The Innkeepers Tale- My 2012 Christmas Eve Message

Tonight I would like to tell you a story. It is a story of a man that we don’t know much about, but one who is very familiar to us. He is the inn keeper of Bethlehem. We know him as the man shouting, ‘there is no room in the inn. But tonight I think we ought to try to get to know him a little better. So let’s get to know Larry the innkeeper.

Sermon Illustration- Plane over a fire

Assumptions can be quite dangerous. For example, the photographer for a national magazine was assigned to get photos of a great forest fire. Smoke at the scene hampered him and he asked his home office to hire a plane. Arrangements were made and he was told to go at once to a nearby airport, where the plane would be waiting. When he arrived at the airport, a plane was warming up near the runway. He jumped in with his equipment and yelled, "Let’s go! Let’s go!" The pilot swung the plane into the wind and they soon were in the air. "Fly over the north side of the fire," yelled the photographer, "and make three or four low level passes." "Why?" asked the pilot. "Because I’m going to take pictures," cried the photographer. "I’m a photographer and photographers take pictures!" After a pause the pilot said, "You mean you’re not the instructor?"

The Moral Landscape

A few nights ago as I was driving home I listened to a discussion on Sam Harris' newest book, ' The Moral Landscape' on CBC radio one. This book came out in October 2010 so we have just hit the second anniversary of its publication which is probably why the CBC was running the interview again. The book is getting old and it got a lot of criticism by Christian and Non-Christian alike but since I am sure I wasn't the only person who caught the interview and the recent reply of the TED talk I thought I would write down the thoughts I had as I was listening.