Here we are at Mothering Sunday, also known as Refreshment Sunday, so named since the Middle Ages. This is an opportunity to review our Lenten process thus far. This fourth Sunday of Lent is a time of relaxed Lenten observances, and some churches will use rose-coloured vestments. Either a piece of Simnel cake or a…
Dear Friends, Jesus certainly adopts a terse tone in this Sunday’s gospel. We are called to repent! My sermon will look at the complexity of Jesus’ context and the difficult question we all face in life: Why do bad things happen to good people? I don’t believe God punishes us for wrongdoing. Jesus calls us…
Our Gospel today (Luke 13: 31-35) is only a few verses with a stinging message from Jesus. He weeps over Jerusalem, the city that will not heed his message. This sad situation can probably be applied to us as well. We do not consistently work towards the Kingdom of God. Before us is a world…
Here we are launched into another month and in the season of Lent. I have spent a lot of time this week reviewing ways that people engage with this time of preparation for Easter. I think back to the Godly Play story that explains that this time of preparation takes six weeks because Easter is…
Dear Friends, This week’s gospel has a deceptively simple message that we can paraphrase: take care of who you follow! It is interesting that that the phrase ‘Take care’ has become a prosodic feature of our social interaction. It’s a kind of social lubricant. People use it constantly as a way to end a conversation….
Dear Friends, Of recent weeks, our gospel readings have offered strands that merge into an important theme. We should love our enemies. How hard it is to embrace that notion! The human heart wants to rail against it. Anger so easily bubbles to the surface. We heard the statement from the prophet Jeremiah in our…
This week we revisit the Beatitudes. I wonder what sort of relationship you have with these statements of faith. The Beatitudes could be used as a justification of suffering. Such an approach encourages a life focused on eternity. Current hardships will be rewarded in heaven. We should take careful heed of Jesus’ teaching, but I…
This week’s gospel (Luke 5: 1–11) gives us pause to think about what it means to follow Jesus. You may have heard me say that our relationship with Evangelism depends on our personal experience and our personality. I am shy by nature, so persuasion and testimony make me feel uncomfortable. However, this gospel gives me…
This week’s celebration of Candlemas marks the end of the Epiphanytide that bridges Christmas and Ordinary Time. In truth, I feel sadness at letting go of the beauty and joy that accompanies this early part of the year. Our nativity scenes in church have been packed away. I was a Godly Play teacher for many…