Sermon Archive

Revelation 21:1-6; Matthew 6:24-34 I remember when I was in Cornwall, where the Annual General Meetings were an occasion where the congregation stayed away in droves. Seriously… on the one Sunday where people could come and participate in the life and work of the congregation, there was a more-than-measurable dip in the congregation’s attendance. From the vantage point of the pulpit, it was extremely obvious… it was almost on part with the Sundays that follow Christmas or Easter… what us clergy types have come to call “cannon” Sundays. You know, the type of Sunday where the attendance is so low, that one could fire a cannon off in the sanctuary and not hit anybody. Oddly enough one of the principle reasons that people stayed away in droves is that the ministers had a habit of getting mad that people didn’t show up, but take it out on those who did. A lesson learned for me… praise people for coming out and participating in this reflection of the congregation’s life. Encourage members in...

Matthew 5:38-48 “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbour and hate your enemy.’ but I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you…” There it is. My job is done… that’s my sermon for the week. Truly the shortest lesson. But… wait… hang on for a second. But… but… but… We have a hard time wrapping our head around this. We say “but” a lot, because we want to make exceptions. We want Jesus to “clarify” his statement by saying under which conditions we should love our enemies. We get lost in all these “buts” –looking for the exception, and having a hard time accepting that Jesus could have truly meant this without qualification. If there was a lesson that is so simple in the saying, and yet so complex in all of its ramifications, Jesus call for us to love our enemies would certainly be it. This is not something that we can weasel our way out of. Even the most skeptical scholars agree that this command to love our enemies was a totally unique te...

A Question of Integrity Text: Matthew 5:21-37 There is a section in the gospel of Matthew that seems to be a collection of some of the hardest things that Jesus ever said. It’s as if Matthew wasn’t quite sure where to put them, and seemed to shove them all in one place. Mark and Luke do report Jesus saying something similar, but they’re more scattered here and there. With Matthew, it’s as if we’re getting them all out of the way at once. Unfortunately it also means that we will tend to focus on one particular saying to the expense of the others. Most of the time, it’s that whole “if your eye causes you to sin, tear it out…” bit. A rather uncomfortable image to be sure… and perhaps one to distract us more than it should. Matthew had a good reason to put all these together, and it was more than just convenience. He uses these sayings to teach a particularly pointed lesson to the early church. As much as we refer to the letters of Paul as lessons to the early church, the gospels played ju...

A reflection for the First Sunday in Advent As most of you probably know, Sarah and I are expecting our second child… soon. Very soon. As in so soon I had to make contingency plans for this morning just in case I couldn’t be here! If this isn’t me preaching this sermon, then you’ll know why I’m not here… Officially Sarah’s due date is December 12th, which happens to be my daughter’s fifth birthday. We have scheduled her birthday party to be early, so that if soon is sooner rather than later, we can deal with it. Granted, as I’ve indicated to many of you who have asked, soon can’t come soon enough for Sarah. But this is something that is happening soon. We don’t know precisely when, but it’s soon. I can’t think of a more appropriate welcome into Advent. Advent is the Season of “Soon” it’s not the season of Christmas, it’s not the season of “now” it’s the season of “Soon.” Something that we don’t do very well. We would rather it be “now” –we’re more comfortable with “now” we get “now” –b...

Text: Isaiah 65:17-25 After having come through Thanksgiving, Anniversary, Reformation Sunday, and Remembrance Sunday, today is a bit odd in the fall months. It seems that the majority of Sundays recently have had a major themes… and certainly looking to next week and the Sundays well into the New Year have themes of their own. Reign of Christ next week, and then the four Sundays of Advent… the twelve days of Christmas… and then Epiphany beyond… Today is somewhere in the middle of that “already and not-yet” season. It is already Christmas according to the music and decorations in the shopping malls. It is not yet Christmas… because we haven’t even got to Advent yet! It already feels like winter… and not yet… because it’s not yet December 21st… but sunset now comes before most of us get out of work on the weekdays! Already and Not Yet. Selfishly I am also in the midst of the “already and not yet” of a sort. I am already a father in that I have a high-energy five year old who has helped ...

A Reflection for Remembrance Day Text: Psalm 46; Matthew 5:1-12 I have a picture on my desk in my office, and as messy as it can be at times, this picture has always remained where I can see it. I don’t remember exactly when it was taken, but I know that it was prior to the Margaret Terry Room being renovated. In the picture are seventeen people, all of whom served in the Second World War, and all of them members of this congregation. By the time that picture came into my possession, a good number had already passed away… and with each passing year, I am looking into the eyes of fewer and fewer of them. From the seventeen faces in that picture, I can now count the people who are still with us on one hand. It is a lament, to be sure, that the generation that brought us through the most horrific conflict that the world has ever seen is steadily shrinking year after year. Over this past year, the very last Canadian veteran of the First World War died… and in four years time, we will mark ...

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 ...