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.
The Mystery of the Incarnation
This Christmas Eve, Rev. Cari preached on the beautiful prologue to John’s gospel, John 1:1-14. Christmas is the celebration of God becoming human, in the startling specificity of the one we call Jesus of Nazareth… it’s also a cosmic mystery – not to be solved, but to be pondered – that the creator of the…
Attend
For the fourth Sunday of Advent, Rev. Cari completed the sermon series based on the four posture prayer of Julian of Norwich. The sermon focussed on the final posture, “Attend” was based on the Magnificat, the song of Mary found in Luke 1:46b-55. Introducing Attending as a “stretch” – a potentially uncomfortable position to be…
Accept
For the third Sunday in Advent, we added another word and posture to our theme for the season… and Rev. Cari preached on the story of the Annunciation (the Angel’s visit to Mary) found in Luke 1:26-38. As “call stories” go in the Bible, this one is unique. Mary doesn’t put up a fight –…
Allow
On the second Sunday of Advent, Rev. Cari picked up the second posture of Julian of Norwich’s four-posture prayer: Allow. The texts for the day were Isaiah 40:1-11 and Mark 1:1-8, which she wove together along with “allow” to create an Advent invitation to “establish our hearts.” The Advent practice of “preparing the way” of…
Await
For the first Sunday in Advent, Rev. Cari focussed in on the words of the prophet Isaiah in Isaiah 64:1-9. She also responded to a request that she talk a bit about “silence” – her recent sabbatical experience of the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius of Loyola. This advent our theme is a four posture…
Reign of Christ
This was Rev. Cari’s first Sunday back from her sabbatical, and as she stated in the opening of the sermon, the gospel text for the day, Matthew 25:31-46, is a “marvellously complex” one. She had invited the congregation, when she read the text aloud, to pretend they’d never heard this parable of the sorting of…
Israel – Gaza Conflict – What might Jesus think?
Two major armed conflicts in our world alongside many smaller ones turn our attention to the topic of war and what Jesus would think or do. Despite numerous attempts at a peaceful solution to the Palestinian–Israel conflict which is rooted in the past, and profoundly affected by decisions made by Western nations in the breakup…
The Church: Walking the Talk
Sermon preparation felt like a game of snakes and ladders. I rolled the dice on Monday with a thought and hit a few snakes on the way and ended up on Friday where I least expected. I explore the importance of the current vision and values process and why it’s important and how it relates…
It Looks Easy But it Ain’t
We explore what seems like a way passage: “Love God with your whole being and your neighbour as your self”. Asked by a Pharisee what is the greatest commandment Jesus links the “SHEMA” with Leviticus 19 and say they are one. We explore what that means and how the three loves fit together with a…