Merge pull request #82 from zo0o0ot/master

Adds sermons 121-123

content/sermons/a-turned-around-christmas-1978-0122.md

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+---
+title: "A Turned-Around Christmas"
+date: 2023-12-15T04:08:48Z
+categories: ["sermons"]
+tags: ["1978", "1981", "advent", "christmas-eve", "handwritten"]
+rcl_year: "B"
+rcl_season: "Advent"
+sermon_date: 1978-12-24
+sermon_scan: true
+sermon_text: false
+sermon_audio: false
+thumbnail: "/images/sermons/0122/4Advent-12-24-1978-Large.jpg"
+sermon_number: "0122"
+---
+
+_This is a handwritten Advent sermon from 1978. It's written in blue ink on blue paper with yellow highlighting, as well as some writing in black ink and red pencil. Since this was preached on December 24th, it's technically a Christmas Eve sermon, and it includes some historical context of when and how Christmas started._
+
+<!--more-->
+
+_There's an additional date of 12/81 on the sermon, so there is a chance that this sermon was preached to both Ascension in Navarino as well as St. Stephen Lutheran Church in Wausau. My guess is that the black pen marks and red pencil are edits that were made in 1981. The Gospel text from Luke 1 would link this sermon to [the Fourth Sunday of Advent in Year B](https://lectionary.library.vanderbilt.edu/texts.php?id=51) of the Revised Common Lectionary._
+
+**A Turned-Around Christmas - 4 Advent B/Christmas Eve - 12/24/1978**
+
+{{< figure src="/images/sermons/0122/4Advent-12-24-1978-Large.jpg" width="1080" >}}

content/sermons/born-of-the-virgin-mary-1975-0121.md

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+---
+title: "Born of the Virgin Mary"
+date: 2023-12-15T03:40:37Z
+categories: ["sermons"]
+tags: ["1975", "advent", "annunciation", "handwritten"]
+rcl_year: "B"
+rcl_season: "Advent"
+sermon_date: 1975-12-21
+sermon_scan: true
+sermon_text: false
+sermon_audio: false
+thumbnail: "/images/sermons/0121/4Advent-12-21-1975-Large.jpg"
+sermon_number: "0121"
+---
+
+_Here is a handwritten Advent sermon from December of 1975. It's written on green paper with black ink with notes and markups in red pencil._
+
+<!--more-->
+
+_The Gospel text from Luke 1 would correlate this sermon to [the Fourth Sunday of Advent in Year B](https://lectionary.library.vanderbilt.edu/texts.php?id=51) of the Revised Common Lectionary._
+
+**Born of the Virgin Mary - 4 Advent B - 12/22/1975**
+
+{{< figure src="/images/sermons/0121/4Advent-12-21-1975-Large.jpg" width="1080" >}}

content/sermons/breaking-through-1984-0123.md

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+---
+title: "Breaking Through"
+date: 2023-12-15T04:45:21Z
+categories: ["sermons"]
+tags: ["1984", "advent", "polio", "dr-jonas-salk", "james-s-stewart"]
+rcl_year: "B"
+rcl_season: "Advent"
+sermon_date: 1984-12-23
+sermon_scan: true
+sermon_text: true
+sermon_audio: false
+thumbnail: "/images/sermons/0123/4Advent-12-23-1984-Large.jpg"
+sermon_number: "0123"
+---
+
+_Here is a typed Advent sermon from December of 1984. There appear to be some coffee stains on the page._
+
+<!--more-->
+
+_The Gospel text from Luke 1 would link this sermon to [the Fourth Sunday of Advent in Year B](https://lectionary.library.vanderbilt.edu/texts.php?id=51) of the Revised Common Lectionary. The sermon also mentions a book called [The Strong Name](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3340146-the-strong-name) by [James S. Stewart](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Stewart_%28minister%2C_born_1896%29), originally published in 1941. I was able to find a scanned copy of this book on the Internet Archive, so you can read it [here](https://archive.org/details/strongname0000jame/page/n5/mode/2up). I used OCR though Google Docs to obtain a transcription of this typed sermon._
+
+**Breaking Through - 4 Advent B - 12/23/1984**
+
+{{< figure src="/images/sermons/0123/4Advent-12-23-1984-Large.jpg" width="1080" >}}
+
+"BREAKING THROUGH"
+
+4 Advent(12/23/84) Luke 1:35 "The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; Therefore the child to be born will be called holy, the Son of God." May the Words of my mouth & the meditation of each heart be acceptable in your sight, O Lord our strength and our salvation. Amen.
+
+Dear friends in Christ, grace and Peace....
+
+
+
+From time to time this world experiences events so important, so life-changing, that we call these times "BREAKTHROUGHS". When leaders of the world meet together for days seeking to resolve a conflict, and that moment of agreement comes, we call that a breakthrough. In the world of medicine, when a cure for an illness is found, it is called a breakthrough. Perhaps it will date you to answer this question, but most of you will have one or two words right at the tip of your tongue when I ask: "What do you think of when you hear the name, Dr. Jonas Salk?" He of course is the one who broke through with a cure for polio, the 'Salk' vaccine. Only those who lived through the 1950's polio epidemic, who saw the crippling effects, who saw children die from this dread disease, know the real significance of a 'breakthrough' that eliminated the disease. I am a polio survivor--luckier than most. And I am thankful for Dr. Salk who 'broke through' and made it possible for us to live without fear of this disease. There is another disease for which we await a big breakthrough- -for cancer. Little breakthroughs have come, and they encourage us, but we still work and wait and hope and pray for the big breakthrough, and support research to help make it happen. Maybe some of us will live to see that day--and it will be a day to celebrate.
+
+On this eve of Christmas Eve I am here to announce another breakthrough, more important than any of those I've been talking about. It is the breakthrough promised by the angel to Mary and fulfilled that first Christmas night in Bethlehem. The breakthrough is not the virgin birth-although that's very much a part of the Christmas message. The breakthrough is not a biological miracle- -God had done those previously and is capable of those today. The breakthrough is not that God would perform a miracle--others were probably more spectacular- - the parting of the Red Sea, Jesus walking on the water. The breakthrough, the real breakthrough, is that in the person of Jesus, the spirit of God and the spirit of man are each and both fully united in this person. That's the breakthrough. That's the breakthrough. Paul speaks of it in Hebrews 1(1-3): "In the past God spoke to our forefathers through the prophets at many times and in various ways, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son...the Son is the radiance of God's glory and the exact representation of his being..." The angel gives the first announcement of the
+
+breakthrough of God into humanness--that this child will be not only fully human, but also fully divine.
+
+You see, God needed a breakthrough. Just as breakthroughs for us come in the midst of a great problem, so also for God, His breakthrough of the incarnation came to solve his big problem with us. For centuries he had sent to us prophets, people who were faithful to the message God gave them--and they tried everything. Even such bizarre things as marrying prostitutes and running naked through the streets to make their point (or God's point!) But the problem remained: "God had to reveal himself to us more fully, more concretely than through the prophets. He had to 'BREAK THROUGH' the barriers and bonds of sin and death once and for all, to open the kingdom of God to even the least of all humankind. And as we sometimes do when a breakthrough is imminent, God sent a messenger (not to the TV and press people, but) to Mary. This breakthrough couldn't go unnoticed. And at Bethlehem this breakthrough was announced with angel songs to the shepherds (least of men) and at the open tomb angels announced the breakthrough of the resurrection to women(least of people at that time). An author I like wrote about 50 years ago (James S. Stewart in The Strong Name): The message is this-that the living God, eternal, immortal, invisible, has at one quite definite point broken through into history in an unprecedented way. Once and for all, in an actual life lived out upon this earth, God has spoken, and has given the full and final revelation of himself. In Jesus God has come...
+that from the first God had been uniquely present in Jesus; that in that life and death, the unseen had become visible, the eternal had become historic, and God had become man." However we might quibble about details of what happened to Mary--one thing is clear: God has acted in the coming of Jesus to step into human history in Jesus Gods story and our story can never be separated. He has broken through.
+
+And now, in the coming days, let us walk with Mary toward Bethlehem -in wonder and in acceptance of the wonderful news that in this special birth God and man are united in a wonderful and saving way. And in the news of this birth may God break through to each one of us in a new way with that wonderful story of stable and manger and shepherds and angels. 
+
+And may the peace of God which passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus...Amen.