The Work of the Holy Spirit (John 16:4-15)

“Come O Spirit comfort true, 
Help us by Your pleading. 
Come and every heart renew 
Breath of God proceeding 
You alone to God can win us 
Spirit now work good within us

Come our conscience to relieve 
From the sin remembered.
Come our Savior’s blood to plead,
Naked we surrender.
Sin hath left a wound revealing,
Spirit help us with Your healing
All our riches all our crowns

Cast we now before Thee
Scales removeth chains unbounded
Boldly we implore Thee
As You knit us once together
Fasten us to You forever.”

—Isaac Wardell

The Work of the Holy Spirit (John 16:4-15)
Rev. Bradley Barnes

Living Within Bethlehem (Genesis 35:16-29)

“What kings and leaders of nations, philosophers and artists, founders of religions and teachers of morals have tried in vain to do—that now happens through a newborn child. Putting to shame the most powerful human efforts and accomplishments, a child is placed here at the midpoint of world history—a child born of human beings, a son given by God (Isa. 9:6). That is the mystery of the redemption of the world; everything past and everything future is encompassed here. The infinite mercy of the almighty God comes to us, descends to us in the form of a child, his Son. That this child is born for us, this son is given to us, that this human child and Son of God belongs to me, that I know him, have him, love him, that I am his and he is mine—on this alone my life now depends. A child has our life in his hands….”

—Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Living Within Bethlehem (Genesis 35:16-29)
Rev. Bradley Barnes

Jacob's Return and Renaming (Genesis 35:1-15)

“Everybody worships. The only choice we get is what to worship. And the compelling reason for maybe choosing some sort of god or spiritual-type thing to worship… is that pretty much anything else you worship will eat you alive.”

—David Foster Wallace, “This is Water”

Jacob's Return and Renaming (Genesis 35:1-15)
Rev. Nathan Barczi

An Outrageous Act (Genesis 34)

“And that is the wonder of all wonders, that God loves the lowly…. God is not ashamed of the lowliness of human beings. God marches right in. He chooses people as his instruments and performs his wonders where one would least expect them. God is near to lowliness; he loves the lost, the neglected, the unseemly, the excluded, the weak and broken.”

—Dietrich Bonhoeffer

An Outrageous Act (Genesis 34)
Rev. Bradley Barnes

Face to Face (Genesis 33)

“We have become so accustomed to the idea of divine love and of God’s coming at Christmas that we no longer feel the shiver of fear that God’s coming should arouse in us. We are indifferent to the message, taking only the pleasant and agreeable out of it and forgetting the serious aspect, that the God of the world draws near to the people of our little earth and lays claim to us.”

—Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Face to Face (Genesis 33)
Rev. Nathan Barczi

Jacob's Turning Point (Genesis 32)

“St. Thomas, for instance, says: ‘That God wishes to give to someone... grace and glory proceeds from his sheer generosity.’ … [T]o someone, to some person at whom we can point. To someone, to you, to me, this very day.”

—Henri de Lubac

“True faith is not only a certain knowledge, whereby I hold for truth all that God has revealed to us in his word, but also an assured confidence... that not only to others, but to me also, remission of sin, everlasting righteousness and salvation, are freely given by God, merely of grace, only for the sake of Christ's merits.”

— Heidelberg Catechism, Question 21

“Read the words ‘me’ and ‘for me’ with great emphasis. Print this ‘me with capital letters in your heart, and do not ever doubt that you belong to the number of those who are meant by this ‘me.’ Christ did not only love Peter and Paul. The same love He felt for them He feels for us. If we cannot deny that we are sinners, we cannot deny that Christ died for our sins.”

—Martin Luther

Jacob's Turning Point (Genesis 32)
Rev. Nathan Barczi