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.
Sufficient Grace
For the 6th Sunday after Pentecost, Rev. Cari preached in proximity to both the Gospel text (Mark 6:1-13) and the Epistle for the day (2 Corinthians 12:2-10). She detected a similarity of themes between those two texts, and with the events of our week, as we have endured the worst heat-wave ever experienced in these…
Faith Healing
Today’s text, Mark 5:21-43, inspired a sermon on the theme of healing. Rev. Cari opens up all the emotional responses to the COVID-19 pandemic, and recent discoveries at sites of former Indian Residential Schools. She asks, “How can our faith help us at this time?” She begins with an extended reflection on neuroscientific learnings about…
A Perfect Storm
Today was Indigenous Day of Prayer, the Sunday before National Indigenous Peoples Day. It was also the fourth Sunday after Pentecost, when the texts given were 2 Corinthians 6:1-13 and Mark 4:35-41. Rev. Cari chose to preach on the latter, a story of Jesus, asleep in the boat of the disciples when a huge storm…
Transitions – A Time for Everything
Today’s service was completely led by members of our Youth Group: Jada, Mary, Rebecca, Kiera, Maddy and Paige, with support from their leaders. Their theme was transitions, and the Scripture text they chose to reflect on was Ecclesiastes 3:1-13. This recording includes the reading of the text, their reflections on it, their sharing of a…
All My Relations
For the second Sunday after Pentecost, Rev. Cari preached on Mark 3:20-35, an “origin story” in Mark’s Gospel, to the extent that it talks about Jesus’ home and his family. It also challenges several cherished notions we may be carrying: That the Scribes (who accuse Jesus of being “possessed” in this story) are the “bad…
“How Long, O God?”
It was Trinity Sunday at Crossroads, but after the announcement on Friday of the discovery of the remains of 215 children in the grounds of the Kamloops (Tk’emlups) Indian Residential School, our focus moved. Rev. Cari preached on the 6th chapter of the prophet Isaiah. This text is typically called the “call of Isaiah” but…
Pentecost – A Deep Breath
For Pentecost Sunday, Rev. Cari shared the story of the Day of Pentecost from Acts 2:1-21, then our three puppet friends, Jasmine, Joy and Jonathan, and their human companions, reflected together on the story. We worshipped as an all-ages community for Pentecost. See if you can hear the invitations from our puppet friends, to join…
Being the Church
For Ascension Sunday, Rev. Cari referred to the story of the day as told in both Luke 24:44-53 and Acts 1:1-11 (which, after all, are by the same person). The topic is the passing of the baton from Jesus to the disciples, just before the gift of the Holy Spirit and the birth of the…
Friends in Christ
This morning was “Mama’s Day” at Crossroads, a service dedicated to the ministry of our mission partner in Busia, Kenya. The Mama Orphans Children’s Home has provided shelter, food, and education to children orphaned by AIDS for more than 20 years. Today Rev. Cari preached for Mama’s Day, which is unusual. More often, she privileges…
Nothing Hinders
This week, for the fifth Sunday in the season of Easter, Rev. Cari preached a sermon that pulled together Acts 8:26-40 with her recent reading of Andrew Solomon’s 2001 book The Noonday Demon: An Atlas of Depression. Today is the threshold of “Mental Health Awareness Week” which caused her to make this choice. The story of the conversion…