Year: 2007

Jeremiah 23:1-6
Luke 1:68-79
Colossians 1:11-20
Luke 23:33-43

In the course of the liturgical year — the church year — today, we are at the end. This morning we celebrate the reign of Christ, and next Sunday we begin the Season of Advent, the time of waiting for the birth of Christ into our world. But for many of us, we’re already starting to get ourselves ready for Christmas. The Women’s League of St. Andrew’s hosted their Yuletide Tea and Bake Sale yesterday, the shopping malls are filling up, and I, for one, did my first Christmas carolling of the year yesterday morning.

We’ve got “baby Jesus” on the brain already in November, but the lectionary this morning jumps us forward in time, past the angels and shepherds, past the childhood and baptism of Jesus, past his ministry in Galilee, all the way to the very end of his life. This morning we read Luke’s account of Jesus’ death on a cross. We heard how he was mocked and taunted and crucified between two criminals.

It’s not too difficult to figure out why we get this particular story today. This is “Reign of Christ” Sunday, or “Christ … Read more »

2 Thessalonians 3:6-13

Joan Cho, whose words are found on the back of our Sunday bulletins this morning, begins her reflection with a verse from one of this morning” scripture readings: “Anyone unwilling to work should not eat.” According to Joan, this was an oft-quoted verse of scripture in her home as her children were growing up. It was directed most often, by parent or sibling, towards whichever child was reluctant about taking a turn at doing the dishes. The application was clear: work cheerfully now if you plan to show up for the next meal. Families work together.

Although I don’t remember my own parents quoting scripture when I or my siblings grumbled about helping out around the house, I do recall the expectation that everyone in the family participate in the work involved in being a family together. Perhaps you are thinking right now about how the work was shared in your family of origin, or maybe about how the work is shared in your household today.

Modern families have changed quite a bit from 50 or 60 years ago. Back then, tasks were often divided based on gender — women took care of the … Read more »

Haggai 1:15b-2:9
Psalm 145
2 Thessalonians 2:1-5, 13-17
Luke 20:27-38

They spent 40 years, exiled in a foreign land. The people of Judah were away from their homes so long that by the time they got a chance to return, they hardly knew the place. Most of those who had actually lived in Judah were now dead. It was their children and grand-children who returned to the land to begin a new life. Those first exiles to go back to the great city of Jerusalem would have been disappointed and discouraged when they found the city in ruins and as they contemplated the work of rebuilding that lay ahead of them. They began with their own homes. Shelter, food, and the daily concerns of life were their first priorities. And it was a struggle because of drought and poor harvests.

But suddenly, in the midst of their daily struggle, a prophet was shouting at them! “Is it a time,” the prophet Haggai demanded of them, “for you yourselves to live in your panelled houses while this house lies in ruins?” Haggai was talking about the Jerusalem temple. He was telling them that instead of just taking care of … Read more »

Nehemiah 5:1-13
Psalm 15
James 1:19-27
Matthew 25:31-46

Last week was the first time that I haven’t finished delivering my sermon on Sunday morning. Those of you who were here know that one of our choir members had a minor medical emergency, and I stopped preaching, just a minute or two before the sermon would have reached its conclusion anyway.

I am mentioning the excitement of last Sunday for two reasons… first, so that I can let you know that Donna is fine and not to worry. And second, because of a comment that one of you made during the week. “It was wonderful to see members of the congregation on Sunday move so quickly from listening to God’s Word to getting up out of their pews to act on it.” When someone was in need, no one worried too much about interrupting worship. We stopped what we were doing while those who were close by and those with medical expertise sprang into action to make sure that Donna was well cared for.

Today’s theme for Presbyterianism 101, and the final theme for this series, is “Justice and Mission.” Presbyterians are probably best known for our … Read more »

1 Corinthians 14:26-40
Psalm 84
Colossians 3:12-17
Living Faith, 7.3

People often joke that when Presbyterians gather together, there is always food involved. And though that may be true… coffee hours, pot luck suppers, tea and cake are not the main reasons that we gather together as a Christian community. The main reason that we come together in Presbyterian churches is to worship God. Worship is something that we do. That’s why, in the course of Presbyterianism 101, I couldn’t avoid devoting a worship service to considering how and why we worship.

Reformed Christians always begin any topic by looking to the Scriptures. For the readings today, I chose two texts written by the apostle Paul to the early Christian congregations. In both cases, Paul is writing to these churches to give them advice about how to live together in Christian community, and in both cases, worship is an important part of what the Christians are going to do together, day by day, and week by week.

But we don’t have to start with the letters to the early Christian churches to find out about worship. We could go back before the time of Jesus to the … Read more »

Hebrews 10:19-25
Psalm 19
Luke 5:1-11

Today’s theme, as we continue through our month of Presbyterianism 101, is discipleship. Today we’re thinking about and singing about and reflecting on what it means for us Presbyterians to be followers of Jesus. Disciple is the word used in the Gospels to describe the followers of Jesus — those who travelled with him in his earthly ministry, those who learned his teachings, observed his way of life, and took part in sharing his message in the towns and villages of Galilee.

The word “disciple” comes from a Greek word that means both “learner” or “pupil” and “follower.” The first disciples not only learned Jesus’ teachings about God and how to live, but they literally followed him around the countryside to bring these teachings (along with a call to repentance) to everyone they met. Those who learn from and follow Jesus today are still called disciples. Though we don’t literally follow Jesus around from village to village, I think that a Presbyterian understanding of our faith is one that considers our Christian life as a journey with Jesus.

As we were talking about on Wednesday evening, there are some Christian traditions … Read more »

Psalm 51:1-12
Romans 3:21-26
Luke 19:1-10

As most of you know, I have chosen to abandon the set lectionary readings this month in order to focus our Sunday worship on some basic Christian themes, from a Presbyterian perspective. It’s all part of Presbyterianism 101 — and today’s theme is salvation or reconciliation with God.

In our prayer of confession, we used words from “Living Faith” that acknowledge the ways in which our sin separates us from God, and in the assurance, I proclaimed the fact that through Christ our sins are forgiven, also using words from “Living Faith,” our Presbyterian statement of Christian belief. Then we joined in the psalmist’s confession with Psalm 51, and heard Paul’s proclamation of justification by faith from the letter to the Romans.

The scriptures are full of stories and teaching about sin and forgiveness, about reconciliation and salvation. I could have chosen any number of stories, but today I chose the story of Zacchaeus — the despised tax collector about whom Jesus declared, “Today salvation has come to this house, because he too is a son of Abraham.”

Zacchaeus was obviously sinful! At least, … Read more »

Children’s Sermon: “We are the Body of Christ”

Do any of you know what today is?

Sunday — the day we come to worship God every week.
Thanksgiving — a special Sunday for giving thanks to God and celebrating God’s goodness to us.
Communion Sunday — also a day of giving thanks to God, for God’s coming to us in Jesus, and Jesus giving his life for us.
World Communion Sunday — people all over the world have communion today, and we remember that we’re part of a wonderful big family of followers of Jesus all over the world.

Today, I have chosen to focus our worship on a celebration of the Church, to give thanks to God for the church (for our church family here at St. Andrew’s, and the PCC, and the church all over the world). Thank you, Darya, for reading the passage from 1 Corinthians for us. It is one of my favourite passages in the Bible. And I think it’s a great passage for understanding what the church is like at its best.

Paul tells us that the church is like a body. A body has many parts, doesn’t it? Legs, … Read more »

Jeremiah 8:18-9:1
Psalm 79:1-9, Refrain #2
1 Timothy 2:1-7
Luke 16:1-13

The parable of the dishonest manager is a tricky one. I suppose that parables aren’t supposed to be too straight-forward. After all, Jesus told parables knowing that some would understand them and that others would miss the point. Sometimes Jesus’ parables are followed by several verses of explanation or interpretation. His disciples didn’t always get the point right away either, or perhaps the Gospel writers wanted to make sure that those who read the parables years later would understand what Jesus was getting at.

As you know, a parable is a story that has two levels of meaning. On one level, our parable is about a dishonest manager who comes up with a sneaky plan to take care of his financial needs after he loses his job for squandering his master’s money. On another level, the story is about something else. But with this particular parable, that “something else” is not immediately obvious.

Let’s just review the parable briefly. Jesus tells his disciples that there is a rich man who had a manager. It seems that the … Read more »

Jeremiah 4:11-12, 22-28
Psalm 14, Refrain 2
1 Timothy 1:12-17
Luke 15:1-10

This morning, I’ve chosen to focus on the text from 1 Timothy, some of the opening lines of Paul’s letter to a younger colleague in Christian ministry, named Timothy. The major theme in the text is that of God’s amazing grace. It’s the same theme that pervades all of Paul’s letters, those to individuals and those to churches. Paul uses the word “grace” about a hundred times in the biblical letters that are attributed to him. It’s Paul who established the term “grace” (Greek charis) in the Christian vocabulary.

Of course, the idea of “grace” came with Jesus. That’s what the parables that we read today were about too. We do have a judging God, one who requires us to be good, but we also have a God who befriends us, who calls us to repentance, and who invites us to come home from our wandering like the prodigal son coming back to his Father. That’s grace. It’s not because we deserve it. It’s just because God loves us. And it’s the major theme in today’s … Read more »

Psalm 139:1-6, 13-18
Jeremiah 18:1-11

CREATED BY GOD, we are God’s special children (Children’s Sermon, part 1)

Has anyone ever told you that you’re special? Who was it who told you that you’re special? Maybe one of your parents, or your best friend? Maybe one of your teachers at school? It feels pretty good when someone tells you that you’re special, doesn’t it? You know that they love you and that you’re important to them. And that feels good.

I won’t ask you to put up your hands for this, but I know that there are some of us who don’t hear very often that we are special. Sometimes the people that love us forget to say it. Sometimes we feel like there is no one who loves us at all. And when there’s no one to tell us that they love us, and there’s no one who tells us how special we are, we sometimes don’t feel very good at all. We might feel like we’re not very important and not very loveable.

All of us have times when we are feeling like that, and a good place to turn … Read more »

Psalm 81:1, 10-16
Hebrews 13:1-8, 15-16
Luke 14:1, 7-14

One of the significant things that Jesus was constantly doing during his short ministry in Galilee was to challenge the social and religious practices of his people. He took part in religious worship and festivals in the synagogues and the temple, and he was an active participant in social events wherever he went. He attended weddings, dinners, and other functions in the homes of all kinds of people, and he was the recipient of a great deal of hospitality as he travelled about the countryside relying on the kindness of strangers and new friends.

On one occasion, when Jesus was going to the house of a leader of the Pharisees to eat a meal on the sabbath, Luke’s Gospel tells us that people were watching him closely. Why were they watching him? Perhaps because he already had a reputation for being at the centre of all kinds of drama and debate.

Jesus did things (like healing people on the sabbath) that got the religious leaders upset. He did things like neglect to ritually wash before eating a meal, and … Read more »

Luke 10:1-11, 16-20

Two weeks in a row now, we’ve had Gospel stories that are not particularly encouraging. Last week we heard Jesus turning down potential disciples and warning them of the trials that come with following his way of life. Despite the fact that he’s been really honest about what a tough life discipleship involves, in today’s text we see that Jesus has managed to round up quite a group of disciples, and he’s sending them out like little ambassadors to all the towns that he is planning to visit.

And he’s sending them out “like lambs into the midst of wolves.” This is not going to be a nice little holiday. As Jesus warned the would-be followers in the last chapter, discipleship is the kind of thing that calls for full and dedicated commitment. It involves risk and requires sacrifice — no comfortable hotels, no guaranteed meal-times, no salary, and the real possibility of being frustrated, rejected, ridiculed, or even hurt by the people in the towns.

Depending on which translation you read, Jesus either sent 70 or 72 disciples out on this mission. Some of the ancient manuscripts say 70 and others say 72. … Read more »

2 Kings 2:1-2, 6-14
Psalm 77:1-2, 11-20
Galatians 5:1, 13-25
Luke 9:51-62

Today’s Gospel passage begins with a significant moment in Luke’s story of Jesus’ ministry. It is the moment when the author of the Gospel first hints that Jesus’ ministry is going to come to an end in Jerusalem with his death on a cross. The passage begins: “When the days drew near for Jesus to be taken up, he set his face to go to Jerusalem.” Although Jesus’ ministry of teaching and healing does not change dramatically at this point in the story, the reader who notices this key moment in Luke’s account of Jesus’ life will read everything that happens after this in a different light.

Jesus is not like any other preacher or healer or prophet that might have lived in the area at that time. Jesus was different, because even at this point in his ministry, he is recognizing that his mission is to do something more than preach sermons and offer help to the sick and suffering people that he meets on his journey. Jesus is committed to a ministry that is much broader and more far-reaching than the typical itinerant preacher. … Read more »