First Presbyterian Church, Sterling IL

Isaiah 42:5-9, Matthew 3:13-17 January 12, 2014 First Presbyterian Church, Sterling IL Christina Berry Isaiah 42:5-9 5 Thus says God, the Lord, who created the heavens and stretched them out, who spread out the earth and what comes from it, who gives breath to the people upon it and spirit to those who walk in it: 6 I am the Lord, I have called you in righteousness, I have taken you by the hand and kept you; I have given you as a covenant to the people, a light to the nations, 7 to open the eyes that are blind, to bring out the prisoners from the dungeon, from the prison those who sit in darkness. 8 I am the Lord, that is my name; my glory I give to no other, nor my praise to idols. 9 See, the former things have come to pass, and new things I now declare; before they spring forth, I tell you of them. Matthew’s gospel is primarily concerned with answering a central question of Christianity: who is this Jesus? For Matthew, the question is the hinge of faith – who d...

"Journey of the Magi" byStefano de Giovanni Sassetta January 5, 2014 Isaiah 60:1-6, Matthew 2: 1-12 First Presbyterian Church, Sterling, IL Christina Berry Isaiah 60:1-6 Arise, shine; for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you.  2  For darkness shall cover the earth, and thick darkness the peoples; but the Lord will arise upon you, and his glory will appear over you.  3  Nations shall come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your dawn.  4  Lift up your eyes and look around; they all gather together, they come to you; your sons shall come from far away, and your daughters shall be carried on their nurses' arms.  5 Then you shall see and be radiant; your heart shall thrill and rejoice,  because the abundance of the sea shall be brought to you, the wealth of the nations shall come to you.  6  A multitude of camels shall cover you, the young camels of Midian and Ephah; all...

Isaiah 9:2-7 Luke 2: 1-20 December 24, 2013 First Presbyterian Church, Sterling, IL Christina Berry When you came in this evening, I hope you noticed the nativity sets on display. They’re out there in the narthex, the big room out there beyond the sanctuary. They’re on the tables, and on the shelves, all sorts of nativity sets from all different homes. Did you have a nativity set in your home, when you were growing up? (It’s okay, nothing bad will happen if you nod or raise your hand.) Do you have one on display in your home now? I have a LOT of nativity sets. A collection of them. I didn’t mean to collect them. It just happened. There is a website that every December posts weird nativity sets – homemade clay mangers, badly carved wooden holy families, nativity sets from all kinds of places. But they are not lovely. They’re just weird. Like, they’re made up of dogs, or bears, or ducks, or cowboys and cowgirls. Or  they’re made of meat. I don’t collect those...

The Spirit of Christ Isaiah 11:1-9 December 22, 2013 First Presbyterian Church, Sterling, IL Christina Berry It’s the fourth Sunday of Advent, our fourth Sunday to stand side by side gazing at the prophetic vision of Isaiah. While it is helpful to think about the context of these writings, set back in the distant past – some eight or nine hundred years before the advent of Christ, it can be distracting to get too bogged down in the history, and it isn’t always helpful to dissect a text. Sometimes, taking a scripture apart to try to get at “what it really means” is like taking a music box apart. Have you ever done that – taken apart something lovely, like a music box, in order to see how it is put together? When you have finished with it, you may know more than you did when you started, but the music will be lost. So as we approach this reading, we know that the people of Israel have been in a place of despair, and that the prophet Isaiah’s words are given as corr...

Isaiah 2: 2-5 December 15, 2013 First Presbyterian Church, Sterling IL Christina Berry Isaiah 2:2-5 In days to come the mountain of the Lord’s house shall be established as the highest of the mountains, and shall be raised above the hills; all the nations shall stream to it. Many peoples shall come and say, “Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob; that he may teach us his ways and that we may walk in his paths.” For out of Zion shall go forth instruction, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. He shall judge between the nations, and shall arbitrate for many peoples; they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more. O house of Jacob, come, let us walk in the light of the Lord! When I turned in the sermon title, some weeks ago, I called it “Beloved CommUNITY.” I’d have done better to call it “...