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.
April 13, 2025
Anyone familiar with this time of year – Holy Week knows that it always begins with Palm Sunday. As tradition dictates, we usually have some form of palm parade. Not this year, thought. Reading from Luke’s gospel, there are no palms in the parade. So, it’s an Un Palm Sunday. Instead, the disciples and people welcoming Jesus threw their…
The Anointed One
For the 5th Sunday of the season of Lent, Rev. Cari preached on the story of Mary anointing Jesus’ feet with expensive perfume, and wiping them with her hair. It’s John’s telling of the story, found in chapter 12: 1-8. As part of the retelling of the story, she framed the actors as per the…
Mar 30, 2025
This week’s lesson – the Parable of the Prodigal Son…or sons – or maybe even the Father who does not seem to act like a stern patriarch of a family in Jesus’ day. To unpack the power of the parable and the power in which Jesus uses it we need to understand something of ancient…
Who wouldn’t like Isaiah much…
Rev. Jim’s sermon for the third Sunday in the season of Lent is based on Isaiah 55, a text in which the prophet gives away food and drink to everyone who is “hungry and thirsty.” The focus is on grace, that free gift of God that rejects profitability, and makes space for healing. After catching…
Cutting the Covenant
For the second Sunday in the season of Lent, Rev. Cari preached on an ancient text, the story of Abram (and Sarai’s) covenant with the Holy One from Genesis 15. As she mentions at the start, there is a part of her that wonders just “what to do” with a text like this one that…
The Lie
Every year, on the first Sunday in Lent, we move into the wilderness with Jesus, to contend with the Adversary, and this year is no exception. Our text is Luke 4:1-13, and it is relevant. On the surface it looks like a conversation between Jesus and the Devil. A series of “temptations” (as the Bible…
Love Your Enemies
Today, Crossroads had the distinct honour of welcoming Amanda Burrows to worship. Amanda is the Executive Director of First United Church on the Downtown Eastside of Vancouver. She and Rev. Cari shared the sermon on the Gospel reading for the day, Luke 6:27-38. Alternating between story, theological reflection, and close examination of a couple of…
You Who…
On this 6th Sunday after Epiphany, Rev. Cari unpacked Luke’s version of The Beatitudes (found at Luke 6:17-26) which she renamed the “you who’s.” She began with the assertion (borrowed from Robert Reich) that greatness is a moral category, and that power is more than just being able to compel other people to do what…
Woe is Me!
For the fifth Sunday after Epiphany, Rev. Cari continued with her focus on God’s call, and preached on Isaiah 6:1-13 and Luke 5:1-11. In this sermon, she promised to share the story of her call to the Office of Vocation of The United Church of Canada, the ministry role she will move full-time to on…
Attending to Jesus
Rev. Cari played a bit with the lectionary texts this week, combining the two gospel readings (which are actually one story) from last week and this, to focus in the sermon on Luke 4:14-30. Rarely does a Scripture passage leap off the page in real life like this one did, last week. It was irresistible….