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Andrew C. Thompson

Category Archives: Advent

Watching from the Walls – Elizabeth’s Surprise

24 Thursday Dec 2015

Posted by Andrew C. Thompson in Advent, FUMC Springdale, Podcast, Preaching, Worship

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Watching from the Walls_Advent 2015Our third sermon in the Watching from the Walls series is “Elizabeth’s Surprise,” which focuses on Luke 1:5-17 and 39-45. In it, we find that Mary’s cousin Elizabeth receives a double surprise — the jolt of John the Baptist leaping in her womb, and the jolt of knowing that her son would be the herald of the Savior himself.

In Episode #14 of our Behind the Sermon podcast, we set the stage for Elizabeth’s Surprise and talk . You can find that podcast episode at this link.

Here’s the sermon, courtesy of Youtube:

 


 

Watching from the Walls – Joseph’s Challenge

23 Wednesday Dec 2015

Posted by Andrew C. Thompson in Advent, FUMC Springdale, Preaching, Worship

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Our third sermon in the Watching from the Walls worship series this Advent is “Joseph’s Challenge.” It focuses on the challenge that learning of Mary’s pregnancy meant to Joseph, and especially the way that he chose faithfulness to God over adherence to the world’s standards of how he would have been expected to react in the situation he faced. The sermon text is Matthew 1:18-25.

You can find episode #13 of our Behind the Sermon podcast at this link. That podcast episode is linked to the sermon on Joseph’s Challenge and can serve to set the context of the sermon. (It’s also a great way to get to know my colleague Todd Lovell and I a little bit better!)

Here’s the sermon on Joseph’s Challenge courtesy of Youtube:

 


 

Watching from the Walls – Mary’s Unusual Visit

22 Tuesday Dec 2015

Posted by Andrew C. Thompson in Advent, Angels, Jesus Christ, Podcast, Preaching, Worship

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Watching from the Walls_Advent 2015The second sermon in the Watching from the Walls worship series is “Mary’s Unusual Visit.” It centers on the conversation between the Angel Gabriel and the Virgin Mary when Gabriel delivers news to Mary that she will give birth to Jesus.

Episode #12 of our Behind the Sermon podcast is connected to the sermon on Mary’s Unusual Visit. You can find that episode at this link. Todd Lovell and I discuss the meaning the Incarnation—the act by which God took on human flesh in the person of Jesus of Nazareth—in our salvation.

Mary’s Unusual Visit takes Luke 1:26-38 as its text. Here’s the sermon:

 


 

Watching from the Walls – Longing for Jesus

21 Monday Dec 2015

Posted by Andrew C. Thompson in Advent, FUMC Springdale, Podcast, Preaching, Worship

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Watching from the Walls_Advent 2015Over these days leading up to Christmas, I’m going to post the sermons from our Advent worship series on “Watching from the Walls.” I’ll also post the episodes of the Behind the Sermon podcast that go along with each sermon.

You can find the Behind the Sermon Episode #11 at this link. In that episode, Todd Lovell and I outline the worship series and talk a little bit about the image of the “watchmen on the walls” in the Old Testament and what that means.

The sermon, “Longing for Jesus,” begins the Advent worship series. The Scripture text is Isaiah 62:6-7,11-12. Here’s the link to that first sermon:

 


 

Watching from the Walls during Advent

28 Saturday Nov 2015

Posted by Andrew C. Thompson in Advent, Worship

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This Advent season at First Church in Springdale, we will be “watching from the walls.” Like the watchmen of old, we will be standing guard and ready to herald the coming of our king.

Here’s a preview:

“Listen! Your watchmen lift up their voices; together they shout for joy.
When the Lord returns to Zion, they will see it with their own eyes.”
–Isaiah 52:8

Come and join us in worship each Sunday in December!


 

A Shepherd's Message

03 Wednesday Dec 2014

Posted by admin in Advent, Arkansas Conference, Bible, Pastoral Care, United Methodist Church

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There are many bishops, with many different gifts. I’ve always thought that the greatest gift a bishop can have is to be a true pastor to the pastors under his charge. Here is a remarkable example of that virtue in the person of my bishop in the Arkansas Conference, Bishop Gary Mueller:

The Apostle Peter teaches the presbyters of the church that they are to “shepherd the flock of God that is among you, exercising oversight, not under compulsion, but willingly, as God would have you.” He also says that the church’s leaders are not to do this for personal gain or through an appetite for power. Rather, they are to be “examples to the flock” (1 Peter 5:2-3).

In this season of Advent when we have so much for which to be thankful, I am thankful for a bishop with a pastor’s heart—who has a deep and abiding love for his pastors which flows from his deep and abiding love for Jesus Christ.

 

A Prayer for Christmas Eve

24 Tuesday Dec 2013

Posted by admin in Advent, Jesus Christ, Liturgical Year

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Holy Family B&WA Prayer for Christmas Eve –

Almighty Father,
by the birth of your holy child Jesus
you gave us a great light to dawn on our darkness.
Grant that in his light we may see light.
Bestow upon us
that most excellent Christmas gift of love
to all people,
so that the likeness of your Son
may be formed in us,
and that we may have the ever brightening hope
of everlasting life;
through Jesus Christ our Savior. Amen.

– UM Book of Worship, alt., 277

Fourth Sunday of Advent

22 Sunday Dec 2013

Posted by admin in Advent, Early Church Fathers, Jesus Christ, Liturgical Year

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Virgin and ChildOn the coming of the Son of God, from the Letter to Diognetus—

“For who that is rightly taught and begotten by the loving Word, would not seek to learn accurately the things which have been clearly shown by the Word to His disciples, to whom the Word being manifested has revealed them, speaking plainly [to them], not understood indeed by the unbelieving, but conversing with the disciples, who, being esteemed faithful by Him, acquired a knowledge of the mysteries of the Father? For which reason He sent the Word, that He might be manifested to the world; and He, being despised by the people [of the Jews], was, when preached by the Apostles, believed on by the Gentiles.

“This is He who was from the beginning, who appeared as if new, and was found old, and yet who is ever born afresh in the hearts of the saints. This is He who, being from everlasting, is today called the Son; through whom the Church is enriched, and grace, widely spread, increases in the saints, furnishing understanding, revealing mysteries, announcing times, rejoicing over the faithful, giving to those that seek, by whom the limits of faith are not broken through, nor the boundaries set by the fathers passed over. Then the fear of the law is chanted, and the grace of the prophets is known, and the faith of the gospels is established, and the tradition of the Apostles is preserved, and the grace of the Church exults—by which grace if you grieve not, you shall know those things which the Word teaches, by whom He wills, and when He pleases.”

Third Sunday of Advent

15 Sunday Dec 2013

Posted by admin in Advent, Early Church Fathers, Jesus Christ, Liturgical Year

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Saint Athanasius

Saint Athanasius

A passage on the coming of Jesus Christ from St. Athanasius:

“For seeing that men, having rejected the contemplation of God, and with their eyes downward, as though sunk in the deep, were seeking about for God in nature and in the world of sense, feigning gods for themselves of mortal men and demons; to this end the loving and general Savior of all, the Word of God, took to himself a body, and as man walked among men and met the senses of men halfway, to the end, I say, that they who think God is corporeal may from what the Lord effects by his body perceive the truth, and through him recognize the Father.”

– St. Athanasius, On the Incarnation

Second Sunday of Advent

08 Sunday Dec 2013

Posted by admin in Advent, Liturgical Year, Prayers

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Our_Lady_of_Perpetual_Help_Church_silhouette_altus_arkansasA prayer for the second Sunday of Advent:

Ever present God, you taught us that the night is far spent and the day is at hand.

Grant that we may ever be found watching for the coming of your Son.

Save us from undue love of the world, that we may wait with patient hope for the day of the Lord, and so abide in him, that when he shall appear, we may not be ashamed; through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Amen.

—UM Book of Worship, 254

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