Sermons
Which one am I?
Today is the day The Presbyterian Church in Canada’s marks the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation. It is on September 27 because this is the Sunday closest to September 30. The service began with a reading and a prayer, which I have uploaded below. “National Day for Truth and Reconciliation” St. Mark’s Presbyterian (to download, right-click and select “Save Link As . . .”) For more information, please see…
How does that work?
Do you ever wonder how things work? I know I do. From the mysteries of a carburetor to how do humans actually learn how to talk; I have an endless list of questions. Sometimes questions are triggered by what I read in the Bible. Our texts for this Sunday include parts of Jonah and Matthew. Both texts deal with fairness, justice, and grace. Jonah’s story is one that hits me…
It isn’t about math
Math is a funny thing. It seems to me, our culture privileges things that can be numerically quantified. For example, no matter the issue you will undoubtedly be able to find an article that has some “X out of Y” or “Z%” in the headline. The way to remain unaffected by these numbers is to look for sources. If “Three out of four people prefer our product” is based on…
So. How many commandments are there really?
There are a lot of different definitions of the word “commandment.” No matter which definition you use, there are a lot of commandments in the Bible. This leads to the question by at least some people, how many are there? This isn’t a bad question, even if it is hard to answer, it is more that it is the wrong question. Commandments are about what we should do, so perhaps…
First we listen, then what?
This Sunday the Lectionary has us looking at one of most well-known Old Testament stories, at least well-known in churchy circles, namely, Moses and the burning bush. The New Testament has us in Romans and Matthew. At first I didn’t know what to do with the passages. This past week has been difficult if you value the musical and/or cinematic work of Peter Cullen (look him up), Tim Curry, and…
How many women did it take to raise a deliverer?
I like sermon titles that are questions. If you have been following along with me for any length of time this is not a surprise to you. The questions don’t have to be provocative but if they are . . . I’m fine with that. So what about today’s question? It contains another, unasked, question, to wit, which deliverer? The deliverer in question is Moses and the number of women…
Who said what?
There is a Gospel story that I have always found a bit problematic. Our Gospel lesson for this Sunday is Matthew 15:21-28, often referred to as the story of the Canaanite woman. If the details have slipped your mind, a Canaanite woman asks Jesus to free her daughter from the torments of a demon. Jesus does not respond. She asks again and Jesus tells her he was sent to the…
Are we struggling alone? Are you?
It seems to live is to struggle. I’m not convinced that life is “nasty, brutish, and short.” I have been trying hard not to think or speak for other people but I think struggle is a constant for all of us. So if struggle is a common thing then why is it so hard to convince ourselves we are not struggling alone. I was drawn to the alternate Old Testament…
Wrestling and food
The past month was a good one for me. I am one of those people who can find it difficult to take time off, at least from preaching in my case. The rest was deeply appreciated and I am immensely grateful to the good people of St. Mark’s for “making” me take time off 😄 The Lectionary texts for this Sunday posed a bit of a problem for me. As…
Hospitality . . . again
PLEASE NOTE: St. Mark’s will not be having services in the month of July this year so the next sermon will be the first Sunday of August. It might seem strange for me to talk about hospitality again, after all, it was only a couple of weeks ago we talked about it. The thing is, the more I sat with these texts, the more I realized hospitality is a sufficiently…