Sermons
Not quite a rhetorical question
It was good to be back. I missed last week due to illness, which I think is the third time I’ve missed a service because I was sick since I started doing this . . . in 1995. I haven’t been filling a pulpit or two for every Sunday of the past 23 years but for quite a few.* The texts took me to an interesting, if not peculiar, question,…
A story about a father
Happy birthday Canada! You are looking pretty good for 151. This Sunday coincided with Canada Day so we sang the national anthem at both services but I look at Canada Day much like Mothers and Fathers days, if the texts don’t take me toward it, well, that’s fine. All that to say, this Sunday’s sermons were about Jairus and his daughter. The story is a familiar one to many of…
Not dry at all
I love history. The two sermons makes it pretty clear I love history. There was a time when I was planning on being a professional historian, assuming that’s a real job, but things went in a different direction. I am frustrated there are so many eras in human history I know nothing about. But that’s me. What about everyone else? Does anyone have a responsibility to know anything about history?…
We don’t always know what we want
It is a truism that we frequently don’t know what we really want. We almost always have an answer when someone asks us, “What do you want?” but it doesn’t always reflect reality. This isn’t because we are dumb, it is because we ask for the first thing we can think of that might address any underlying needs. If we spend some time thinking about it, we realize that when…
Paradox, another visit
So last week we talked about mystery and this week we are talking about paradox. As I mentioned in at least one of the sermons, this is not a course on how to think. Although, if we all end up thinking better than we did before I’ll call that a double win. Being a follower of Jesus means you are moving into a kind of paradox; the whole thing is…
Not a mystery to be solved
Ah, Trinity Sunday. This is one of the Sundays that preachers might wish never made it into the liturgical year. The Trinity is not exactly the easiest doctrine to explain . . . because it is essentially un-explainable. That doesn’t mean there aren’t things we do know about it, things we can say about it; all it means is that the Trinity is beyond us. Like “eternity” which is something…
Not just tongues of fire
Pentecost is more than tongues of fire and the colour red. Pentecost is the time we have set aside to pay attention to the new way the Holy Spirit decided to interact with people. Many of us can picture the scene, a wind inside a closed house, tongues of fire on people’s heads, people being heard speaking languages they don’t speak. Very dramatic. Very colourful. I have preached about this…
Romans 8.35-39
I’m not sure if I have posted too many mid-week sermons here. This isn’t too surprising because I don’t preach very many mid-week sermons but I did this week. Today in fact. I was filling in at First Baptist Place for my step-mom who wasn’t feeling well. I was given the choice between Romans 8.35-39 or Habakkuk. Seeing as I have at best a passing acquaintance with that particular Old…
Jesus and community
I begin with my yearly restatement that I have nothing against Mothers’ Day (nor Fathers’ Day, Valentine’s Day, or any other day for that matter). I think mothers are the unsung heroes of everything and I don’t think I could have more respect for them in general and specific that I do. The problem is, when you preach the Lectionary, you preach the Lectionary . . . and I do….
Let’s talk friends
Friend. One of the most powerful and evocative words in the language. I have never encountered anyone who says they have too many friends, in this case Facebook friends do not count. We love the friends we have. We want to have friends. So what do we do with Jesus saying in John 15 where he calls us “friends.” Not servants (or slaves depending on your translation) but friends. If…