Sermons
Two different sermons
Today was the first time in a very long time, maybe ever (?), that I have preached two intentionally different sermons on the same day. More than once, I have found that the two sermons are quite different in the end but not in the intention but today was different. I am preaching specifically in regard to the St. Mark’s mission statement in Moose Jaw and staying with the lectionary…
As you think, so you become
Thinking is something we all do all the time. No matter how many times we are asked the rhetorical question, “What were you thinking about? Anything at all?” the answer is never that we were literally not thinking. This week’s sermons are about how important it is to think about the right things. St. Paul in his letter to the church at Philippi gives a very handy list of what…
Confidence, is it always good?
I realize that beginning with that sort of question is just about as provocative as asking if self-esteem is always good.* I hasten to add that I am convinced that confidence is almost always good. Well, you may be asking, if it is only “almost always” good then when isn’t it good? Tempting as it is to tell you to listen to the sermons and then you’ll know, I’m not…
Emulation, not software!
We all want to be like someone. Sometimes it is a sports figure. Sometimes it is a parent or other relative. Sometimes it is a fictional character we encounter in a movie or a book. This isn’t wrong, it is just human nature. This week’s sermons are about being like Jesus. Not in any divine sort of way of course but more in how he lived his human life when…
Weak or “weak”
I felt the need to divert from the Lectionary to complete the “two part” sermon I alluded to last week. Both Sundays stand alone but this Sunday flows from last Sunday pretty well. I was very surprised to see that the Lectionary didn’t continue in Romans so . . . well I just did anyway. The point I wanted to draw from this text is how important it is to…
Who do we live to?
“Who do we live to?” I know this is an odd question, it is even ungrammatical which is a bit of a departure for me, but the answer to the question is the title of today’s sermons – “We do NOT live to ourselves.” This comes from St. Paul’s letter to the church at Rome, “We do not live to ourselves, and we do not die to ourselves.” (Romans 14:7)…
Debts but not the money kind
I am sitting on my front deck writing this blog entry at six in the evening. It is September 7 and the temperature is 26C (79F for those that think in those degrees). I have no idea what the weather will be like tomorrow but I want to grab this evening as this is what I think of when I think of later summer / early fall in Regina; beautiful…
Mission impossible
There are at least a couple of places in the Bible where we are called to do what seems impossible. The two I’m thinking of are Jesus’ words commonly called the Sermon on the Mount and St. Paul’s words captured in Romans 12:9-21. This Sunday I preached on the Romans passage and referred to it as Paul’s “version” of the Sermon on the Mount by which I meant it is…
Gifts
This post is a couple of days late because on Sunday we had a lovely time celebrating my youngest daughter, Neala, turning eight years old! Wow! Time just flies by doesn’t it. So let’s talk about gifts. I’m not thinking of the kind of gifts that Neala just got but rather the gifts that everyone who is in a relationship with God through Jesus has, namely spiritual gifts. There are…
Out of left field
“Out of left field.” “That came out of nowhere.” “I never would have predicted that!” These are just a small sampling of phrases that we can use when something catches us off guard or something doesn’t do what we are expecting. Sometimes a catastrophe comes out of nowhere, sometimes a delightful surprise comes our way, sometimes it is just a thing that happens that we weren’t expecting. There are all…