Sermon Archive

Texts: 1 Chronicles 29:1-9;14-18 and 1 Peter 2:4-5; 9-10 Note: Scripture readings are from "The Message" contemporary translation. The original version of this sermon was prepared by Olywn Coughlin for the Presbyterian Church in Canada for resources to be used on Presbyterians Sharing... Sunday. This version was modified for the service at Clarkson Road Presbyterian Church. Readers included John Crowdis (minister), Barb Sypher, and Jordan Wall ensured that the appropriate slides were up at the appropriate time. John: This is a picture of Duff’s Presbyterian Church in South-western Ontario. Local settlers built the original building in 1854 on land donated by one family. They built it from the stones farmers cleared from their fields, and wood from around their community. Barb: The stones were rough fieldstones. Nuisances to plows, needing to be cleared every year, farmers would take them and throw them into piles in the corner of the field. John: Useless, rough stones that ca...

Texts: Psalm 19 and James 3:1-12 Summary: James makes this observation about the tongue, that it is both a blessing and a curse. We use it to both bless God, and curse others... Yet this is inconsistent. By extension James means that if we praise God, yet curse others, we are in fact cursing God. What are we truly saying about our faith? Full Text: A number of years ago, I was participating in a massed choir concert where at least one of the pieces that we would be singing was Franz Joseph Haydn’s “The Heaven’s are Telling.” Haydn’s setting is a glorious rendition of Psalm 19, as part of a larger work called “The Creation.” It is a great deal of fun to sing, particularly as part of the choir. However, I became an understudy to the lone male voice part in the trio, which had me quite nervous. I do have musical training, but solos or quartets put me front and center in a place that I don’t like to be. The time that I had sung it before, I had been simply part of the choir. I decided to ...

Text: James 2:1-26 Summary: Martin Luther hated this passage. Luther’s reading of Paul’s writings, placed the emphasis back on where it needed to be… on faith itself. But for Luther, the one passage he couldn’t get around, and the one that was frequently quoted back to him was the line from James 2:17 “Faith without works is dead.” For James, one of his great concerns was how their faith was actually being lived out. Full Text: Martin Luther hated this passage. The founder of what would become the Protestant Reformation did not like James very much. Keep in mind, this was the one who proclaimed that scripture was the only rule for faith and life, who challenged Rome’s authority of interpretation of the Bible. Luther was far more comfortable with Ephesians, saying “ For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God” (Ephesians 2:8) The mediaeval church had developed a scheme of “works” by which one was seen to earn their way into h...

Text: Mark 7:1-8 There is a downside of being a part of a tradition that extends back thousands of years. We can become so wrapped up within the individual traditions themselves that we forget the foundation of why we do what we do. Jesus frequently locked horns with Pharisees over matters of how one expresses faith. Unfortunately, we tend to think of Pharisees as being self-righteous, overly religious folks who were more concerned with doing things right than doing the right thing. While this may be true, we often forget that Pharisees in Christ’s time were the good, church-attending folk. They were people like you and me, who did try to honour the traditions and to follow God with honesty and integrity. Yet there are times when the traditions get in the way of our relationship with God. Maybe we can hear this in a new way. In a day where hand washing and cleanliness has become even more important to us, with the threat infectious diseases… remembering the SARS crisis a few years ago,...

Text: Ephesians 6:10-20 There is a certain power in putting on a costume or a uniform. In a dramatic production, one is stepping into a role, of playing the part. Quite often actors will say that putting on makeup, or donning the costume for their role really helps them get into character. It completes the transformation, and allows them to really get into the role once they get on stage or in front of the camera. The same is also true for real life, especially in those professions that have uniforms. By donning clothing for the role at work, we go from Joe or Jane Average to Dr. Jane, or Constable Joe. I know from my own experience, putting on this alb helps me to focus on my role in leading worship from Sunday to Sunday. Not only that, people are far less likely to be distracted by what I might otherwise be wearing. Historically, in the church, everybody put one of these on… so there was no distinction between those who were rich or poor. Everyone was equal in the sight of God. Ther...

Text: Ephesians 5:15-20 How do we really know what the will of God truly is? “What does God really want me to do?” It’s certainly not a new question at all, people both unknown and famous have asked it throughout the centuries. We’re certainly no different. Imagine if people like Martin Luther or John Calvin had resigned themselves to their original careers as lawyers? The church as we know it would be a very different place. Keep in mind that people like John Calvin didn’t set out to be the founder of the Reformed Church movement. Martin Luther didn’t set out to have a church named after him. As a book I am currently reading reminds us, that leaders are neither born nor made… they are summoned. God calls or summons otherwise ordinary people to do extraordinary things. That includes both you and me. The trouble is, we often miss what God is trying to say to us. We’re expecting something grand, something spectacular… all the while, the subtle clues and hints are all around us. God is ca...

Text: John 6:35, 41-51 I wonder, have any of you ever gotten a titch hungry when listening to the Gospel of John? After all, it’s probably been a few hours since most of us have had breakfast. Lunch is slated to be in about an hour… maybe some of you have already planned on going out to a restaurant? Maybe some of you have something at home ready to go in the oven for Sunday dinner? Chances are I’ve already started your stomachs growling for your next meal… which makes it particularly challenging to preach, because now all anybody is thinking about right now is food! Not exactly easy to preach when the whole congregation is thinking about their next meal. So, I planned for this contingency… here’s something to chew on… (Pass out Timbit boxes) It seems that a good number of the early stories in John’s gospel centre around food. We have the wedding at Cana, the feeding of the multitude, his conversations about the living water with the Samaritan woman, and the well known statement “I am ...