Sermon Archive

Text: Matthew 28:1-10 I remember once as a student sending a ladies group at a church into shock. I was doing my internship, and they asked me to come to talk to them about the history of Christmas. I certainly agreed, prepared some notes and handouts and away I went. I began the presentation by sharing with them that the church survived for the first few hundred years of its existence without actually celebrating anything on December 25th. The gasps were audible… I then became a bit worried that I might be burnt at the stake. I went on to explain that it’s entirely true… the earliest historical evidence of Christmas being celebrated in Rome was in 354 AD. It never became widespread until even a few decades after that… all at a time when Christianity was not only legal, but had become the official religion of the Roman Empire. By contrast, we know that Easter has been celebrated since day one. The precise method for determining when Easter falls took a bit of time to develop, bu...

This reflection is based upon the devotional practice often referred to as the "Stations of the Cross." 1. Jesus is condemned to death a. Prayer: i. We adore you, O Christ, and we praise you. For by your cross, you have redeemed the world. b. Consider how Jesus, having been beaten, tortured, and crowned with a mocking parody made of thorns is unjustly condemned by Pontius Pilate to be crucified on the Cross. c. Jesus, you stand all alone before Pilate. Nobody speaks up for you. Nobody helps defend you. You devoted your entire life to helping others, listening to the smallest ones, caring for those who were ignored by others. They don't seem to remember that as they prepare to put you to death. As a child, sometimes I feel alone. Sometimes I feel that others don't stand up for me and defend me when I am afraid. Sometimes I don't feel like I am treated fairly, especially if I am scolded or corrected. As an adult, sometimes I feel abandoned and afraid as we...

Text: Exodus 17:1-7 Are we there yet? I don’t know if there is a parent who has not heard this erupt out of the back seat of the car while on a long journey. I can’t help but laugh when I hear it come out of my daughter’s mouth. Even last week, when Sarah, Megan and I drove down to the shores of Lake Ontario to watch the rise of the so-called Supermoon… which is not more than a 25-30 minute drive from our house… We had barely turned onto the 407, the fastest possible route, when I heard “are we there yet?” from the back seat. This was not a long drive by any stretch… so I have a great sympathy for all of you who made the trek south and back home with your families at March break. How many of you heard that question? How did you feel when you heard it? Frustrated? I’ll bet. Did you laugh, because you remember saying that to your parents when you were the ones in the back seat? I know I do. Megan doesn’t appreciate it much, because she thinks we are laughing at her. Nope. We’re l...

Genesis 12:1-4a In terms of verse count, the reading from Genesis is almost as short as it gets… especially today… but these three-and-half verses get us started on a journey that is a foundational core of our faith. Seriously. Last week we dealt with “The Fall” –the story from Eden where the relationship between humanity and God was damaged, because of our natural human tendency to avoid responsibility for our actions. Yet the story didn’t end there… following the stories of the flood and Babel, which were almost afterthoughts to Eden, something new begins with a man and a woman… and a sense of call. “Abram, Sarai… let’s take a walk, and let me show you something.” From this begins a whole series of stories, where a childless family pull up their roots and travel beyond the Fertile Crescent on a matter of faith. From Chapter twelve until twenty-five there are a series of episodic stories that tell us how Abram and Sarai become Abraham and Sarah, and how these two become the bearer...

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...