Sermon Archive

Text : Matthew 2:13-23 This time of year is inevitably a time of reflection, of looking back over the past year. We recount important events, we reflect on what this past year has held. Of course, when we think about it, New Year’s is rather arbitrary: it nothing more than a line on a calendar that marks a numerical tick. We know that in the week between Christmas and New Year’s world events continue on as they almost always do, and invariably mess up someone’s list of the most significant events of a given year. The Tsunami that roared across Indonesia and much of the Indian Ocean on December 26, 2004 was one of them. This past Thursday’s assassination of Pakistan’s Benazir Bhutto is another. Just because we’re taking a look back doesn’t mean that stuff isn’t still happening in the moment. I think we come to expect Christmas to be a magical time, where somehow all the world around us stops being what it is, if only for a moment. We yearn for that moment of peace, that truly “silent ni...

Text: Luke 2:1-20 A warm welcome to all to worship tonight where we listen and sing of God’s wonderful light. We gather together on this night most holy, to retell the story of an infant lowly who in a very special moment in time, God our Creator into a manger did climb. Some of you are likely a little bit puzzled, and wondering if this minister should probably be muzzled. Yet I assure you, honestly, that I am quite sane, it’s just a sermon in rhyme once again. A tradition from my childhood, from me to you, a gift of the season, and I hope that it’s true, to give new insight to the same old story, and maybe, just maybe, a glimpse of God’s glory. Let’s focus tonight on those out in the fields, and how to them and us the good news revealed. Think of the shepherds out there in the night, tending their flocks and hoping they might make it ‘til morning with no lion nor beast, to snatch a ewe or a lamb for their own little feast. Ever vigilant in the night’s gathering gloom, the shepherds ke...

Text: Isaiah 2:2-5 This past week, I must admit it came as a near complete surprise to see any degree of movement towards a peace deal in the Middle East. Nothing has happened for the past seven years, and even someone as optimistic as I am, was getting rather jaded. I am a junkie when it comes to international politics, I follow the news, I try to keep on top of things, looking for trends, and comparing it to past experience. And then suddenly, surprisingly, there comes this conference in Annapolis, Maryland, where bitter opponents came together for one simple reason: to talk. Nothing more, no grand schemes, no magic wand, no sudden “poof!” and it’s all solved… Nothing like that. It’s simply a commitment to talk to each other, and to keep talking to each other for a minimum of every two weeks. Nothing big… really… and it almost seems to be too good to be true… Yes it is tantamount to lighting a single candle in what has felt to be a rather dark period in recent history. It was a glimm...