Rev. Cari Copeman-Haynes

The final Stump the Preacher sermon for the summer of 2017 was on the topic of prayer. The requester (or “asker!”) specifically quoted Matthew 7:7 in the request, so that’s the text that Rev. Cari landed on for the sermon. Between asking the congregation to consider their own “story of asking” and ability to ask…

Another “Stump the Sermon” topic – this time the request was for a sermon on “Love” so here’s the result. The text is Mark 10:17-31, a thorny one!

The Stump the Preacher request that instigated this sermon was, as Rev. Cari says in the opening moments of it, that she “please talk explicitly about substitutionary atonement” in such a way that exposes it as ‘old paradigm’ – and then offer a constructive theology of God’s love pouring out. So part lecture, part sermon,…

The third Stump the Preacher sermon of the summer of 2017 is focussed on Matthew 18:21-34, Peter asking Jesus how many times he must forgive, and then the parable of the unforgiving servant. Rev. Cari opens up forgiveness, recites a poem by the Polish poet Wislawa Szymborska, A Contribution to Statistics, and then takes a…

The second Stump the Preacher sermon was on the topic of “heaven, hell and the existence of the afterlife” and she chose to open it up with part of the first chapter of the book of Job, and part of the 12th chapter of 2 Corinthians. (Psalm 121 was also read during worship.) The sermon…

This first “Stump the Preacher” sermon from July 2, 2017 tackles the question of Jesus and technology. After hearing texts from Genesis 11:1-11, Psalm 14 and Matthew 7:24-29, Rev. Cari opens up a time in history which proved to be a “hinge” in how Western Civilization views the alphabet as a tool. In her discussion…

Today’s sermon “What would Jesus tweet?

Preaching on the epistle text for the day (Romans 6:1b-11) Rev. Cari opens up the counter-cultural notion of being “baptized into Jesus’ death.” In the course of the sermon, she talks about baptism, refers to her colleague (recently retired) the Rev. Dr. Ed Searcy’s blog, talks about the theology of glory and the theology of…

Preaching in consonance with many other Christian leaders in the Greater Vancouver area, on the theme of “Welcoming the Stranger” for the “One City: One Message” effort, Rev. Cari told stories in this sermon. The text was Matthew 25:31-46 (as chosen by the One City: One Message folks) but Cari chose to share a few…

On Pentecost Sunday, Crossroads welcomed two delegates from the Presbyterian Church in the Republic of Korea, and fittingly, the service featured translation back and forth between English and Korean. This short reflection (and invitation to the congregation to share for a moment) from Rev. Cari was in response to the story featured in Acts 2, when…