A woman in Bethany helped ease that awareness for Jesus of Nazareth.  In the home of Simon the leper or in the home of Mary, Martha and Lazarus she poured some very expensive ointment over the head of Jesus, and to him her selfless act of love was the one necessary thing which enabled him to go forth in confidence to his death.  Maybe she didn't know how important it was that she did what she did, but he knew.  "She has done what she could; she has anointed my body beforehand for burying. And truly, I say to you, wherever the gospel is preached in the whole world, what she had done will told in memory of her.”

In the first century of the Common Era, almost all Jews going from the Galilee in the north to Jerusalem in the south went down the Jordan Valley to Jericho and then up the mountain road to Jerusalem. They did not travel the more direct route along the crests of the mountains in the center of the land, because that way they would have to go through Samaria, and Jews did not -- and still do not -- voluntarily make that journey. In the first century, Samaria had Samaritans, and now it has Palestinians, and either way, no Jew would choose to pass through it unless there was a compelling reason to do so. So in the first century every Jew going from the Galilee to Jerusalem did what every Jew had done for seven centuries: they went down the Jordan Valley, and then they left Jericho and climbed the four thousand feet of mountains, from 1300 feet below sea level to 2400 feet above sea level.  When they got to the highest point, they were on the Mount of Olives, and then they could look down on THE City, the Holy City, Jerusalem the Golden, with milk and honey blessed.

Everything there ever was which has any value at all is a gift from God.  Everyone is a gift from God, so everybody has value.  It is imperative, therefore, that if we are to try to be Christians, we must value people over things every time.  Not just usually, but always. 

For anyone who has a serious concern for the future of creation, a conscientious pro-life position can never be synonymous with the ideology of the current "pro-life" advocates. If we are honest with ourselves and we exhibit an informed concern for coming generations, we will grudgingly come to realize that a worldwide policy which prevents abortion is a guaranteed recipe for the elimination of a viable earthly environment for any life at all, human or otherwise.

In the United States of America, there has been a gradual erosion of the value of certain segments of American life.  Life in the poorest neighborhoods is cheap, as when zoning laws are changed to obliterate entire neighborhoods of the poor, or when those who most need medical assistance during the pandemic were the last to receive it. The prophet Jeremiah spoke of such times when he sarcastically wrote, "Then I said, 'These are only the poor, they have no sense; for they do not know the way of the Lord, the law of their God.  Let me go to the rich and speak to them; surely they know the way of the Lord, the law of their God.'  But they all alike had broken the yoke," Jeremiah observed; "they had burst the bonds" (Jeremiah 5:4-5).

It has never been easy to be in charge of any type of organization, but it maybe has never been harder in our lifetime than it is right now.  The world is in a period of rapid and unpredictable transition, and leaders of government, business, education, service, and even religion are having a hard time maintaining the appearance of control, let alone progress. …   Often we make a critical error of judgment about those who are in positions of authority.  We want to like them even more than we respect them, but liking and respecting are two different things. 

What was David thinking when he sent someone to fetch Bathsheba to his palace? Did he intend to find out her circumstances, and then if all were well, try to woo her, or did he mean merely to have her and then cast her aside?  Why does any of us do the foolish, selfish, sinful things we do? 

Nearly every congregation of every religion that ever existed came into being and then ceased to exist or will cease its existence, like a breath. There are many thousands of extant synagogues, churches, and mosques, but all of them shall cease to be at some point in the future. As Tennyson noted to God in his poem, “Our little systems have their day,/ They have their day, and cease to be;/ They are but broken lights of Thee/ And Thou, O Lord, art more than they.”

This morning I am beginning a series of sermons on one of the greatest figures of the Bible: David, the king of Israel.  You will see as we go along that "great" is a word which has to be understood in context.  David's greatness can be perceived only in the midst of his traumas, and of those there are many.  There are more skeletons in David's closet than there are in Gray’s Anatomy.

Many people get emotionally mushy at Christmas, and many carols and other Christmas songs foster theological squishiness. Up to a point, that is probably inevitable. But Jesus did not come to earth primarily to make us feel good about either him or ourselves. God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself. That is why Jesus was born. Jesus had a unique calling from God, compared to everyone else who has ever lived.