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.
Bold Discipleship
The second in the sermon series, Vision for a New Time, this sermon is jumping off the second of the three mission statements of The United Church of Canada, and its text is I Corinthians 12:1-13. Rev. Cari starts the sermon proper by reading a quote from Marianne Williamson that she calls “a clarion call…
Deep Spirituality
With this sermon, Rev. Cari starts a new series that will span 6 weeks in total. Today, the Baptism of Jesus, she focussed on the texts for the day, Isaiah 43:1-7 and Luke 3:15-17 and 21-22, through the lens of “Deep Spirituality.” The United Church of Canada recently discerned new vision and mission statements, and…
Comfort and Joy
Preaching on John’s prologue (John 1:1-14) for this Christmas Eve, Rev. Cari declares her own need for comfort and joy, and wonders if others feel the same as her this Christmas. A “sentimental” approach will not cut it for her this year, and so in hopes of a more robust faith, she goes on to…
Expecting
For the fourth Sunday in Advent, Rev. Cari preached on another prophetic text, the Magnificat of Mary, with its preceding narrative (found at Luke 1:39-55). This story in which two pregnant women encounter one another issues in the song of praise to God in which Mary declares what God has done, is doing and always…
“What Shall We Do?”
For the third Sunday in Advent, Rev. Cari picked up right where she left off the week before. The text was Luke 3:7-18, and we’re still on the topic of John the Baptist and his message of “repentance for the forgiveness of sins.” This week, we get a bit more granular, as we actually get…
Changing Our Minds
For the second Sunday in Advent, Rev. Cari preached on Luke 3:1-6, the introduction of John the Baptist. We meet him every Advent, and yet he is a “challenging” character for us, partly because of his message of “repentance for the forgiveness of sins.” In this sermon, Rev. Cari opens that message up, and compares…
The Days are Surely Coming
For the first Sunday in Advent, we worshipped together as all ages, and Rev. Cari preached a short sermon on a short text: Jeremiah 33:14-16. Hope is feeling like a difficult thing for us to get a hold of right now. But hope is different from optimism… and our hope is grounded in the promise…
“Grace is My Kingdom”
For “Reign of Christ” Sunday (formerly known as Christ the King) Gabrielle preached on the dialogue between Jesus and Pilate found in John 18:33-37. She asks, “What if the Reign of God is a whole new way of looking at the world? A transformed awareness that literally turns this world into a different place?” Drawing…
Trees of Integrity
Today at Crossroads we focussed on the Ministry of First United Church Community Ministry Society. First is a United Church outreach ministry based in the Downtown Eastside of Vancouver. Rev. Cari preached on Isaiah 61:1-9, a text that is rooted in God’s vision of justice and peace for all. Rev. Cari told the story of…
Be Transformed
For this Stewardship Dedication Sunday, Rev. Cari preached on the entire chapter of Romans 12. She also reflected on an article in The Christian Century (thanks to mentor Tony Robinson for drawing her attention to it) sharing research about the health benefits of attending public worship. Having spent a lot of time circling round the…