Sermons
I won’t work for that
The picture to the left notwithstanding, I did not preach about Canada and how wonderful it is nor how much I love my country, flawed as it is. This Sunday’s sermons are all about wages and eternity. It might seem like a peculiar combination but both of these ideas are very much in our Epistle lesson, Romans 6.12-23. They are primarily found in the last verse of this section, which…
Grace is not license
This post’s title is the answer to today’s sermons title. I still think you will get value from listening to one of both of them but I don’t mind spoilers now and then 🙂 In addition to the usual stuff, this week you also get a small example of how translation from one language to another can work, and one of the more dramatic examples of one sort of translation….
One hundred years!
This Sunday the two congregations I serve got together for a joint service to celebrate the 100th anniversary of Knox Presbyterian! That’s right, a century of faithful witness in the town of Briercrest. I am very proud to be associated with this church and to have contributed my small bit to it. It is an interesting juxtaposition of a centennial celebration and Trinity Sunday. I wasn’t entirely sure how to…
Another birthday
Today is not my birthday it is the birthday of the church. We frequently forget that things we have been around for a long time had a beginning. I seem to have a memory of being quite surprised to find out that my parents were born at some point. It is easy for us to forget that Canada, or whichever country we are most familiar with had a beginning; there…
Questions are okay
I should probably get it out that I have an aversion to trying to figure out what exactly biblical prophecy means. There, I have finally said it. I don’t know if it comes from my upbringing, listening to too many “teachings” about end times, or my education but I just can do it. I don’t suggest that anyone else avoid it as assiduously as I do; if this is your…
No more talking at each other
It may seem a bit ironic that I took a run at the internet in this morning’s sermons and I am now writing a blog post, which will be posted on the internet, but I am willing to live with that contradiction. As I may have mentioned in one or the other sermon it is a constant source of wonder to me that the Holy Spirit can reveal things about…
Yes, you can ask for directions
One of the more pervasive tropes in comedy is the man who will not ask directions. Like all tropes, to say nothing of cliches, it has kernel of truth. There are all sorts of men who feel their essential masculinity is called into question if they ask directions, I have never understood how getting and staying lost is masculine but I may be missing something too subtle for me. If…
Sheep and shepherds
It is one of those Sundays where the Lectionary “makes” us talk about sheep and shepherds. I quite enjoy “sheep and shepherd Sundays.” They provide an opportunity to talk about how silly sheep are and tell some funny (I hope) stories about sheep. More importantly, this Sunday is an opportunity to talk about how appropriate the image of us as sheep really is. Not just from the perspective of “we…
Not willfully blind, just blind
We are all pretty certain that we see what is in front of us. It is a certainty that stands us in good stead almost all the time. However, there is always a “however” when you are talking about sermons, there are times when we don’t see what is plainly in front of us. The example I use in both sermons is how people who have collisions with motorcycles very…
Ah, doubt
There is something about the very notion of doubt that raises the hackles of religious people. We have come to the conclusion that we are never supposed to have any doubts, about anything but especially, about what we believe. There are any number of problems with this idea not least of which is that it is impossible. I suppose I should temper that remark by saying that it is possible…