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What is Baptism?

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This coming Sunday is The Baptism of the Lord on our church calendar. As I start my preparation I have come across a sermon I originally preached at Horne Memorial in Clayton, North Carolina. If I were to use it again I would certainly go through it making some changes. But here it is, in the form I preached it in 2006. What is Baptism? Alan Swartz, Horne Memorial UMC, January 7-8, 2006 Horne Memorial UMC is a church that is made up of people from many backgrounds. We have people who grew up Methodist, Baptist, Lutheran, Presbyterian, Roman Catholic, Episcopalian, Pentecostal, and some who grew up without any religious background whatsoever. There is considerable agreement between these different denominations in what they believe. But, there are then the differences. I feel it is important to lift up our unique teaching on some distinctive matters because these distinctive qualities often define the kind of people we believe ourselves to be and strive to be. For example, i...
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Grace Upon Grace

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 The scriptures this week invite us to move beyond a simple admiration of the Christmas story toward an active participation in the life of Christ , drawing from his endless and lavished fullness . This Christian journey is characterized by a three-fold movement of grace that replaces a life of scarcity with one of abundance. It begins with prevenient grace , which is the initiating work of God that seeks and “goes before” individuals even before they are aware of his presence. When one responds to this seeking, justifying grace saves them, providing not only forgiveness but the power to become a new creation. The process continues through sanctifying grace , the ongoing work of the Holy Spirit that shapes and conforms a believer’s character to the image of Christ over a lifetime. Ultimately, we are invited to cooperate with the Spirit and live fully into this grace that never runs dry as we enter a new year. Grace Upon Grace -  January 4, 2026, Ebenezer & Black Creek...
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Descent Into Darkness

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Here we are amid our celebration of the 12 days of Christmas, but not all is peaches and cream. Today’s texts present the dark side of the Incarnation. December 28, 2025 – EUMC & BCUMC – Christmas 1, Year A Today's Scriptures:  Hebrews 2:10-18; Matthew 2:13-23 1. Introduction: Lingering in the Glow On the first Sunday after Christmas, we find ourselves in a peculiar space between celebration and memory. The decorations are still up, the last of the cookies are being eaten, and the melodies of familiar carols still echo in our minds. We want to linger in that warm glow—the candlelight services, the children’s pageant with shepherds in bathrobes, the joy of “Silent Night,” and the comforting hum of the season. Many of us have deep-rooted memories of this time. Perhaps you recall a childhood ritual of venturing into the woods with your father to find and cut down the perfect tree. Today, the process may be simpler, but the act of setting up and decorating the tree r...
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A Christmas Feast

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This week we had a Service of Lessons and Carols , so I didn't have a sermon. So I decided to dig out an old sermon to share with you. This one was written in 2008 for Horne Memorial UMC in Clayton, NC. I spent time thinking about how Christmas is indeed a Feast Day, not just in a liturgical/theological sense, but also in a larger, secular context. In this country, the observance of some understanding of Christmas is universal, even if it is little more than a day off or a chance for people to share a meal together. The scale of the Christmas story (religious and secular) unfolds much like a Grand Opera. So I decided to prepare a sermon that marks Christmas in this manner. A Christmas Feast A Christmas sermon by Dr. Alan P. Swartz December 24, 2008 Horne Memorial UMC Preludio In the Christian tradition, this is one of the principal feast days of the church – the Nativity of the Lord – commonly called Christmas. What is Christmas like in your home? Families gathering to...
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Not What We Ordered: The Messiah We Didn’t Plan For

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  Not What We Ordered: The Messiah We Didn’t Plan For Sermon by Alan Swartz Third Sunday of Advent, December 14, 2025 Preached at Ebenezer UMC and Black Creek UMC Scripture References: Isaiah 35:1-10; Psalm 146:5-10; Luke 1:46b-55; James 5:7-10; Matthew 11:2-11 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Introduction: A Question from Prison Advent is a season of longing, of waiting, of anticipation and desire. But as it calls us to look forward, it is also a season of questions. Today, the gospel gives us one of the most honest and urgent questions in all of Scripture, posed by none other than John the Baptist. Here is the fiery prophet, the fearless preacher who prepared the way for the Lord, now sitting in a prison cell. He is in chains, in a place of darkness, just days away from being executed, and from there he sends a message to Jesus. “Are you the one who is to come, or are we to wait for another?” (Matthew 11:3) This ...
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The Root, the Shoot, and the Promise of Christ

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 The Root, the Shoot, and the Promise of Christ By Alan Swartz December 7, 2025, EUMC & BCUMC, Advent 2a  [Today's scripture texts:  Isaiah 11:1-10; Romans 15:4-13; Matthew 3:1-12 ] It seems that the prophet Isaiah, we hear so much from Isaiah during Advent and during Lent. Indeed, if you were to listen to a recording of Handel’s Messiah, the first part of it focuses on the season of Advent and Christmas and the second part on the seasons of Lent and Easter. And all throughout his great work, that great oratorio, he has music with the setting of the words of the prophet Isaiah. These are the words we are reading and hearing during the season of Advent. Today we hear about one of the most powerful images that Isaiah uses. Even Paul uses it in his reading today. That image is the stump of Jesse. Isaiah talks about the image of a tree stump. You go out into the woods and you see where a tree has fallen over or somebody has cut down a tree and there’s a stum...
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