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SERMONS:
Pastor Peg posts her two most recent sermons on this page. If you are interested in reading more of her sermons you can go to pastorpeg.wordpress.com. For Advent we are preaching about The Gifts of God and what they mean to us during this season and for our lives. Enjoy.
The Gift of Joy
December 14, 2025 3rd Sunday of Advent
Luke 1:39-45 Luke 1:46-55
In my 20s I was into reading self-help and organization books. Nearly all the books in this genre promise that you will be happier with your life if you followed the author’s system. Some of the books worked for me, some of them didn't. But oddly enough it was an article about happiness by a British journalist that has stayed with me over the years.
The journalist, who was in his late 20’s, was in a funk because he felt that his life wasn't going anywhere. One day while he was walking down a London street and jingling the change that he kept in his pocket, he noticed that there was a traffic officer working her way up the street towards him and putting tickets on cars that had expired meters. He looked over at the car next to him and saw that its meter had expired and, on impulse, he took two coins out of his pocket fed it into the meter. As he walked away, he experienced a burst of happiness.
He wondered about this burst of happiness and decided to examine what had happened. He didn't know who the person was who had that car. He also didn't pre-plan to fill up an expired meter. He decided to experiment, and on his walk home he dug out all the coins from his pocket and when he came across an expired parking meter, he put some money in it. When he got home, he noticed that he felt happier.
He decided to carry the experiment further and any time he saw a chance to do something kind for someone he would take it. If he saw an elderly person carrying a bag, he would offer to carry it to their house or apartment door. If it was raining and a colleague needed a ride home, he would offer to drive them. And of course, being a journalist, he journaled this journey.
He found that he went from being in a funk to feeling better about life. Things started to improve in general and at work. That's not to say that he still didn't have problems or difficulties, but he found that he was coping with things better. Even his friends noticed that he was just all around a better person to be with.
He called his actions, Random Acts of Kindness. He didn’t invent the term – it’s actually been around since the 80’s. People have written books about it, and there is even a foundation with that name in California.
What the article showed me was that joy and happiness aren’t passive. I agree that sometimes joyous things just happen to us. We meet up with an old friend unexpectedly, or a great opportunity pops up. But when we actively participate in giving happiness, we get happiness.
Mary and Elizabeth are happy for many reasons. First of all, both of them are happy to be having babies. Elizabeth has never been able to have children; for a Jewish woman it was a shameful experience if you couldn't provide your husband with the continuation of the bloodline. There’s some social redemption going on here. Mary is in a bit more of a precarious position, but she knows that since she’s carrying the Messiah, she’s participating in something that is life changing not just for her but also for her entire culture. Elizabeth also knows that she is participating in this momentous change because her son, John, is going to be preparation and support for the Messiah. They’re both participating in acts of kindness for not only themselves but their entire culture.
The great joy that happens in Mary's speech is that God has not forgotten his people. God has not forgotten the struggles than any of us go through. God is giving us a reason to hope for a better life. God’s gift of Jesus will bring us to more joy in our lives because he will teach us all how to be better people to each other. And when we are better people to each other this helps to bring about a more just and loving society for everyone.
However, God sending Jesus to us is not a random act of kindness. I truly believe that Jesus was sent to earth at a crucially-logistical-point in history. The Roman Empire extended beyond the area that they controlled politically. They had also connected a huge amount of the world through trade with roads, routes and agreements that went all the way to India and China. Jewish people were living all over the Roman Empire as far away as Spain, France, England, Germany, and even India. Most of the early churches were begun within Jewish communities. It’s said the Apostle Thomas founded a Christian community in India and Joseph of Arimathea founded one in England.
God sent Jesus at a time when he and his disciples had the opportunity to connect with more people than at any other time in the past. It’s why Christianity spread so rapidly. And one joy of the Christian community was that its members were dedicated to helping each other socially and economically.
Our next sermon series is going to continue the idea of gift giving by examining Our Spiritual Gifts. Gifts are both given and received. We believe that each of us are given gifts and graces by God, and no two people have the same measure of these gifts. Some people have the gift of art or athletics, mathematics or literature, building or cooking. But Spiritual gifts are different; they’re gifts that help us to connect with God and each other on a deeper spiritual level. On the back of our Spiritual Gifts Inventory, we’ve listed some of the gifts that each of us might have: Giving, administration, teaching, exhortation, mercy, prophecy, and serving. The basic explanations are there, and we’ll be preaching on them later.
But right now, let’s remember God’s gift of joy through Jesus. God gave Jesus to us so that we could learn how to give love, kindness, and compassion to others. That makes us feel good. In turn we can also receive love, kindness and compassion from others, which also makes us feel good. And when we feel good, we find that we’re happy and that we can participate in joy.
Our joy can be an overwhelming happiness like Mary and Elizabeth felt, or it can be a burst of happiness that you get when you help others, or a feeling in between. Whatever your moment of joy is, don’t discount it because when you’re in joy you are connected to God, because he wants you to be happy. Why else would he send Jesus to us? So go out there and give and receive with a spirit of kindness, and you’ll be one step closer to being ready for Jesus when he comes.
The Gifts of Hope and Peace
December 7, 2025 2nd Sunday of Advent
Isaiah 9:6-7 Luke 1:11-17; Romans 15:13
It’s Advent, and we’re getting ready for the birth of Jesus. During this time, we focus on four positive states of being: Hope, Peace, Joy, and Love, because they reflect what God has given us through His son Jesus.
Let’s face it, this world can sometimes be very discouraging. In life each of those positive states of being are countered by negative ones. Hope is countered by despair; peace by anger and conflict; joy by sorrow; and love by hate. We all encounter those negatives, but Jesus came to show us how to cope with them by engaging in and practicing the positive ones.
To use hope as an example, we live in those states of beings. (I am hopeful that the Bills will win the Superbowl.) But they are also attitudes that we operate with (I am saving my money because I hope to buy a car.) They are also emotions (I hope I get a good grade on my test.) And finally, something that we quantify (I have a lot of hope for the next basketball game.)
Before I start talking about hope and peace, I want to talk about the four negative states that I brought up: Despair, conflict/anger, sorrow, and hate. We can’t help being in these states sometimes, that’s life. But these are states that none of us should live in, or want to live in, for very long. When we are in them, it’s healthy to try to get out of them or to mitigate them with the positive states so that they don’t overwhelm us. But I do know some people who live in these states permanently.
I have a friend from my high school days who I truly believe has a good heart, but he has somehow gotten himself to a place where he always sees the negative of a situation, of people, or even of things. If I talk to him about a new store that’s opening, he’ll start spouting about how that store is going to run other stores out of business and ruin the area. He always sees events in terms of conflict, and he refuses to see how any conflict might be resolved positively. If I talk about something good that happened when we were younger, he will always talk about how nothing works for us today and he's perpetually mourning for the old times. If I talk about people in the media, or even some people in general, he’ll always go to their faults and how much he dislikes them rather than talk about anything good about them.
I cannot imagine how he must perpetually feel inside. What is it like to have that much despair; to have that much constant conflict with the attached anger; to have that much sorrow; and to have that much hate and dislike within you?
You know, it’s been proven that when you default to negativity and dwell too much on negativity,your body releases acidic enzymes into your bloodstream that can actually cause damage to your organs. And unfortunately, if you keep defaulting in that direction, you’ll rewire your brain into negative patterns which result in negative emotions. After a while you don't even look for hope, peace, joy, and love in your life, and you’re perpetually eating yourself alive with your own enzymes. (Grim thought!)
On the other hand, it’s been shown that if you allow yourself to hope when you're in despair; to find peace and resolution when you're in conflict or anger; to look for joy when you have some sorrow; and find love when you come up against things that bring out the emotion of hate; then your body also releases enzymes that counter-act those acidic enzymes. And when you have those pure moments of hope, peace, joy, and love you can heal the damage that the negative enzymes have caused with the positive enzymes.
Zechariah, John the Baptist’s father, was a descendant of Aaron, Moses's brother, and tradition has it that he was praying in the inner chamber of the temple on the day of atonement. Which fits because Zachariah was given a message that his son, John, would prepare the way of the Messiah by preaching to the people to get ready by atoning for their sins and purifying themselves to be ready for when Jesus comes.
This must have been incredibly glad tidings because the Israelis were living under an oppressive Roman occupation. They were living everyday with despair, conflict, sorrow and hate. They believed that the Messiah was going to save Israel, and they would then have hope, peace, joy and love restored to them.
But John told the people that they needed to prepare for the Messiah by atoning for their sins. Atonement means to repair a wrong or an injury. It’s not just asking for forgiveness. Yes, Jesus taught us that we are forgiven for our sins, but that’s the first step. The second step is to atone by trying to repair the wrong or the injury that we've done.
And atonement requires us to think positively not negatively. If you have the attitude that: Well, no matter what I do it's not going to make things better there will always be conflict and anger. Even if I try to make things right people might feel better and be happy for a while but something sad is going to happen to them and they're just going to be sad again. Even if I do show love there's still a lot of negativity and hate in the world. So what good is it going to do?
You can't repair things if you think that there is no end-game that leads to a good outcome.
I get that in very dark moments it is hard to hang onto hope. It is hard during conflict to hang on to peace. It’s hard to find joy when everything around you is so sad. It’s hard to love when people are hating on you. But that’s the challenge of being a Christian.
And that's what Jesus came to teach us how to do; to show us that all those positive states of being are possible. He didn't say that we're not going to go through the other ones. But by his incarnation, his life, and his death and resurrection he gave us proof positive that within our struggles we’re working towards something better.
Jesus’ incarnation into this world showed us that God does care. God was willing to send someone to show us how to do it right, even while all the wrong stuff is happening to us. A Christian carries hope because we know that there is a life beyond this one that’s better and that we can bring it to other people now. Jesus taught his disciples to be the hands of God and we are their inheritors.
Hope and peace are two of the best practices when we are Christians. Hope happens when we help each other get out of bad situations. Hope happens when find a positive reason for living, rather than negative one. Hope happens when we give kindness. Hope happens when we share the story and promises of Jesus.
Peace happens when we put down our anger by trying to understand other people and what they're going through. Peace happens when we stop trying to create or continue conflict and start to look for solutions in which everyone can work together.
Hope and Peace happen when we practice creating societies that recognize the dignity of everyone; give equality to everyone; give opportunity to everyone: and allow people to live together without fear. Hope and peace happen when we practice repairing, even in a small measure, the hurts of our world.
My prayer for everyone on earth is to practice the positive in our lives that will give hope to ourselves and others. To practice stepping back from our conflict and anger and repair our relationships so that they work together and have a measure of peace. My prayer is that we will all accept these gifts from God that were taught to us by Jesus and that we will become a people who are ready to receive the newness that Christmas brings.