Sermons
Do the impossible?
Are we called to do the impossible? I have said more than once, God doesn’t ask us to do what we canNOT do. We are never asked to fly without assistance, we aren’t asked to walk on water or turn water into wine. We are frequently asked to do things that are very difficult for us but impossible? If I am so convinced we aren’t asked to do the impossible…
Better to light a candle than curse the darkness
The title of this post is a quotation that could be from William L. Watkinson* and regardless of who it came from, the sentiment is a useful one. This week, instead of just talking about anyone becoming a “fisher of people” whatever that might mean, I felt led to talk about light. The word “light” appears in a couple of our readings this week** and as a metaphor, it is…
Talking about grace
Grace, as I am sure I have mentioned before, is one of my favourite words and also one of my favourite things. It is one of the few theologically significant words in common use which has yet to be significantly debased. Grace, graceful, and gracious still retain their positive connotations in our culture. This Sunday’s epistle lesson, 1 Corinthians 1:1-9, got me thinking about grace and what it might mean…
Let’s talk about baptism
Baptism is one of those things that happens at church that doesn’t always get a lot of thought. Considering how important many people think getting baptized is, this is a bit odd. In my experience, most of the discussion around baptism is about the “how” rather than the “why” of baptism. The two main “hows” of baptism are immersion of adults or at least believers by some definition and sprinkling…
History. What is it good for?
No matter what some students might think, history was not invented to make middle and high school students crazy. It was George Santayana who said, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” This is sometimes rendered as “Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it.” No matter how you phrase it, this aphorism, if true suggests the study of history is a…
Why aren’t you here?
For those of you who faithfully listen every week and are wondering what is going on, I have an explanation. The elders graciously granted me this Sunday, December 25, 2022. Christmas Day, off as a) many people in both congregations would be gone; and, b) it is very important to them that my family does not suffer unduly due to my being away every Sunday. I am extremely grateful for…
The Fourth Sunday of Advent
If it seems fitting to begin Advent with Hope, it seems equally fitting to finish Advent with Love. This is the Sunday of Love. One of the things I can forget about, if I’m not careful, is that while God acts in loving ways, we don’t have a God who is occasionally loving, we have a God who is Love. This Sunday I was trying to think about some of…
The Second Sunday of Advent
The Second Sunday of Advent is the Sunday of Peace. It seems almost in poor taste to talk about peace these days. We have another shooting war in Europe, the usual hot spots in the rest of the world are continuing to try to solve things by killing, political partisanship and populism seem to be taking over civil discourse, and we are all well aware of disputes in our various…
The First Sunday of Advent
The First Sunday of Advent is the Sunday of hope. Hope is one of those things we sometimes forget about but is vital to our well-being. The sermon asks the question is there always hope? The answer is a resounding Yes! But it may not be exactly what we are looking at. Our texts direct us forward, even past our current reality and context. We are reminded that God is…
This year’s last Sunday?
Yes it is this Liturgical year’s last Sunday. Next Sunday we begin again with the First Sunday of Advent. The last Sunday of the church year is called either the Reign of Christ Sunday or Christ the King Sunday and it provides us an opportunity to consider what it might mean for Jesus to be king. King of what? King of who? What does this king do? Canadians have a…