Most weeks, our worship leader offers a 15–20 minute sermon based on the Scripture texts for the day.
Our regular preacher is pretty versatile. She’ll tell stories, pull together different ideas, lead a meditation, give the congregation an “assignment” to talk about in twos or threes, show a slide show or video, or sometimes even sing to the congregation. The sermon functions to deepen our reflection on the Scripture themes of the day, and often leaves us with a challenge or a question.
Scripture texts are outlined in the Revised Common Lectionary.
Be Blessed
What makes you happy in life? What do you need to be happy? Those questions can spark a lot of conversation and we can turn many places for the answers. Followers of Jesus often pause to reflect on Jesus’ teaching in what we call The Beatitudes. This Sunday, Rev. Paul Ivany encourages us to…
Releasing Resentment
For the third sermon in this summer’s Stump the Preacher series, Rev. Cari preached, as requested, on the parable of the Prodigal Son (found in Luke 15:11-32) but focussed on the elder son (mostly). The request was for a good hard look at resentment, and in particular, what to do as a person who has…
Original Blessing & Original Sin
For this second Sunday of “Stump the Preacher” Rev. Cari jumps in with Genesis 1 and 3, parts of the two creation stories that are part of the gathered witness of Israel. She hearkens back to a sermon she heard in 2012 given by Alanna Mitchell on the work of Fr. Matthew Fox in his…
Is the Bible Flawed?
Our summer “Stump the Preacher” fun begins! Immediately, Rev. Cari has been challenged by this excellent question: “Is the Bible Flawed?” In order to make an approach to answering the question, she includes reflection on parts of Psalm 19, and the short section of 2 Timothy 3:14-17. During this sermon, Cari actually answers the question…
Who is the Greatest?
Gabrielle McLarty’s final sermon as Minister with Children and Youth at Crossroads United Church was on Luke 9:46-48. It was a short text, and a short sermon! But make no mistake, the call to greater faithfulness was issued with conviction and passion. Listen as Gabrielle walks through this story of Jesus’ response to the disciples’…
Blessed Trinity!
The Trinity, the three-fold mystery at the heart of Christianity, has been a metaphor for diversity for centuries, encompassing the three primary ways we experience the Holy: through God, through Jesus, and through the Holy Spirit. The United Church of Canada itself is also an example of diversity in action, being the first inter-denominational union…
Communication and Covenant
For Pentecost Sunday, Rev. Cari preached on the long story that begins with Genesis 11:1-9 (the story of the Tower of Babel) and continues with the narrative of Pentecost found at Acts 2:1-21. We might think of the tower story as an explanation of the communication problem we face as humans, and the Pentecost story…
What is Preventing Us?
In this sermon on Acts 8:26-39, guest preacher the Rev. Dr. Anthony Bailey offers both the good news of a boundary-breaking Gospel, and an invitation and challenge to Crossroads United Church, to stand firmly in that good news as allies with racialized Black peoples. He walks the congregation through this story of the encounter between…
Jesus’ Peace
In this morning’s text, John 14:23-39, Jesus tells his disciples that “his peace” is different than the peace the world gives them. So Rev. Cari picks up that distinction in this sermon, and explores it. Thanks to Kate Bowler, she describes two North American “cultural scripts” that Jesus’ peace contradicts: the American insistence on Independence,…
The Limit of our Limits
Guest preacher the Rev. Maggie Enwright, Coordinating Minister at Pacific Spirit United Church in Vancouver, preached on Acts 16:9-15 at Crossroads this morning. Her sermon raises the “heretical” question of whether we in the United Church of Canada have turned the concept of inclusion into a sacred cow. Through personal story-telling, exploration of the text…