Sermon Archive

Text: Psalm 31:1-5;15-16 “My times are in your hand…” – Psalm 31:15 Well. How about this. We’re all still here! Well, maybe not… it is the long weekend after all and I would expect that many have gone off to their cottage or camping to spend some good quality time with their families and friends. But what I meant is we’re pretty much all still here. Unless you’ve really been ignoring the media over the past few months, and over this past week in particular, there has been a very vocal fringe group in the United States called Family Radio which identified Judgement Day as being May 21st, 2011. They paid for signs and billboards all across North America, including several Canadian cities. It was posted up with great certitude and urgency, with even a flared seal-like stamp with the words “The Bible guarantees it!” in large bold letters. Followers quit their jobs, sold their houses, gave away their possessions… and seemed to be encouraging others to do the same. So here we are. Ma...

Acts 8:26-40 If you peruse the evangelism section in most Christian bookstores, it is easy to find all kinds of resources on the subject. Ways to hold tent revival meetings, outreach suppers, membership drives… it’s all kinds of gimmicks, it seems to be able to get people to come in through the doors. Many of these resources will tell you that if you just follow this particular plan, this specific set of instructions, then you will see unprecedented growth in your congregation… etc. etc. etc. The problem is, there is a multitude of these resources out there, but in practice, hardly any of them seem to work… particularly in our mainline protestant denominations. The problem with these evangelism books is that they presume that everyone wants to do evangelism… so they tell us step-by-step how to do it. To be honest, research has shown that people would rather get a root canal then to even think about evangelism. Many of us have been raised that there are certain topics that you do no...

Text: John 20:19-31 After being in this pulpit for more than six years now, I’ve made the point on numerous occasions that the disciple Thomas has never gotten a fair shake. He has long been branded the “doubter” the unfaithful one who had to see and touch in order to believe that Jesus had risen from the dead. We’ve taken this message that doubt is a sign of failing faith, and that we must be blindly loyal, and never ask any questions ever. Many of us were raised that way, let’s be honest. For years we have used him as an example of how we should not doubt, but how we should simply believe stuff at face value, without asking questions. In Sunday school I was always one who asked all kinds of questions, much to the chagrin of my church school teachers. Not so much that they felt that I shouldn’t ask questions, but it was the kind of thing that if it wasn’t in the lesson plan, they’d be out of their depth. Sometimes the story of Thomas was brought up, because Thomas was put in such...

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...