Sermons
Let’s discuss the Trinity
So why on earth would we want to spend any time talking about the Trinity? It is hard to understand and when you begin to understand it at all you realize that there are parts of it that you will never understand, because no one understands it all. The Trinity is fundamentally beyond us in the same way eternity is fundamentally beyond us so why bother? Simple. The parts that…
Pentecost!
Pentecost is one of those events that has some aspects that are so striking that some of the other, perhaps even more, significant bit s are lost. Many people are familiar at some level with the story of Pentecost: the tongues of fire, the indoor wind storm, people hearing in their own language words spoken by people who don’t speak that language, accusations of early morning drunkenness, etc. Most of…
The Ascension
This Sunday we have another opportunity to look at one of the very well known stories of the New Testament, the Ascension. This is when Jesus, post-resurrection, returned to the Father, to heaven, leaving this world behind. And, leaving his disciples behind. There are several things we can take from the Ascension or at least there are several things we can talk about. We can remember that Jesus did us…
No good deed goes unpunished, really?
There is something so attractive about the “proverb” that titles this post. Just let it roll off your tongue for a moment, “no good deed goes unpunished.” Doesn’t it just feed into that sense of justice that we all have to such a wondrous degree when we are the target of injustice? You all know what this is about, everyone has experienced having a favour thrown back in your face…
Let’s talk rocks
Today was an opportunity to stroll down memory lane. Our Lectionary texts had us in 1 Peter and the passage where we are called living stones, which was the name of a youth choir that I sang in a number of years ago. There is more detail in the sermon so give it a listen for that part. We are called living stones in the edifice that is the church,…
Sheep, shepherd, they seem to come up a lot
Sheep and shepherd metaphors abound in the Bible. I’m not making any pronouncements but I have probably preached about anything that abounds in the Bible more than once and sheep and shepherds are certainly not an exception to this. So if I have preached about these before why not give in and preach about Mother’s Day today? There are two answers to that question. First, as far as I can…
Why didn’t I recognize . . .
Almost all of us have had that moment where we were near a celebrity or someone famous (or infamous), perhaps an athlete, and were completely unaware of who they were. It is only later when someone tells us who the person was or we replay the interaction in our heads that we have that forehead-smacking moment and exclaim, “So that’s who that was!” If we are so inclined we will…
I doubt that. Wait! What?
Doubt. Doubts. We all have them. We might doubt that our employer cares about our future. We might doubt that our friends actually like us. We might doubt that the government is honest and serves us. We can even have doubts about God. Do these doubts make us bad people? It is all too easy to fall into the trap that says that it does. The good news is that…
Between two extremes
This is the beginning of Holy Week. In other times and other places this Sunday would be Palm Sunday, pure and simple. In this time and this place (and many others) this is Palm / Passion Sunday. Our schedules of work and other responsibilities have made a traditional Good Friday service virtually impossible for most folks so this Sunday is a conflation of Palm Sunday and Good Friday. This is…
Death doesn’t have to equal the end
The Lectionary texts for this week all seem to revolve around death and resurrection, which makes them especially appropriate for Lent I suppose. As I reflected on them the more I came to see a theme of death as ending; not death as the end of life but rather death as a metaphor for the end of . . . anything, including hope.* This reflection led me further to look…