Sermons
What does it mean to “reform”?
The word “reform” at its simplest is to form again, that is, to take what is scattered or disarrayed and return it to its original form. The word “reform”, when we are talking about it on Reformation Sunday, takes aspects of the definition above but adds the connotation that the current disarray is a bad thing. Martin Luther and the reformers before and after him believed that the Western Church…
Let me go!
“Let me go!” A common request heard in families with more than one child. There is something about older siblings that seems to lead to opportunities for the younger siblings to ask, or shout, “Let me go!” It isn’t only siblings, uncles, or “uncles,” or cousins, or . . . there seems to be an endless array of bigger and/or older people who are likely to hold on to a…
We have much to be thankful for . . . don’t we?
Today is Thanksgiving Sunday, so it is generally considered a good thing to preach about Thanksgiving. It might even be a tradition, and while I have been known to ignore the so-called secular calendar events, this is one I feel we can spend some time with. I like Thanksgiving. I like that we celebrate it when our prairie farmers are finishing up the harvest. I like being reminded to be…
When did we get grace?
Grace: the unmerited favour of God. Grace: the unmerited favour of God. So when did we get grace? What did we do or say to get grace? What do we do to get more grace? These are all questions worth asking. I think it was Philip Yancey who commented that “grace” is one of the few theologically significant words that hasn’t been debased by popular usage. I agree with him….
Treaty people
Today was Orange Shirt Sunday. It is the Sunday the Presbyterian Church in Canada remembers our role in residential schools in Canada; we remember and we repent. Residential schools were part of the Canadian government’s attempt to erase the indigenous people from Canada. It is occasionally dressed up to be less offensive, but a cultural genocide is never pretty and cannot be made so. This sermon is my attempt to…
Don’t just walk on them
According to the podiatrists and folks who fit runners for proper shoes, we don’t pay enough attention to our feet. I think they are probably correct. I tend to not think about my feet at all until something goes wrong; I doubt I’m the only one. The general indifference to our feet, and probably feet in general, makes our Old Testament lesson so striking. It says, in part, “How beautiful…
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…