Sermon Archive

Text: Romans 6:12-23 This past week we brought to a close our exploration of different world religions. We finished up with Protestant Christianity, partly because it would be in theory the most familiar to us as we are part of that tradition. However, given the diversity of the various protestant traditions, there is a lot that we don’t know that is under the broad umbrella of being “protestant.” My hope for the series was to provide at least a broad overview of the various major world religious traditions so that people can have a sense of how those belief systems originated and developed. It would also help for us to understand what similarities there are between the traditions, but also what makes each of them unique in their witness to the world. Of course, when it comes to our own tradition, there are a number of things we can point to as being similar. The curiously-named “Golden Rule” – do to others as you would want them to do to you appears in nearly all religious traditi...

Text: Acts 1:1-11 There is a political cartoon that was published in the so-called aftermath of Harold Camping’s failed prediction of the rapture. It shows a group of people standing on the shoreline, looking up, holding banners about the May 21st “scheduled” Judgment Day. One of them makes a comment that they’ve been told to keep looking up, while in the background you can see an artist’s impression of Camping in the background counting money. It’s funny, but it also seems true. Two weeks ago, I said that I had little doubt that Family Radio would make some kind of statement that they’re still right, even if their math was off. I don’t know if you’ve followed it, but now October 21st is the set date. Well… that’s not quite true. May 21st was supposed to be Judgment Day, with October 21st being the day that the rest of the world would be consumed. So Camping is basically telling his followers to keep looking up. I find that so ironic, especially in light of today’s theme, and the...

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...