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.
Heavenly Guest; Heavenly Host
On Christmas Eve, Rev. Cari preached on the Luke 2:1-20 narrative of Mary & Joseph’s journey to Bethlehem, the angels and the shepherds. Her sermon focussed on some of the lesser-known parts of the story, and gave us a window into God’s Christmas project. The kataluma (the Greek word translated “inn” in most versions) is her…
Love and Zwischen
For the fourth Sunday in Advent, “Love” Sunday, Rev. Cari preached on the Magnificat of Mary. Found in its context at Luke 1:39-55, the song of Mary “magnifying God” is a fierce, political and prophetic utterance which proclaims the activity of God in all times and places. Rev. Cari introduced the congregation to a German…
Justice and Joy
On the third Sunday in Advent, Rev. Cari brought preaching focus to the truths spoken by John the Baptist in Luke 3:7-18. First thing she did was to translate the Hebrew word at the root of the concept of the “wrath of God” – which is a word that means snort! God’s snorting anger at…
Peace and Release
On the second Sunday in Advent, Rev. Cari began with a focus on the (newly named by Amnesty International) genocide in Gaza. She spoke of the movie “Where Olive Trees Weep,” distinguished between Judaism and Zionism, observed the role of trauma in the atrocities, then (finally) got to the texts for the day. Malachi 3:1-4…
Time for Hope
What time is it? It’s the first Sunday in a new church year… the Sunday of Hope in the season of Advent, here at Crossroads, and Rev. Cari preached on Jeremiah 33:14-16 (and dabbled a bit in the apocalyptic materials from Luke 21:25-36 as well). All in service of rooting ourselves in the present, this…
The Emperor has no clothes
Reign of Christ Sunday is the final Sunday in the liturgical year… a Sunday Rev. Cari often refers to as the “hinge” in the Christian Year. And this year, she preached on a text from John 18:33-37, and referred to another from Revelation 1:4b-8… but she really built the sermon around the folk story, “The…
The Witness of the Widows
On Sunday, November 10, 2024, Rev. Cari pulled the thread through from the previous Sunday’s story sermon, featuring ‘Tilly Lambis’ (the widow who watched God move into the neighbourhood) and continued on with two more Biblical narratives involving widows. I Kings 17:8-16 and Mark 12:38-44 were the two texts she opened on behalf of the…
God has moved into the neighbourhood
For All Saints Sunday, Rev. Cari preached in story form. Her text was Revelation 21:1-6a, and the story can speak for itself.
What do you want me to do for you?
It’s stewardship season at Crossroads, and Rev. Cari was pleased to sit with the congregation under the authority of the story of the healing of Bartimaeus today. The story is found in Mark 10:46-52. The question Jesus asks the blind beggar, “What do you want me to do for you?” is where she starts, contrasting…
Food Sovereignty Drama (for World Food Day)
Not a sermon, this week, but a drama, on the topic of Food Security, the Sunday after World Food Day. You’ll hear three voices, eventually, two are sitting at their local coffee shop (introduced by Rev. Cari as “Crossbucks”) and a third person joins their conversation. Listen for the seeds planted in this conversation! (Our…