunity to rejoice and share in the joy. Right? We all know that this is how the Dickens' classic ends. Still, we never get tired of hearing it. It is a timeless story that speaks to us...probably because it teaches us some important lessons about our own lives. After all, there is a little bit of Scrooge in all of us. We all ha...

Bible Reference(s): Matthew 2:1-18 Sermon by Rev. Terri Thorn Thank goodness for the beauty of this morning's music because the scripture reading from Matthew's gospel sure doesn't do much to instill a sense of Christmas joy, does it? Don't get me wrong...the wise men following the star to worship the baby Jesus is an integral and lovely part of the Christmas story. We would never want to skip it. But the massive slaughter of innocent babies is one of those things we'd rather not mention. Unfortunately though, when we bypass the slaughter of the innocents we ignore the raw, ugly reality of evil surrounding Jesus' birth. We neglect to appreciate what a troubled and troubling world was waiting for him. We forget that Jesus born into abject poverty and oppression. Not just poor, but barely surviving poor. Not just financial oppression, but "I can order you killed if I feel like it" oppression. Mary and Joseph and their community were not just...

Bible Reference(s): Isaiah 9:1,6 / Luke 2:8-14 Sermon by Rev. Terri Thorn Today, the second Sunday in our Advent series, Mr. Scrooge gets a visit from the Ghost of Christmas Past. Now I suppose, if one has to be visited by a ghost of some sort, the ghost of Christmas Past is probably the way to go. I mean if we are forced to look into the past, Christmas time seems to be safe enough. It usually consists of mostly fond memories..as long as we don't go too deep below the surface. Most of us are comfortable with some general reminiscing of our favorite stories, but that's about it. Otherwise, we tend to say that the past is the past and we don't want to spend too much time there. I wonder if that's because too much time in the past, or too far down below the surface, and the stories become less Hallmark-ish. In fact they may even be painful to remember. Or perhaps we just prefer to leave things the way we remember them, whether or not it is the way the really ...