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.
Presence
For Christmas Eve, Rev. Cari preached on Mr. Rogers… well, she preached about Jesus’ incarnation, but she referred to Fred Rogers: his TV ministry, the movie that recently came out about his relationship with a journalist who was assigned to interview him, and the 2018 documentary that tells his story. Her text was John 1:1-14,…
God is With Us
For the fourth Sunday in Advent, Rev. Cari tackles the thorny question of the “virgin conception” head-on. The texts are Isaiah 7:10-16, and Matthew 1:18-23, and after opening by singing part of a “recitative” from Handel’s Messiah, she launches right in. At issue is the Hebrew word ‘almah, which gets translated into the Koine Greek word parthenos which…
The Sacred Path
For the third Sunday in Advent, Gaudete (Joy) Sunday, Rev. Cari juggles two texts: Isaiah 35:1-10 and Luke 1:39-45. Advent is a journey through the wilderness, a desolate landscape where it looks like nothing redemptive can happen, but is exactly the place where God is most at work… and Advent is a period of gestation…
Waking Up is a First Grace
For the first Sunday in Advent, Rev. Cari preached on the text Matthew 24:36-44. Part of the little apocalypse of Matthew’s gospel, Jesus offers all kinds of encouragement to the church to stay alert. Part way through the sermon, she breaks into a story (received years ago from her colleague the Rev. Don Collett) and…
Reign of _____?
For Reign of Christ Sunday, Rev. Cari preached on Colossians 1:11-20, a text that includes an ancient Christian hymn to the cosmic Christ. She also shared extensively from a chapter called “The Trance” in a book by Dennis Linn, Sheila Fabricant Linn and Matthew Linn S.J. called Healing the Future: Personal Recovery from Societal Wounding. In…
“More Than” Peace
Crossroads marked “Peace Sunday” this day before Remembrance Day. The texts were Matthew 20:1-16, Psalm 24 and Isaiah 55 (the entire chapter). Rev. Cari chose to focus on Isaiah 55, a promise of God’s restoration during the time of Israel’s exile in Babylon. Biblically, she shares, peace is always ‘more than’ just the absence of…
Gratitude in Action
Our guest preacher for the final “dedication” Sunday of our stewardship season was the Rev. Dr. Richard Topping, Principal of the Vancouver School of Theology. Richard preached a “teaching sermon” on the flow of grace received, and grateful action; on the theme of “roots” that go deep into God’s grace, and “fruits” that are borne…
Abide
Rev. Cari started the sermon with a guided meditation from Joyce Rupp’s book Seeds of Prayer. This second sermon in our stewardship season (“Roots and Fruits”) continued on the text: John 15:1-11. “I am the vine; you are the branches,” says Jesus to us, and, “Abide in me.” What does it look like to abide in…
Enough
For the first Sunday of our stewardship season, Rev. Cari preached on Luke 12:22-34. Jesus’ instruction to his disciples not to worry about the material things of life, but instead to strive for the reign of God and trust that there will be enough of everything needed, is not an easy one for most of…
Engaging the Word – Thanksgiving
Today in worship our text was from Deuteronomy 26:1-15. During the service, the children were invited to create “first fruits” out of clay to bring to the communion table, to add to the harvest display. While they worked on their offerings, Rev. Cari spoke briefly with the adults about the significance of this text, in…