Sermons
Context is everything
The title of this blog post was originally going to be something about relativity but then I thought that “context” might capture the essence of these sermons a bit better. We have arrived at the second week of Advent and for some this might be the hardest week to make it through, Christmas is still so far away. The first week can pass on novelty and the third week is…
Jesus Is Coming!
The new church year has begun and with it I wanted us to think about the both / and of Jesus coming to earth. He came once but he was pretty clear that he is going to come again. When we celebrate the season of Advent it is easy to get so caught up in getting ready for Christmas that we forget all about his other coming. Don’t get me…
Reign of Christ
Today is the last Sunday of the year! I love the liturgical year and how it is different than the calendar year, it reminds me that there is so much that is more important than dates. The year ends with a bang, with Christ the King Sunday, or Reign of Christ Sunday depending on which you want to call it, which is great but . . . The “but” that…
But I want to know when?
There is something in all of us that wants to know when things are going to happen. We want to know for all sorts of reasons ranging from a desire to plan better to simple curiosity and everything in between. With this in mind it shouldn’t surprise us too much that there are lots of people who want to know when the second coming of Jesus is going to happen….
Being and doing and all that
This is the last Sunday where there are two completely different (at least that was the intention) sermons in the one post. The Knox Presbyterian sermon is a meditation on how much we are different than the first century “teachers of the law” and Pharisees; those groups of hyper-religious folks that Jesus had so many run-ins with. This being a sermon it more or less requires some sort of twist…
Reformation Sunday
This Sunday has two sermons again but both of them take quite a bit of direction from the Reformation Sunday designation. When I was looking into why this Sunday is Reformation Sunday I was reminded that Martin Luther posted his 95 questions on the church door on October 31 so Reformation Sunday is the last Sunday before October 31, just when you think you know everything . . . ….
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…