Sermons
Did you know you had a high priest?
What would anyone need with a high priest? In the Judeo-Christian tradition, there has been no need for a high priest since the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem. Various Christian groups have hierarchies of one sort or another but I’m drawing a blank on one with a formal high priest. This Sunday the Hebrews text pushed me to think about what a high priest did and if there was…
Jesus, angels, and us
We don’t talk about angels very much, and I’m afraid I’m not going to talk about them a lot this Sunday, but they will come up. The book of Hebrews is a very interesting book, we don’t even know for certain who wrote it. Nonetheless, it is well worth the time we might put in to see what it has for us. Today’s text reminds us Jesus became like us,…
What do you mean by share?
We all know we are supposed to share.* We even do it at least now and then but today is Presbyterians Sharing Sunday for the Presbyterian Church in Canada so it is worth taking a closer look at what this might mean. Presbyterians Sharing is the name of the combined efforts of Presbyterians all across Canada to make a difference by pooling resources, primarily money, to make the most significant,…
Is that real wisdom?
Wisdom. This is another word, from a quite short list of religiously significant words, that hasn’t been debased or redefined into uselessness. Wisdom still means something to almost everyone even if it is hard to define. It is a word with generally positive connotations and something virtually everyone wants. We want political and other leaders to be wise, not just clever. So, if this is the case, then why would…
Self-control might not be enough
Sometimes we think “if only I had enough self-control I wouldn’t say anything dumb or hurtful.” It is a really good thing to not want to be hurtful and it’s not a bad idea to try not to say dumb things but there’s only one problem; this seems to be beyond us. I don’t want to denigrate anyone’s powers of self-control. I am sure there is at least one person…
Doing what you are called to do = no favouritism
Favouritism is one of those things many people find maddening . . . including me! I am well aware of my own privilege and do my best to not take advantage of it so when I see other people flagrantly favourited for no good reason I am never happy about it. Neither was James, the writer of the book of James, in the New Testament. He begins the second chapter…
How to define “religion”?
Dictionaries are usually considered terrible places to go for theological or spiritual definitions and this is another case. The picture of all the dictionaries was chosen because I like books, including dictionaries, and I own at least two of the books pictured. So if I’m not going to go to a dictionary for a definition of “religion” where might I go? There are a lot of places I could go…
Who’s in? Who’s out? Does it matter?
There is something about walls and borders and barriers many of us find appealing. They allow us to know who is in and who is out. They give us boundaries, which can be a comfort. But there can be something dangerous in looking at the world through a lens of “in or out.” It can reduce us to binary thinking, and if you have been listening to me for any…
What would you ask for?
It seems to take some of us quite a while to learn that if we don’t ask for what we need, we probably won’t ever get it. This makes sense in children who are trying to figure out how the world works but it makes less sense when you are well into adulthood and still don’t ask for what you need or want. I suppose it shouldn’t surprise me too…
Win/Lose? Win/Win? Lose/Lose?
Sometimes we win and sometimes we lose and sometimes we do both. King David was in the position of doing both when the rebellion his son Absalom fomented was put down. Absalom was David’s favourite child, it was obvious to everyone, and while playing favourites is a bad idea for parents in general it is a really bad idea in a royal family. When we read this story in the…