Sermon Archive

Text: Isaiah 9:2-7, Luke 2:1-14 So for one last time, I climb up here, to speak of Christmas as closes this year. It has been fun, to bring you in time sermons delivered completely in rhyme. You may think it’s hard, to compose stuff in verse, but truth be told it’s almost the reverse. The lines, the phrase, the rhyme rings true, and it gives focus and helps us to listen too! But no matter how fancy the method of delivery, the message is still central amidst this Christmas livery. So please, lend me your ears, as Shakespeare once said, and I’ll try not to bore you or fill you with dread. I come back to the hope that the prophet once expressed, who offered encouraging words when all were depressed. We think our times today are challenging and tough, But to be honest, our ancestors had it much more rough. They lived in a time where their future was in doubt, where Israel was kicked around by nations about. Truth was their power was really quite small, Next to Egyptians or Assyrians, ...

Text: Isaiah 40:1-11 I remember once at an Advent worship service at Vancouver School of Theology, where Jim Lindenberger, the Old Testament professor was preaching. During the fall months at VST each of the faculty are responsible for the conduct and flow of the community worship, each taking turns in both leading and preaching, along with a group of students. In this case, when it came time for the Gospel reading, Jim announced “Isaiah 40” as the reading of the gospel. At first read it might seem a bit odd. We’ve taken “gospel” to mean the four collections of stories about the life and work of Jesus… namely Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. Even in a scholarly direction, there’s also the non-canonical gospels that are out there… Thomas, Peter, the Ebionites… but that’s not what Jim was after. He announced that the gospel would be the passage from Isaiah 40… not because it was considered to be a “gospel” in the classic sense of the word, but because Isaiah 40’s powerful message is one o...