The Road to Iceland

Micah:  But you, O Bethlehem of Ephrathah, who are one of the little clans of Judah, from you shall come forth for me   one who is to rule in Israel whose origin is from of old,   from ancient days.   Therefore he shall give them up until the time   when she who is in labor has brought forth;  then the rest of his kindred shall return   to the people of Israel.   And he shall stand and feed his flock in the strength of God,   in the majesty of the name of God. And they shall live secure, for now he shall be great to the ends of the earth;   and he shall be the one of peace. If the Assyrians come into our land   and tread upon our soil, we will raise against them seven shepherds and eight installed as rulers. Matthew: This is how the birth of Jesus the Messiah came about: His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be pregnant through the Holy Spirit. Because Joseph he...

Isaiah 11:1-10 A shoot shall come out from the stump of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of his roots. The spirit of God shall rest on him,   the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might,   the spirit of knowledge and the awe of God.   His delight shall be in awe of God. He shall not judge by what his eyes see, or decide by what his ears hear; but with righteousness he shall judge the poor, and decide with equity for the meek of the earth; he shall strike the earth with the rod of his mouth,   and with the breath of his lips he shall kill the wicked.   Righteousness shall be the belt around his waist,   and faithfulness the belt around his loins. The wolf shall live with the lamb, the leopard shall lie down with the young goat, the calf and the lion and the fatling together,   and a little child shall lead them. The cow and the bear shall graze, their young shall lie down together; and the lion shall eat straw like...

Bombers fly overhead, in the Blitz of London during WWII. A boy opens curtains to see outside, and the bombs rain down. A family runs for a bomb shelter, and the boy runs back to save a picture – of his father. He risks everything and everyone, for that. So begins a journey of four children – sent far out of London into the country, to the home of a professor -   there are no other children around, just a housekeeper. Peter, Susan, Edmund and Lucy Pevensie are separated from their mother, for safety. And we see a rainy dreary day, in a strange old house with plenty of odd nooks and crannies. A day for playing “hide and seek” indoors – a day for going through unknown doors and finding different worlds. Doors which open into empty rooms, spare rooms, empty closets – and for sliding into a wardrobe full of fur coats. Lucy Pevensie enters the wardrobe, pushing backwards through the coats and expecting to find a back to the wardrobe, but instead there are more and mor...

When they came to the place called “The Skull”, they crucified Jesus there, along with the criminals - one on his right, the other on his left. Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.” And the soldiers divided up his clothes by casting lots. The people stood watching, and the rulers even sneered at him. They said, “He saved others; let him save himself if he is God’s Messiah, the Chosen One.” The soldiers also came up and mocked him. They offered him wine vinegar and said, “If you are the King of the Jews, save yourself.” There was a written notice above him, which read: THIS IS THE KING OF THE JEWS. One of the criminals who hung there hurled insults at him: “Aren’t you the Messiah? Save yourself and us!” But the other criminal rebuked him. “Don’t you fear God,” he said, “since you are under the same sentence? We are punished justly, for we are getting what we deserve for the deeds we committed. But this man has done nothing wrong.” Then he...