Sermon Archive

Texts : Luke 2:1-14; Isaiah 9:2-7 Once again, we gather here to celebrate joy this time of year. To raise our voices in song and in mirth, proclaiming the wonder of Christ’s holy birth. And yes it’s my tradition, I hope you don’t mind, tonight’s Christmas message is completely in Rhyme. But it’s not that easy to take something so light, to try to speak of something so profoundly right. Most of the time, the trappings of the season seem so trite, so shallow, and we wonder the reason. Malls tell us to get out there and buy, buy, buy but have we ever stopped, and asked them “why?” Why is it our loves, our hopes, and our cares, can only be symbolized by this product for hair? It seems kind of silly, but really it’s true, that we’ve bought into it in all that we do. The gift of this season, is one of hope, peace, and love, of a wonderful gift that was sent from above, to a world full of hurt, of pain, and great sorrow, to defy the darkness, of a brighter tomorrow. Yet this is a message we n...

Text : Isaiah 64:1-9 Following the congregational survey we did earlier this year, we did a follow-up Focus Group day. The purpose was to dig deeper into the results of the survey, and to specifically ask some questions that emerged out of it. It was clear from the survey that Spirituality, and our enthusiasm about it was and is clearly the most pressing issue standing in the way of us being a healthier congregation. So the focus group was held to ask the simple question: why? Anyone who wanted to come, could, and offer their thoughts and feelings to help identify those barriers that prevent us from growing Spiritually, and by extension, growing as a congregation. Out of this, we identified a number of barriers, and we are trying some things out to see what we can do to realistically meet those needs. Instead of doing an academic-style Bible Study this fall, I led a series of workshops on prayer… trying to expand people’s experiences and understanding of what prayer is. We have been mo...

Text : Matthew 25:31-46 I have to admit, last week when I was listening to the sermon of our guest preacher, I got a little bit nervous that he was going to steal my thunder for this week. We invited the Rev. Sherif Garas from the Arabic-speaking Almnarah Presbyterian Church here in Mississauga for our anniversary service, and to talk about Spirituality. For those of us who know Sherif through the Presbytery, he exudes this with great passion. When Sherif and I had spoken earlier in week in preparation for the service, he had asked me to read the story of Mary and Martha from the Gospel of Luke as his primary text. This was fine, but as he was preaching, he also made several references to a passage in Matthew. Given that I had done some reading ahead, I knew that this was the passage that I planned to preach on today. Fortunately the well of Scripture is deep enough that I should never have to worry about another preacher stealing my thunder, and after all, it’s not my thunder to stea...

Text: Isaiah 2:1-4; Luke 1:67-79; Psalm 46 I find it fascinating where we are this week. Of course, the major topic of conversation since this past Tuesday is the election of Barack Obama as President of the United States, and what it means… in every sense of that word. Yet at the same time, here we are a few days later, marking one of the most solemn occasions in Canadian national life. While Remembrance Day is not until Tuesday, what we do here this morning is certainly in anticipation of that. I think it’s important that for the hope and celebrations that are circulating in the international mindset, we shouldn’t let it overshadow the importance of what we do today, and more importantly why we do it. Like Thanksgiving a month ago, Remembrance Day is not officially part of the church calendar, and yet the act of Remembrance that we do is a profoundly Spiritual undertaking. It is a solemn ceremony, there is a certain regular “rhythm” to it that we have come to expect. Yet we don’t rea...

Text: Revelation 7:9-17 There is a question that I have recently started asking people in congregation over the past few months. It has mostly been in informal one-on-one settings, but it is, I think, a critically important one as we seek to improve the health of our congregation. When it comes to worship, what we do here on Sunday mornings, who is the audience? Think about this… when it comes to worship, who is the audience? Chances are most of you answered, “we are… the congregation is the audience.” What kind of stupid question is that? Of course, it would seem logical. After all, this space is set up in the same sort of format as we might expect a performance hall or a theatre, with a stage, a podium from which someone is to speak so that we can listen, a place for the choir to perform from, along with the attendant musical instruments. This tends to look like a concert hall with a few church-y additions to it. But even so, when it comes to worship, who is the audience? I want you ...

Text : Matthew 22:15-22 In the aftermath of this past week’s federal election, of what has been described by some as perhaps one of the nastiest election campaigns, we’re still picking up the pieces. Sure, the landscape has shifted a little bit, but not much. If anything Canadians have told those whom we elect to government that the most important thing is to work together… the extremely low voter turnout, I think, betrays a sense of disillusionment with the system. One needs to remember that the governing party was elected by about 35% of the 58% of people who actually voted. The upshot is that just over 20% of those who were eligible to vote public voted for, 38% voted against, and 42% abstained from the whole process. Much of the media’s attention is now focused on this low turnout, and what it means for our democratic system. So what is needed now? A reason for people to care? In the various speeches from election night, there was at least some voicing for the need to work together...

Text: Deuteronomy 8:7-18 “May you live in interesting times.” You’ve probably heard it. It is supposedly an English translation of an ancient Chinese curse. It is paired with two other similar proverbial-style curses: “May you come to the attention of those in authority.” and “May you find what you are looking for.” The saying entered into popular usage in the years leading up to the Second World War. Whether or not its origins are authentically Chinese is still a bit elusive, but we are still very familiar with it. “May you live in interesting times.” This has been a wild month for anyone who has any investments in the stock market… especially this past week. Coupled with this coming week’s federal elections here at home, and next month’s presidential election south of the border, the times are certainly interesting… and for many, not in a good way. There’s no lack of conversational material that will be around Thanksgiving tables this weekend… but it’s much more than simply stuff tha...

Text : Exodus 20:1-4, 7-9, 12-20 They are perhaps the ten best known rules out of the entire Bible… or at least in name they are anyway. They have two epic films named after them. They have been used inappropriately as a theological battering ram by some, dismissed as ancient and irrelevant by others. These days, any mention of them provokes a reaction in people, be it positive or negative… but when they come up people’s teeth are sure to be set on edge. But does it have to be that way? They were never intended to be the kind of bludgeon that the religious right in the States has made them to be. Contrary to what they might tell you, only three of the Ten Commandments actually carries any legal weight these days: do not murder, do not steal, and don’t lie under oath (that’s the false witness one). As the late comedian George Carlin rightly pointed out, in North American society, coveting or being envious of someone else’s stuff is the cornerstone of a market economy… so maybe we need t...

This Sunday's sermon was written and delivered by Elder Siem Vandenbroek. Johnny Cash sang with a deep, resonating voice. One of his songs was “A boy named Sue”. The man in black, as he was called, would take his guitar and give a grand solo performance that had quite a following. The song, “A boy named Sue”, deals with our topic: What is in the name? Well, the problem is that Sue is a nice name for your daughter, but not a proper name for your son. This father wanted to be on purpose nasty to his son and named him Sue, knowing full well that this would make him somewhat of a laughing stock for his classmates and boys on the street. The song goes way back to the 60’s and 70’s, to the more restricted ideas of that time, at which we would look now somewhat differently today. At that time this boy had to live with the name Sue and indeed, as the song spells out, he was made the joke of the neighbourhood. But then he learned to live with the disadvantage and started to fig...

Text: Matthew 6:1-13 What exactly is prayer anyway? It is such a central part of our spirituality as Christians, and yet I would venture to say that most of us don’t really know what it is… At it’s heart we say that prayer is talking with God… yet how many of us get very uncomfortable when someone asks us to pray to open a meeting? Chance are we tend to ask either the minister, or those who outwardly seems to be a lot more comfortable with saying the right words of a prayer than we are. Although I will say, given the stock market rollercoaster over the past week, prayer may have been a bit more on people’s mind… and flowed a bit more easily… but let’s be honest. It’s easier to get the minister to do it. This really came into sharp focus for me in the very first year that I was ordained… serving as an associate minister at St. John’s Presbyterian Church in Cornwall. Within the first month of my arrival, I was invited over to a dinner at the home of one of the congregation’s matriarchs. ...

Text: Exodus 14:19-31 – The Crossing of the Red Sea Note: Earlier in the service, a film clip showing the crossing of the Red Sea scene from the film the Prince of Egypt was shown. My comments presume that people had seen the scene. I have to admit; in my opinion the scene of the crossing of the Red Sea in the Prince of Egypt blows any previous film to cover the subject out of the water. Sure, it’s an animated film… but in that way it can do and capture things that live action films can’t… like keeping that sense of wonder and mystery as part of it. Maybe that’s why I personally enjoyed it so much. I remember seeing this for the first time when it was released in 1998, and a few people said after walking out of the theatre, a few people joked “so who is Charleton Heston anyway?” A few weeks ago, we met Moses as the reluctant shepherd living in exile. We have come a long way since then. Now all the people of Israel are gathered at the shore, at the edge of the sea… caught between certai...