Brent Ness

New Year’s Eve is really just another day. Except that it provides us with an excuse, an opportunity, to assess our life and think about the future. 

That’s my own (loose) translation of what scripture tells us happened in a random stable on the outskirts of a backwater town in the ancient Jewish land of Judea…

Friends, We’ve waited all year – it’s almost here! The cherished St Paul & St Andrew Service of Lessons & Carols, that is!

Friends, Come this Sunday at 11am for the fabulous St. Paul St. Andrew Christmas Pageant.

Friends, How do you get ready for Christmas? Some, like my family, decorate the day after Thanksgiving. The tree and the wreaths and the nativities all go up, even before the official start of Advent.

It seems strange to me that in some understandings of Christianity, what matters is what you believe and not what you do.

As you may remember, “talent” (τάλαντον in Greek) originally referred to a unit of money. A very big unit of money!

Even before October 7th, I had picked the Joshua passage to preach on for my first sermon at St. Paul St. Andrew.

Whenever we gather in worship, we join with other followers of Jesus we cannot see. Communion is always a ‘communion of saints’, past, present and future – a community beyond time and space.

So much of our time on this earth is planning for the future. What’s for dinner? What will I wear on Sunday? What do I want to be when I grow up?