Sermon Archive

A Reflection on Reformation Sunday Texts: Habakkuk 1:1-4; 2:1-4; Luke 19:1-10 I hope you’ll excuse me for playing a little bit of dress-up today. It is Halloween, after all… or more appropriately “All Hallows’ Eve” –the night before All Saints Day. In superstitious mediaeval times, it was believed that on the evening before All Saints Day, that the dead literally walked amongst the living. So everybody got dressed up, and showed hospitality to anyone who came to their door, whether they were living or dead. Today, it has very much evolved into the big yearly candy-grab, and I can tell you that at least in our household, there is one person who would get up there and push the sun down to the horizon if it means she could get out there faster. But today, within the walls of this church, on All Hallows’ Eve, we remember the act of a solitary German monk, who on this day four hundred ninety three years ago, challenged the great monolithic church about its practices. Some accounts have him ...

Text: Jeremiah 31:27-34; Luke 18:1-8 Sitting on my shelf is a book called the “Essential Jesus” where the author takes many of the sayings of Jesus and distils them down into a format that is easy to memorize. To date, it has given me the best version of the so-called Parable of the Persistent Widow that I have yet read. In the pew Bible, the story is short… but if anything a bit wordy… but when taken down to its elements, it is rather direct. It goes something like this: A widow with no shame confronted a judge with no conscience Time and again she pleaded for vindication before him. He finally gave in, because if even ethics didn’t bother him, she did. Luke included this parable in his telling of the story of Jesus as a metaphor for encouraging early Christians to persevere in what were often very difficult times. When Luke was written, Jerusalem had been destroyed, and Christians for the first time had been persecuted in Rome under Nero. Darkness was gathering… and these fledgling c...

Text: Deuteronomy 26:1-11 It’s funny. We all have our thanksgiving traditions… but we often forget that Thanksgiving as a holiday is something that is almost exclusively North American. In the United States, the last Thursday of November is Thanksgiving Day… for us, well… it’s tomorrow. While they bear the same name, Canadians are far less concerned with stories of Pilgrims, Plymouth Rock, or how to grow corn. Instead, when the celebration “came north” it was moved earlier in the year because of an understandably shorter growing season, and was specifically oriented around the harvest. In Canada, thanksgiving has far less to do with the national identity as it does with simply being grateful that stuff actually grew in this harsh northern climate. My parents still valiantly try to grow Tomatoes in Calgary, and while they may claim some success… the reddish green marbles they start covering to avoid the August frosts would beg to differ… You may also notice that I’ve not mentioned anyth...

Text: Lamentations 1:1-6; Mark 13:1-6 There is a story of a radio conversation between a U.S. Navy aircraft carrier (U.S.S. Abraham Lincoln) and Canadian authorities off the coast of Newfoundland one dark and blustery October. It goes something like this: Canadians: Please divert your course 15 degrees to the South to avoid collision. Americans: Recommend you divert your course 15 degrees to the North to avoid a collision. Canadians: Negative. You will have to divert your course 15 degrees to the South to avoid a collision. Americans: This is the Captain of a US Navy ship. I say again, divert YOUR course. Canadians: No, I say again, you divert YOUR course. Americans: THIS IS THE AIRCRAFT CARRIER USS LINCOLN, THE SECOND LARGEST SHIP IN THE UNITED STATES' ATLANTIC FLEET. WE ARE ACCOMPANIED BY THREE DESTROYERS, THREE CRUISERS AND NUMEROUS SUPPORT VESSELS. I DEMAND THAT YOU CHANGE YOUR COURSE 15 DEGREES NORTH--I SAY AGAIN, THAT'S ONE FIVE DEGREES NORTH--OR COUNTER-MEASURE...

Text: Jeremiah 32:1-3a; 6-13 Last week I made a remark that Jeremiah was kind of an odd duck. In times that were good, he proclaimed doom and gloom, and in times that were bad he was Mr. Happy Sunshine. Sounds like he might have been pretty annoying to be around because you could never really predict what he was going to say. Last week we had the gloomy and depressed Jeremiah, raining on everybody’s parade. This week we have the opposite... a much more optimistic Jeremiah. While I think we would prefer an optimistic Jeremiah, he really does seem to carry it a bit far. As I said, Jeremiah is a man of opposites. When the nation around him is happy and optimistic, Jeremiah is lamenting their eventual doom, and yet when it all falls apart, when things are genuinely at their worst, Jeremiah transforms into that happy cheerful person who is extremely annoying to be around. You know the type. Not only is Jeremiah annoyingly optimistic, he does things which are patently stupid. As this passag...

Text: Jeremiah 8:18-9:1 I have to admit that this week was a difficult week in terms of trying to figure out what God was calling me to preach on. It doesn’t come as a voice from above in a deep booming voice that says “THOU SHALT PREACH JEREMIAH!” It doesn’t work like that. Much of the time it comes from something that emerges from my own study and reflection that meshes well with the the week itself. In terms of a personal discipline, there are a series of suggested readings that become a starting point. I don’t always follow it, especially if there is another story, or another text that bubbles up as I am preparing things… but how can I say this? We should not move on to other scripture readings if we don’t happen to like the set of suggested readings. It shouldn’t be a case of “Oh, I don’t like that… let’s pick something more familiar!” –or in today’s case, something that’s much more uplifting. But that’s not a good reason to skip over a text and replace it. I have found that God o...

Psalm 139 This past week, I paid a visit to the Augsburg Fortress, a Christian Book and supply store in Kitchener. I needed to pick up some supplies for the fall, and as always, browse their book section. It can be dangerous, in that I could spend an awful lot of money very quickly, but at the same time it’s good to see what sorts of new resources are out there. I’ve been particularly interested as of late as to anything to use as a special resource to help nurture our Spirituality. One book in particular caught my eye, entitled “Your Spiritual IQ: Five Steps to Spiritual Growth.” Admittedly I was a bit put off by the title, because IQ or “Intelligence Quotient” is generally regarded as one’s innate intelligence., which is not changeable by external means. If you have a Spiritual IQ, it means that some people are naturally more Spiritual than others, and there’s no way to change that… it seems to contradict the “Five Steps to Spiritual Growth” in the subtitle. However, even with that,...