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    • Sunday service - Holy Communion December 28, 2025 at 9:30 am – 11:00 am Grace Church 215 Pleasant Street, Sheldon, VT Website: www.gracechurchsheldon.comTime:  09:30 AM Eastern Time (US and Canada)        Every week on Sun.Join Zoom Meetinghttps://us02web.zoom.us/j/83929911344?pwd=alZQTWZMN0ZkWFFPS1hmNjNkZkU2UT09Meeting ID: 839 2991 1344Password: Call for detailsOne tap mobile+13126266799,,83929911344#,,1#,816603# US (Chicago)+19294362866,,83929911344#,,1#,816603# US (New York)Dial by your location        +1 312 626 6799 US (Chicago)        +1 929 436 2866 US (New York)Meeting ID:…
    • Sunday service - Morning Prayer January 4, 2026 at 9:30 am – 11:00 am Grace Church 215 Pleasant Street, Sheldon, VT Website: www.gracechurchsheldon.comTime:  09:30 AM Eastern Time (US and Canada)        Every week on Sun.Join Zoom Meetinghttps://us02web.zoom.us/j/83929911344?pwd=alZQTWZMN0ZkWFFPS1hmNjNkZkU2UT09Meeting ID: 839 2991 1344Password: Call for detailsOne tap mobile+13126266799,,83929911344#,,1#,816603# US (Chicago)+19294362866,,83929911344#,,1#,816603# US (New York)Dial by your location        +1 312 626 6799 US (Chicago)        +1 929 436 2866 US (New York)Meeting ID:…
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Christmas 1 December 30, 2018

Posted on December 30, 2018 by Beth Crane

Isaiah 61:10-62:3
Psalm 147 or 147:13-21
Galatians 3:23-25; 4:4-7
John 1:1-18

Our First reading, from Isaiah, dates to one of the most joyful times in the history of God’s people. After almost fifty years of exile, the people are returning home to rebuild the temple and rebuild their homes and their lives.

This passage is full of images of growth and life. Isaiah writes, “As the earth brings forth its shoots, and as a garden causes what is sown in it to spring up, so the Lord God will cause righteousness and praise to spring up before all the nations. The word “righteousness” means right relationship with God. This is a beautiful and powerful statement that, just as the earth brings forth good fruit, God is going to give the people grace to have right relationships with God and with each other. This is God’s will for us as well.

Our reading from Galatians traces our spiritual history. For a long time, humans beings were imprisoned under the law. We had the ten commandments to guide us, but we were not able to follow them, and we felt separated from God. Because we could not follow the law, we felt we were drifting farther and farther from God.

Now God has sent his beloved Son, Jesus. Jesus has let us know how much God loves us, and we can now relate to God in the most intimate way. We can call God “Abba,” which is a very familiar and endearing term. This means that we can now call God Dad or Daddy or Mom or Mama. We have been adopted as God’s own beloved children.

Our reading from John’s gospel brings all of this together. John’s gospel begins with the powerful statement, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” The Word is Jesus, the logos, the plan, the pattern for life, the blueprint for human existence. The Word brought forth the whole creation.

And then, the powerful Word who has created the universe comes among us, is born just the same way we were born. Some of his own people do not recognize who he is, but those who do realize who he is, those who open their hearts and lives to him, receive grace upon grace. We are among those blessed and fortunate people.

Later on in John’s Gospel Jesus tells us, “The Father and I are one.” (John 10:30.) This means that God loves us so much that God Godself has come among us as a baby. God loves us so much that God adopts us as God’s own children in the closest possible relationship.

John writes, “The Word became flesh and lived among us….From his fullness we have received grace upon grace.” God has come to be with us. God is enfleshed; God is incarnate. What an extraordinary gift!

One other theme that runs through our readings today is light. John writes, “What has come into being in [Jesus] was life, and the life was the light of all people The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.” At the darkest time of year, God has come among us. God’s light and love and hope have come to be with us. This is another profound and wonderful gift.

The First Letter of John tells us, “God is love.” God has come to be with us to share God’s love, grace, and truth. In his Christmas message, Bishop Tom says that we can also be a gift to others. We are the gift because we can share God’s love with others. Amen.

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Christmas Eve 2018

Posted on December 24, 2018 by Beth Crane

Isaiah 9:2-7
Psalm 96
Titus 2:11-14
Luke 2:1-14

“The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light…” “The grace of God has appeared.” On this day, in the darkest time of year, the light is coming into the world.

The Roman Empire has decided to do a census, and Mary and Joseph travel to Bethlehem, not an easy thing for a young woman who is about to have her first child. But Mary and Joseph are people of profound faith, wisdom, endurance, and courage.

The baby is born in a cave used as a stable. There is no room at the inn. The first people to hear the good news are shepherds out in the fields protecting their flocks, not kings and emperors. The shepherds are the first to go and worship this new king.

We have heard this story many times, and yet it always brings new light and hope into our lives. Our King has come among us as one of us, as a vulnerable baby. He comes into the world just as we did. The angels proclaim this birth to ordinary people, people like us. The shepherds are living their lives, doing their work, and suddenly the sky is filled with light and the angels are telling them something that will change their lives.

At this darkest time of year, the light of Christ comes into our lives. We approach this baby once again, knowing that he is our Savior, and that he will walk the human journey with us, that he will understand our struggles, that he will know our frailties and still love us, that he will give us courage and grace.

As the hymn says, “Love came down at Christmas.” Thank you, Jesus, for your wondrous gift of yourself.  Amen.

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Advent 4 December 23, 2018

Posted on December 23, 2018 by Beth Crane

Micah 5:2-5a
Canticle 15 The Song of Mary p. 91
Hebrews 10:5-10
Luke 1:39-45 (46-55)

All through Advent, our readings from the Hebrew scriptures have proclaimed hope in the face of daunting, even devastating circumstances. The author of this morning’s first reading is Micah, a contemporary of Isaiah, whose ministry took place between 740 and 701 B.C.E. This was during the time that the Assyrians conquered neighboring areas and finally captured Jerusalem in 701 B.C.E.

It is possible that our reading is addressing that horrible defeat by King Sennacherib of Assyria, but many scholars think this portion of Micah’s book was actually added later, at the time of the Babylonian Exile.

At a time of crushing defeat and suffering, God is going to raise up a liberating king, not from Jerusalem, the center of everything for God’s people, but from little Bethlehem, the city of David. That king, according to Micah or a later editor, “shall stand and feed his flock in the strength of the Lord.” For us, that king is Jesus.

Just before our gospel reading for today, we read about the Annunciation. The angel Gabriel tells Mary that she will give birth to the Savior. Gabriel also tells Mary that her cousin, Elizabeth, is now pregnant. In announcing the births of both Jesus and John the Baptist, the angel Gabriel says, “With God, nothing is impossible.”

Directly after her encounter with Gabriel, Mary does a very wise thing. She goes to visit her cousin Elizabeth. Mary has the wisdom to know that she and Elizabeth are having unique experiences that are going to be challenging. Elizabeth is having a baby when she is far past the usual childbearing years. Mary is having a baby when she is engaged, but not yet married. In both cases, tongues are sure to wag.

Scholars point out that Luke usually takes great care to tell us exactly when and where things happen, but in this case, the village is not named. Mary enters the house,  greets Elizabeth, and little John the Baptist leaps in the womb of Elizabeth. Elizabeth bursts into a song of praise that will later become the beginning of the Hail, Mary. She then addresses her cousin as “the mother of my Lord.” Both Elizabeth and her son recognize that they are meeting their Savior. Even in the womb John the Baptist recognizes and honors Jesus.

Then Mary sings her song of praise, the Magnificat, which is a poetic and prophetic blueprint of God’s Shalom. God scatters the proud in the imaginations of their hearts. God brings down the powerful and lifts up the lowly. Valleys are exalted, and hills are made low. God feeds the hungry. The reign of God turns things upside down.

God is doing a new thing, and these two women from little out of the way places are the ones God has chosen to give birth to this new order. They are already cousins, members of a large extended family, and they are going to become sisters in faith. We all need support when we are responding to God’s call. We all need friends and sisters and brothers in the faith when God calls us to do a new thing, to walk a path that no one has ever walked before. Mary and Elizabeth were able to offer each other that support.

“With God, nothing is impossible,” says the angel Gabriel. In many ways, we are quite similar to God’s people under attack from either the Assyrians of the Babylonians. There is growing evidence of an attack by Russia designed to fragment our country and turn us against each other. Climate change is a huge threat to our planet. Violence is everywhere. And on and on it goes. And yet…

We pray today that our Lord Jesus Christ “may, at his coming, find in us a mansion prepared for himself.” “With God nothing is impossible.” May we make room for God. May we be a people of hope. May we help to build God’s shalom.  Amen.

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Advent 3C RCL December 16, 2018

Posted on December 16, 2018 by Beth Crane

Zephaniah 3:14-20
Canticle 9, p. 86
Philippians 4:4-7
Luke 3:7-18

This is the third Sunday in Advent, called Rejoice Sunday from the Latin Gaudete, meaning “rejoice” because of the call to rejoice in our epistle for today. We light the third candle on the Advent wreath, the rose colored candle, which symbolizes joy.

Our opening reading is from the prophet Zephaniah. Zephaniah’s ministry took place in Judah during the time of King Josiah (640-609 B.C.E.) The first two books of Zephaniah’s book are full of doom and gloom. This was a dark time when Judah was under oppression by the Assyrians.

Scholars tell us that our reading for today, the last part of Zephaniah’s book, was added by other writers long after Zephaniah’s ministry, probably during the time of the Exile, or during the period when the exiles were returning home.

So, if we were to read the entire book, we would have two chapters of suffering and hopelessness and disaster, and then we would read this passage, which is full of deep joy and proclaims that God is in our midst. The passage tells us that God gives victory, that God deals with oppressors, saves the lame and the outcast, changes our shame into praise, and brings us home. It is fascinating to me that a scholar from the time of the Exile added this section to Zephaniah’s book, as if to say, “Don’t give up.  We speak to you from one of the darkest times in our history as God’s people. And we tell you that, with God, there is always hope.” As we know, the exiles returned home, rebuilt the temple, the city of Jerusalem, and their lives. Without this passage, Zephaniah’s book would be dark indeed.

Our canticle from Isaiah repeats this theme of hope and joy. “Surely it is God who saves me; I will trust in God and not be afraid.”

In his letter to the Philippians, Paul is writing from prison. And what does he say? “Rejoice in the Lord always; again, I will say. Rejoice!” He is in prison and he is saying this to them and to us. What quality is he emphasizing? Gentleness. “Let your gentleness be known to everyone,” Paul writes. What an idea. Imagine a headline: “The Church in Philippi is known for its gentleness.” Or “Grace Church is marked by a spirit of gentleness.” Which is true, by the way.  What a great headline.

Then Paul says the thing which made our liturgical scholars choose this reading for the third Sunday in Advent: “The Lord is near.” This can have several meanings. One is that Jesus is as near as our breath. The risen Lord is with us now, among us, leading us.  

Another meaning is that our Lord is near in the sense that he will come to complete the creation. He is building his shalom and we are a part of that process. A third meaning is that, when he came to be with us, he came as one of us. He is like us, He understands us. He is fully human as well as fully divine. He knows what it is to be human, with all our struggles, and he is with us in our dilemmas and challenges.

The Paul says something that may make us burst out in laughter: “Do not worry about anything,” he says. And he is writing from prison! We spend a lot of time worrying. And Paul is asking us to take that time and pray, with thanksgiving. To let our needs be known to God with thanksgiving. We all know that a spirit of thanksgiving, the attitude of gratitude, can cause a big shift in our outlook. If we do all this, “the peace of God, which passes all understanding, will guard our hearts and our minds in Christ Jesus.” Thanking God, trusting God to give us what we need, does bring that peace which is beyond our understanding.

And then, in our gospel, we meet John the Baptist. Crowds are coming out from the city into the wilderness to meet him. He is calling them to grow closer to God, and they ask, “What shall we do?” And he answers, “Whoever has two coats must share with anyone who has none.” God calls us to share some of what we have with those who have less than we do.

Tax collectors came, and he said, “Collect no more than what is prescribed,” Tax collectors would add a bonus for themselves. That was wrong. Soldiers came to John and he told them not to extort money from people. They were misusing their power to get money from  people. They should be satisfied with their wages. Through John, God is calling the people to live lives of compassion and justice. And that is what God is calling us to do today.

What are these readings saying to us? Our first reading, from Zephaniah, is calling us to be a people of hope, even in times of darkness and challenge. Our reading from Paul is a resounding call to rejoice, to give thanks, to turn our worries into prayers, and to abide in the peace of God. Our gospel calls us to repent, to turn fully toward God, to get back on track, make a course correction, get rooted and grounded in God, and be people of generosity, justice, and compassion.

John says, “Bear fruits worthy of repentance,” and once again, we think of Paul’s list of the fruit of the Spirit (Gal. 5:22): love joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness. and self-control.

Once again, in this season of Advent, we are in a time of self-examination and discernment. We are letting go of things that are not life-giving. We are turning toward the light and love of Christ. We are getting things in order, updating our wills, doing advanced directives, getting rid of clutter whether it be spiritual or physical, lightening our load so that we can be ready when he appears. We are choosing to grow closer and closer to God, Jesus, and the Spirit.

“The Lord is near.” We are on our way to Bethlehem. We are on our way to meet him. Let us make room for him in the inn of our hearts. Amen.

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Advent 1C RCL December 2, 2018

Posted on December 2, 2018 by Beth Crane

Jeremiah 33:14-16
Psalm 25:1-9
1 Thessalonians 3:9-13
Luke 21:25-36

Advent is a time when we look back to the first coming of our Lord as a baby and look ahead to his coming again to complete his work of creation. Advent is also the new year’s season of the Church. We move from lectionary year B to year C, and our liturgical color changes from the green of the post-Pentecost season to the purple which befits both penitence and the welcoming of our King.

As we look around our world, we have been seeing all kinds of destructive weather events—forest fires consuming people’s homes and destroying their lives, severe storms, continuing mass shootings, war, famine, refugees seeking asylum, and on and on the list of tragedies goes.

Our very brief reading from the prophet Jeremiah comes from a tragic time as well. Jeremiah is writing from prison. He is under house arrest because he has displeased King Hezekiah. He has been telling the king truths that the king does not want to hear. The Babylonians have leveled Jerusalem. Earlier in the chapter, Jeremiah describes corpses being piled up in houses. It is a terrible time, a time in which it would be easy to lose all hope.

And yet, Jeremiah reminds his people and us of God’s great promise to all of us. A righteous branch will spring up. From an old stump, a new shoot will appear. The kingship of David will be restored. People will live in peace; they will raise crops; business will be carried out with honesty and integrity; people will marry and have children.  The Lord will “execute justice and righteousness in the land.”

As Christians, we see that shoot from the stump of Jesse as our Lord Jesus Christ. In times of darkness and turmoil, we look for his return and the establishment of his shalom of justice, love, and peace.

Our epistle today is from Paul’s First Letter to the Thessalonians. Scholars tell us that this is probably the earliest writing in the New Testament. Paul had founded this community of faith and then had been called to a new mission. But he had always wanted to go back to visit these people, whom he loved very much. He sent Timothy to see how they were doing, and Timothy returned to Paul with a glowing account of this loving community which continued to show forth the compassion of Christ even under persecution.

Paul writes, “How can we thank God enough for you in return for all the joy that we feel before our God because of you?” Paul prays again that God may make it possible for him to visit this beloved community. And then he prays, “May the Lord make you increase and abound in love for one another and for all, just as we abound in love for you. And may he strengthen your hearts in holiness….” That is St. Paul’s prayer for us as well. Love is at the heart of our faith. Paul is praying that we may continue in love for each other and for all people and that God may strengthen our hearts in holiness that we may remain steadfast in our faith. And a key part of our faith is that our Lord will return to set all things right.

Our gospel for today is full of apocalyptic images, “signs among the sun, the moon, and the stars,” “distress among the nations confused by the roaring of the sea and the waves,” “fear and foreboding.” Every age has its turmoil, and our Lord counsels us not to run to the hills, but to be ready for his coming.

He says, “Stand up, and raise your heads. because your redemption is drawing near.” He tells us to be careful that we are not “weighed down with dissipation and drunkenness and the worries of this life.”

Jesus calls us to “be alert at all times.”

Herbert O’Driscoll writes, “The great significance of this passage for us lies in the attitude that our Lord calls for. Our Lord is saying something like this—If we truly believe that God is at the heart of human events, then we can experience life with confidence, knowing that all events have ultimate meaning and purpose within the mind and will of God.” (O’Driscoll, The Word Among Us, Year C vol. 1, p. 15.

Confidence comes from the roots con, meaning “with,” and fides, meaning “faith.” The true meaning of confidence is to live with faith, to have our lives rooted and grounded in faith.

What are these readings saying to us, here in the year 2018?

First, in the midst of one of the most devastating tragedies in history, the Babylonian Captivity, Jeremiah, one of God’s greatest and most courageous prophets, reaches into the heart of God’s life with God’s people and reminds us that God’s promise is always to bring wholeness out of brokenness, life out of death, meaning and purpose out of chaos and confusion. As God’s people, we are called to focus on the light of that hope and to move forward in faith.

Secondly, we learn from St. Paul and the Thessalonians that love is at the center of everything. Grace is a small congregation, but, like the church at Thessalonica, Grace is a congregation where folks love each other and share God’s love with all people. It is easy to take that for granted or to diminish the value of that, but the power of love is beyond our imagining or understanding. Love is a gift from God. a gift to be cherished.

Finally, our Lord is talking to us about the time when he will come to make the creation whole. He calls us to be ready. He also tells us not to try to figure out when that moment will come, but simply to be ready all the time.

When he does come to bring in his shalom, we do not need to be afraid. Yes, he is our King. The King of Kings and Lord of Lords. Yes, he is mighty. And he is also the One who has said that his kingdom is within us. He is also our Good Shepherd, who knows each of us, weaknesses and strengths, gifts and flaws, and he calls us each by name, and we follow him. Into his kingdom.  Amen.

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