Sermons

 Today was Heritage Sunday in the Presbyterian Church in Canada. I don’t always “do” anything with Sundays outside of the Liturgical year but this one had an interesting tie-in with the Gospel lesson for today. I don’t know if anyone else sees it, but I saw a connection between the Law that Jesus addresses in ...

 Of all the strange things the internet has thrown up one of the strangest to me is the “influencer.” As far as I understand it, this is a person who gets paid to take pictures and videos of themselves using a product and then posting those pictures and videos on social media. There are lots ...

The Beatitudes are some of the best known parts of the Bible. They are found in the Sermon on the Mount which, according to John Stott, “is probably the best-known part of the teaching of Jesus, though arguably it is the least understood, and certainly it is the least obeyed.” I’ll just leave this here ...

I’m back. I was graciously allowed to take a couple of weeks out of the pulpit to rest and recharge after a tremendously busy Advent season. I realize Advent and Christmas are busy for most people but we have worked pretty hard to “de-busy” this time of year so when it struck me I’d been ...

Last Sunday I was honoured to officiate at the funeral of Sean Kergan. With the permission of the family I am posting the message (homily, meditation, whatever it is properly called) I gave. If you have lost someone you love or were close to—family, friend, co-worker—I hope this may prove a comfort to you.   Message at the ...

The first Sunday of a new calendar year so it would make sense to preach about New Year’s, or resolutions or beginnings but instead, the Lectionary led me to preach about Jesus. It is very easy for us to reduce Jesus to a simple binary with “human” on the one side and “God” on the other ...

 This is the last Sunday before the New Year and it seems a good time to take a look back . . . but why? What do we hope to accomplish by looking backwards? Aren’t we supposed to be living in the moment? How does looking backward work with mindfulness? First and foremost, let’s not fall ...

Today is the Fourth Sunday of Advent, the last Sunday before Christmas. The last candle lit is the Love candle. I have only one question, why are the Lectionary selections for this Sunday: Psalm 80:1-7, 17-19; Isaiah 7:10-16; Romans 1:1-7; Matthew 1:18-25? Look them up and see where all the “love” is in them. Go ...

The third Sunday of Advent is the Sunday of Joy. Joy is a very tricky thing when you actually think about it, especially when you compare it with happiness. There are a number of ways to think about the two but the best comparison I’ve come up with so far is: happiness is a result of ...

One of the things that characterizes most religions, and Christianity no less than any other, is a promise of peace. Peace of all sorts. Sometimes it is universal, global peace. Sometimes it is peace with yourself. Sometimes it is peace with the environment. But what does it actually mean? At its most essential, peace is an ...