Sermons
What’s our history?
Everyone has a history. I know we all know this. The only people who don’t have a history are amnesiacs, and that is a terrible situation to be in. The Presbyterian Church in Canada (PCC) turned 150 a few months ago, in June, to be exact. It was left up to individual congregations when to celebrate this milestone, or to celebrate it at all, and St. Mark’s Presbyterian decided to…
It’s a choice
It’s a choice. What is “it”? As a sermon title, it doesn’t give much away. I wasn’t trying to be opaque on purpose. The “it” in this case is virtually everything. Someone said, “Between stimulus and response, there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response.” I say someone because while I thought it was Victor Frankl, it turns out it wasn’t him,three-word but could…
Humility, hospitality, and love
The book of Hebrews is, as I have mentioned once or twice I’m sure, one of my favourite books in the Bible. There are many reasons for that affection, but the discussions of humility and hospitality in it are chief among them. This Sunday, I felt it was time to talk about humility, hospitality and how they relate to love. Sometimes sermon titles are hard to come up with, but…
They said what?
Have you ever been called a hypocrite? I have, I didn’t like. I have been called such a thing more than once, and while it hurts to be wrongfully accused of hypocrisy, it hurts quite a lot more when it’s true. Jesus calls people hypocrites in the Gospels. Oh, not all the time, but he certainly does. He does in today’s Gospel lesson, Luke 13:10-17, give it a click and…
Joy?
Who doesn’t want joy? Why would I put a question mark after such a positive and lovely word? It all comes back to our Hebrews text for this Sunday, in particular, from the very end of the reading. We might miss the word after listening to all those faith-filled people in the recitation that precedes it, but “joy” is there. The last part of the last verse of the reading…
Let’s talk faith
Faith can be a difficult thing to talk about because, among other reasons, it can be difficult to define. What does “faith” mean? I’m sure a dictionary has at least one definition and probably a lot more than one. I don’t want to go to a dictionary because I’m not convinced dictionaries are especially helpful with this idea. Rather, I’m using some words from Frederick Buechner who said, “Faith is…
What to do with “stuff” and what is “stuff” anyway?
The sermon title this week is a couple of things. First, it is intentionally provocative and ambiguous. Second, it is a conscious homage to the noted political scientist and philosopher George Carlin. “Stuff.” We all have it. Some of us have too much, some too little. Some stuff is physical, some is metaphysical. It doesn’t matter how old you are or how rich you are; you got stuff. It never…
Don’t get captured?
A word of warning about today’s sermon: it is long compared to most of my sermons. That being said, it is less than eighteen minutes long, so hopefully not too long for anyone. I also talk about politics a bit in this sermon for which I do not apologize. The Bible contains no prohibition against talking/preaching about politics; or money, sexuality, justice, racism, or any other so-called hot topic. The…
The good . . .
I have frequently spoken about the value of revisiting passages of scripture we know well. This Sunday, we are revisiting one of the best-known of Jesus’ parables, usually called the Parable of the Good Samaritan. I’m hoping this sermon will help us feel in a visceral way, the impact this parable must have had on Jesus’ hearers. It is difficult for us to understand the level of prejudice Jesus is…
Sometimes we might be weary
I don’t know about anyone else b,ut sometimes I get tired of doing the right thing. I suspect other people might feel this sort of thing too. It isn’t that I want to do bad things, but it seems so much work to do the good thing, the right thing. It was these thoughts that led to this week’s sermon. In Galatians, Paul says, “So let us not grow weary…