Irreverently Reverend

  Baptism of the Lord As the people were filled with expectation and all were questioning in their hearts concerning John, whether he might be the Messiah, 16 John answered all of them by saying, “I baptize you with water, but one who is more powerful than I is coming; I am not worthy to untie the strap of his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. 17 His winnowing fork is in his hand to clear his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his granary, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.” 18 So with many other exhortations he proclaimed the good news to the people. 19 But Herod the ruler, who had been rebuked by him because of Herodias, his brother’s wife, and because of all the evil things that Herod had done, 20 added to them all by shutting up John in prison. 21 Now when all the people were baptized and when Jesus also had been baptized and was praying, the heaven was opened, 22 and the Holy Spirit descended upon him in bodily form lik...

  Advent III 57  When the time came for Elizabeth to have her child, she gave birth to a boy.  58  Her neighbors and relatives celebrated with her because they had heard that the Lord had shown her great mercy.  59  On the eighth day, it came time to circumcise the child. They wanted to name him Zechariah because that was his father’s name.  60  But his mother replied, “No, his name will be John.” 61  They said to her, “None of your relatives have that name.”  62  Then they began gesturing to his father to see what he wanted to call him. 63  After asking for a tablet, he surprised everyone by writing, “His name is John.”  64  At that moment, Zechariah was able to speak again, and he began praising God. 65  All their neighbors were filled with awe, and everyone throughout the Judean highlands talked about what had happened.  66  All who heard about this considered it carefully. They said, “What the...

  Fourth Sunday of Advent In the beginning was the Word     and the Word was with God     and the Word was God. 2 The Word was with God in the beginning. 3 Everything came into being through the Word,     and without the Word     nothing came into being. What came into being 4      through the Word was life,     and the life was the light for all people. 5 The light shines in the darkness,     and the darkness doesn’t extinguish the light. 6 A man named John was sent from God. 7 He came as a witness to testify concerning the light, so that through him everyone would believe in the light. 8 He himself wasn’t the light, but his mission was to testify concerning the light. 9 The true light that shines on all people     was coming into the world. 10 The light was in the world,     and the world came into being through the light,    ...