Sermon Archive

Text: Genesis 6:9-22; 7:24; 8:14-19 One of my daughter Megan’s favorite toys is Noah’s Ark. Part of the Little People line from Fisher Price, it’s one of the rare examples of a Biblical Story being a toy made by a mainstream company. Turns out they also make a Christmas Nativity set as well… For Megan, this plastic Noah’s Ark a hands-on experience, learning the animals, and the characters of Noah and Noah’s wife. Of course, at this point, she doesn’t know all the nuances of the story, not the least of which is the flood itself… but for her, at two years of age, this introduction to the story is a great hands-on type of learning. It’s the very beginning of journey for her… and in some ways, it’s reminding me of my own journey too. The story of Noah’s Ark is probably one of the best known and best loved stories from the Bible. It has provided great material for artists, songwriters and comedians, and certainly for me is one of the earliest stories from the Bible that I can personally rem...

Text: Genesis 1:1-2:4a The first chapter of Genesis may well be the most-read part of the Bible… if for no other reason that it literally is the beginning of the book. Even if our well-intentioned quest to read the Bible from cover-to-cover fails miserably, at least we will have read Genesis Chapter One… but even so, there is so much to this first chapter… this Epic poem that proclaims the glories of the universe, and at the same time is a defiant declaration of God’s power in the face of an oppressive invading power. We get so hung up on it being literal or not literal that we’ve entirely missed the point of the story, and we don’t hear much less learn the real power of what this passage is really saying… what God is really saying to each of us… to you… to me. That we are part of something wondrous and marvelous, that is truly awesome beyond words. Contrary to what we might conventionally think, the first Chapter of Genesis is not the oldest part of the Bible. Employing a bit of lite...

Text : Acts 2:1-21 Today is one of the most important and yet overlooked days in the Christian calendar: Pentecost Sunday. Today is the day that we celebrate God’s gift of the Holy Spirit, kindling fires in the disciples to go out and change the world. It bridges the gap between remembering what God has done through us through both the gift of Christmas and the miracle of Easter. It brings us into the longest Season of the Christian calendar, and is a reminder that God calls each and every one of us to make a difference in the world. However, Pentecost has no real commercial appeal. Even though we talk about the gift of the Holy Spirit, there are no traditions of gift giving that create the frenetic shopping seasons at Christmas, or the surprises at Easter that somehow lead to increased sales in chocolate. s Because Pentecost doesn’t appear on the radar of society at large, it isn’t surprising that we have a scheduling conflict with the Mississauga Marathon today. The chance of having ...

Text : Acts 1:6-14 My Father-in-law is well known within certain circles in the United Church, particularly out west. He has a no-nonsense approach about getting things done, and doing it well. His organizational abilities show his ability to understand detail, but he also knows to not let those details get in the way. I have to admit that on the latter point, I could certainly learn a number of things from him on that score. Yet what he is most known for, from virtually anybody who has worked with him is the phrase “Get on with it!” In other words, stop messing around with the details and actually get on with the business at hand. For someone like me, who loves to analyze stuff to death, it’s a bit of advice that I need to hear… and need to act on. I am guessing that it’s something that at some point or another all of us need to hear. I take it as some point of comfort that the disciples did too. As the Easter Season draws to a close, we’re moving from celebrating the resurrection to...

Acts 17:22-32 ~ Paul’s Sermon at Athens The Rev. Sarah Fanning – April 27, 2008 Pulpit Exchange - Clarkson Road Presbyterian Church, Mississauga About seven years ago, I was standing in line at the local Starbucks when I ran into a man I had met a few times at various workshops and training events when I was working for CIBC in Hamilton. Lee and I exchanges greetings and engaged in the usual sort of niceties that are expected in conversations between people who are essentially strangers. One of the topics that’s usually covered in such moments is the subject of employment; so naturally, Lee asked if I was still working for CIBC. I paused; hesitated a bit, and then told him, “No, I’m a minister, with a church.” He physically recoiled from me and his response was shocking. With scorn practically dripping from his lips, he sneered, “You don’t really believe all that crap do you?” I was absolutely stunned. Fortunately by that time my coffee was ready. I stammered something like, “Well, ye...

Text: 1 Peter 2:2-10 The last time the Mission and Outreach committee went to Evangel Hall was last October. It was the third time that I had gone since coming to Clarkson Road, but only the second where we would actually help lead the evening worship service. In the times that we have gone, there have been a few familiar faces that we have come to know. During the initial crush of serving the meal, there’s not really a chance to sit down and talk with people… but as the evening progresses and things slow down, we do get a chance to sit down and talk… or perhaps more importantly, listen. One of the regular volunteers is an older woman… for the life of me her name escapes me at the moment. She has been there every time that we have gone. Thin, short, and enough wrinkles on her face to hold many stories of a hard life. We know her as the one who guards the coffee machines fiercely, ensuring that volunteers like us always us a new cup for “health reasons” she’d say. She’s there because Ev...

Text: John 10:1-11 ~ Good Shepherd Sunday Sheep to most of us are animals we see from a distance when we drive at 100 kilometres an hour through the countryside. We may get closer to them occasionally at petting zoos, the CNE and the like. Living in Toronto, sheep are not something we experience every day. They produce wool and are good to eat. So images of sheep for us are more about clothing and delicious food than anything else. Jesus uses sheep imagery in our Gospel reading and unfortunately, because we’ve heard it often enough, it has become a romantic nice story about sheep and their shepherd in another time and culture. The impact of the relationship between the shepherd and their sheep is lost on us because most of us simply haven’t had this experience. When we first met, my wife to be, Sarah, lived in a rural area of Ontario just outside of London, in a town called Thamesford. Even after Sarah and I got married, she continued to serve in that pastoral charge until we mov...