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.
Sacrificial Love
Rev. Cari returned to Crossroads for a “Stump the Preacher” topic, in which the requester had asked, “What does the Hebrew Bible have to say about sacrificial love? What does Jesus say about it?” This sermon is her response. Referring to both Amos 5:18-24 and John 21:15-19, Rev. Cari takes a bit of a unique…
Transformed
In Romans 12:1-8 Paul reminds the followers of Jesus that they are not be be following the ways of the world but rather are called to share their gifts and follow the ways of Jesus. Are we showing up, sharing our gifts and seeking daily to live in the way Jesus showed us?
Was Jesus a Racist?
“What? How can you say Jesus was racist?”, you may ask. Jesus’ humanity shines through in our gospel story for today, Matthew 15:10-28, as he shuns an indigenous Canaanite woman, calling her a dog, whereupon she challenges him and his eyes are opened: Jesus confronts his racism and becomes an anti-racist. How can we as…
Walking in the Storm
Mattthew’s gospel reminds us that Jesus appears by walking on water towards the disciples during a stormy night on the water. What storms do you wade through? How does God meet you in the eye of the storm? Where might you look for God?
Limping in the Daylight
Edith preached from one of her favourite texts, Genesis 32:22-31, the story of Jacob wrestling with Someone at the Jabbaok River. Jacob had always managed to trick or buy his way to get what he wanted. But when a stranger lunged on him in the dark and pulled him into the river, he more than…
Save Us and Deliver Us
For this final Sunday in the series on the Prayer of Jesus, Rev. Cari focussed on two texts from the Gospel of Matthew: the story of Jesus’ temptation in the desert (Matthew 4:1-11) and a few words from the moment in the Garden of Gethsemane (Matthew 26:36-41). Both these texts illustrate the concept of (not)…
Forgive Us Our Debts as We Forgive
For this fifth Sunday in the series on the Prayer of Jesus, Rev. Cari is preaching on both the Hebrew Bible concept of Jubilee (found in Leviticus 25:1-17 and 23-28) and Matthew 18:23-35, which is the parable of the unforgiving debtor. Both texts invite humanity (and the Jubilee text invites all of creation) to join…
Give us Today our Daily Bread
The fourth sermon in the Lord’s Prayer series, focussed on the petition “Give us today our daily bread” features two Biblical texts. Rev. Cari opens up Isaiah 25:6-10 but focusses more on Mark 6:30-44, the story of the feeding of 5000. Note the humility of this petition… it’s not asking for bread to last forever….
Your Kingdom Come, Your Will Be Done
For the third sermon of this series on the Prayer of Jesus, Rev. Cari opens up Daniel 7:9-14, and then turns to Luke 17:20-21. Here, the contrast between God’s reign in “heaven” and how things are going “on earth” is most stark, and the text from Daniel really helps to clarify the differences between the…
Hallowed Be Your Name
For the second Sunday in the Lord’s Prayer sermon series, Rev. Cari focussed in on the phrase, “Hallowed Be Your Name” and jumped off from two different Biblical texts for this teaching sermon. Beginning with a section of Leviticus 19, from the “holiness code” she examined the word “hallowed” or holy. This quietly revolutionary text…