Sermon Archive

Text: 1 Corinthians 13 Just ahead of my own wedding almost four years ago, I remember attending a handful of bridal shows. It’s a real eye-opening experience, because I began to realize how large an the wedding industry has become. Everything is designed to try to put together that fairy tale wedding, to make that special day “perfect.” Although I must admit, a great deal of what Sarah and I saw spilled over wholesale into sentimentality. It’s no wonder that wedding budgets have ballooned over the past number of years. Since Sarah and I are both licensed to conduct weddings, both of us were a bit put off with how much of these preparations overwhelm what marriage actually means. It seems as if the wedding has become divorced from marriage. Be that as it may, we still took in the displays for what they were… but then I stumbled across something that got me going off on a rant. Amongst a collection of various sentimental poems done up nicely in frames as a gift was this one… “Love is pat...

Text: 1 Corinthians 12:12-31 In the early nineties, there was an ecological research project which was hailed the next big step in the advancement of humanity. Called Biosphere 2, it was intended to show that humans could live within a completely sealed environment replicating earth’s environment –the “original” Biosphere. While inside, they’d grow their own food, and through plant life, effectively breathe their own air. Part of it was research into the sustainability of long-term space travel. The original project had eight of some of the most brilliant people on earth to come together and live within this massive edifice built near Tucson, Arizona. In addition to agricultural and living areas for its human occupants, the Biosphere 2 building houses tropical rain forest, desert, savannah, and cloud forest ecosystems as well as a coral reef within a miniature ocean. The hopes for it were idealistic… almost utopian… called a “New Age Eden” by many, the stuff of science fiction films… b...

Text: John 2:1-11 While this may seem hard to believe, I have periodically suffered from writer’s block. I sit down in front of a computer screen, or take a notepad and pen in hand and simply stare at the blank page. Nothing comes at all. It seems that every last creative drop has simply evaporated, and I have nothing left to give. Admittedly, that can be a real problem in my profession, given that part of the work that I do is to write a sermon every week… to try and draw out that “something” that helps us to connect our own individual stories to the Biblical story… to find our own way of connecting with God. What happens when the ideas run out? What happens when we have no energy left? What happens when we are burnt, spent, like a candle wick that has run out of wax? To borrow from the story in John’s Gospel, what happens when the wine runs out? It doesn’t just have to be writer’s block. It can simply be that sense of being burnt out… that our job doesn’t seem to have the same appeal...

Text : Isaiah 60:1-6 There are some wonderful coincidences in the suggested scripture readings that come around this time of year. I’ve had to get used to the website posting the readings every week automatically, that way if you really want to look ahead to see what today’s readings are, you can. The reading from Isaiah is often on the first Sunday of the New Year. “Arise, Shine, for your light has come.” I preached on the same text last year, as part of the message as we begin Epiphany… but there’s also something a bit funny beginning the New Year with Isaiah’s words. So let me paint a mental picture for you: it is the day after New Year’s 2007. The festivities are now over. The champagne is still drying in the carpet. The horns that made enough noise to take the dead now rest in thankful silence. The confetti that once decorated peoples’ hair lies peacefully on the floor, waiting to be tracked about the house for the next three months. The home is as still as the seventh day of crea...

Text: Isaiah 9:2-7 ; Luke 2:1-20 It’s Christmas eve, it’s time to sing, to celebrate, to raise your voices and let bells ring. We pull out all the stops, making thus and so, Getting it all ready, and wondering... “Will it snow?” And yes, tonight is one of those times, That I’ll preach a sermon… completely in Rhyme. It’s becoming a tradition, and something I’d share to be a little different, and to be aware to hear the Christmas message in a slightly new way, To have a little fun in making words play. We gather here tonight, perhaps to reclaim, a bit of our childhood, and fond memories remain. There’s a magic tonight, so we’d like to believe, that amidst all of our stresses we want to relieve. So we come here tonight, to hear the old story, Of shepherds, and angels, and of God’s wondrous glory. The child in the manger, a symbol filled with God’s power, Who comes to us in the midst of a truly dark hour. “In those days…” with familiar old words, Luke begins his story of angels and shepher...

Text : Luke 1:46-55 Well, we’re getting close… —The decorations are up, everything is set… Or at least so we hope. —Many of us have had our Christmas parties already, and all that’s left is the big celebration and service tonight. —However, we ARE still in Advent, technically Christmas does not start until tonight, and continues for 12 days after that… but since everything is looking like Christmas… well… I can keep it Advent-like and reflect on all of our Christmas preparations. So instead, I’ll tell you a bit of my own experiences: For five years during my post-secondary education, I worked in a retail store. For four of those years, I worked in a games specialty shop. You wanted Monopoly, Trivial Pursuit or a really difficult puzzle? You talk to me. For one of those years, I worked in a computer store —big surprise. Yet my experience from working in the retail business let me see the Christmas season in a very different light. There are some things that people buy all the time, that...

The following is the Bible Theatre script of the service as presented on December 10th, 2006. Written by Ande McDougall-Clumpus and led by the youth of Clarkson Road Presbyterian Church. This script is copyright (c) 2006 by its author. King David enters. He is dressed in a beautiful robe and has an air of superiority. Moses is backstage, Daniel is sitting on the minister’s bench, and everyone else is in the audience. David: Good evening , and welcome to the 1337th annual Old Testament Characters Meeting. I’m your host, King David, and yes, I am this amazing. (Big, artificial smile) Before we get things underway, I have a few announcements. First, following a hundred complaints after last year’s meeting, we have asked Elijah to not call down fire from heaven, even if there are prophets of Baal in the building. Second, we have separated Jacob from the angels so that they will not wrestle each other during the service. Finally, Adam and Eve have graciously accepted our pleas and are wea...