Sermons
Choosing matters
It is the pattern of St. Mark’s to observe Remembrance Day as Remembrance Sunday the last Sunday before November 11. This year I was struck by the aspect of “choice” in service. I am fully aware that in both World War One and World War Two many countries, including Canada, at some point introduced mandatory service. However, the draft did not remove choice. It was possible to be registered as…
What makes a saint?
What makes a saint? I suppose the first thing to do is define what a “saint” is. At least one dictionary define saint as: a person that the Christian Church recognizes as being very holy, because of the way they have lived or died. (https://www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/definition/english/saint accessed November 1, 2026) So is this what we are talking about today? In a word, no. If we continue to pore over dictionaries we…
Is that all?
So today is Reformation Sunday. Do we really need a Reformation Sunday? A special day to talk about a religio-political movement from the 1500s? In a word, yes. We need a Reformation Sunday because it gives us the opportunity to take a look at our (collective) past and reflect on what it means to us today. That begs the question, Does it mean anything to us today? Once again, the…
Whose is what?
This Sunday we looked at one of the more difficult passages in the Gospels. What makes it especially interesting is that it isn’t usually put in the list of difficult passages. Then the Pharisees went and plotted to entrap him in what he said. So they sent their disciples to him, along with the Herodians, saying, “Teacher, we know that you are sincere, and teach the way of God in…
Thankfulness
Today is Thanksgiving Sunday, at least in Canada, so it probably won’t come as much of a surprise to hear I preach on thankfulness. I will admit when I chose the sermon title, “Thankfulness” I was rather bereft of actual ideas about what I might say. But, the Spirit came through for all of us as she so often does. The sermon revolves around thankfulness, generosity, and the non-transactional nature…
Back to commandments
The Lectionary has us back to commandments, and not just any commandments but the Ten Commandments! The big set. We had them read to us from Exodus and I was reminded again that most of them are pretty easy to keep . . . as long as we stick with the letter of the law, e.g., ignore what Jesus has to say about say, murder. Then we read St. Paul…
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…