Sermons
Found? Found! And found again!
This past week has been one to remember, even if we might wish to forget it. As a community, Saskatchewan grieved the loss of more than ten people at the hands of a murderer. We joined with the rest of the world, especially the countries of the Commonwealth, in losing Queen Elizabeth II. Many of us had individual experiences of grief and loss on top of the community losses. It…
Do you want to talk about cost or choice?
There is something a little different about this Sunday’s sermons, they are entirely different from each other. I know some of you may be saying, “I’ve listened to your same-day-different-congregation-sermon-pairs before and they are sometimes quite different. This time they are different because the Knox sermon comes from Deuteronomy and St. Mark’s sermon comes from Luke. The reason they are different is the differing composition of the congregations. At Knox…
No blog post this week
It seems odd to write a blog post to say there is no blog post but it seems like something I should do. There is no blog post as on the way to church my passenger became sufficiently ill that returning rather than continuing seemed the best course. My apologies for not being able to provide you with the usual content but I hope you understand my putting the wellness…
Hypocrisy
There is a feeling out there that the church is full of hypocrites. I didn’t preach about the notion because I think there are far better things for us to think about than this. Jesus has some hard things to say about hypocrites, which seem to be deserved. If these aren’t sermons about hypocritical churchgoers they are neither sermons bashing hypocrites. The thing I try to remember when I encounter…
Another look at faith
We are taking another look at faith this week and if it seems quite similar to last week then I’m okay with it. As I mentioned at the beginning of each sermon, I was talking to a friend of mine over Zoom yesterday and he said the following about faith, “Faith is hope with a track record.” He didn’t know where he heard it, or if he mentioned it I’ve…
Faith and Hebrews 11 – take 1
Faith. Such a common word we use it without giving it a second thought but do we really know what it means? The answer to the rhetorical question is, yes. We do know what the word faith means but that doesn’t mean we can’t revisit it now and then. The Lectionary has us in Hebrews 11 today and next Sunday and considering the nickname for this chapter is the “Faith…
Almost Enough
This Sunday’s sermon is courtesy of Nehemia Neuhisa, a student at the Vancouver School of Theology who is working with the Synod of Saskatchewan this summer. I hasten to add the quality of the recording does not do him any justice at all and I also apologize for not being able to improve the sound any more than I could. I was sure the sound setup would be adequate but…
Philosophy? Meaning what?
Philosophy. It is one of those words we can find ourselves running away from leaving it to pedants and specialists. Of course, we can do this if we want but I’m not sure we need to. If we look at philosophy as a description of how we live our lives or wish to live our lives, it becomes more manageable and more applicable to us. I am bringing up philosophy…
Who was that?
Psychology has taught us all sorts of interesting things and one of the ones at the top of my mind at the moment is the concept of “priming.” This is the reason after you buy a new/different car you seem to see the same make and model “everywhere” when you never saw them before. It isn’t that there are suddenly more of them, instead, you have been “primed” to see….
Familiar but still worth looking at
There are many stories in the Bible that church-going folks know well. There are a few that everyone either knows or has heard something about. The story of the Good Samaritan is one of those stories. By the way, the “everyone” in the statement above really means, “those in a Western or Western-influenced context.” The bare bones of the story are well-known, so well known it crossed my mind to…