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Category Archives: sermon
The chasm
There is no chasm that Christ cannot and has not crossed for us.
However, we can divide ourselves from one another pretty effectively, and in doing so create hell on earth for some. Continue reading
Power and piety
When we come to a crossroads, and the gospel calls us to walk one way, and the world tells us that way leads to ruin, or rejection, Jesus wants us to have the courage to follow him, even in the way of the cross. Continue reading
Posted in lectionary reflection, sermon
Tagged Bonhoeffer, hate, Jesus, Jewish Annotated New Testament, love, Luke 14:25-33, Year C Proper 18
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Miracles break the rules
Jesus breaks, not the holy laws of the Sabbath but our imagined laws of cause and effect, sin and sickness, the very cords which bind us in order to set the woman free, in a miracle.
And this is Sabbath for her, and for us: that God is indiscriminate in mercy, unstinting in grace. Continue reading
Posted in sermon
Tagged D066, gender affirming care, Luke 13:10-17, miracle, sabbath, trans rights, Year C Proper 16
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An “unsafe peace”
It is strange that peace should be so divisive: that putting love before enmity, generosity before gain, gentleness before vengeance, patience before pride, kindness before triumph, justice before profit should be a less popular way forward than winning at all cost. But that division has been our shadow side since Cain slew Abel out of envy and Jacob cheated Esau out of his inheritance by using his own hunger against him. Continue reading
… There your heart will be also
“What did Jesus treasure?” Or, to paraphrase a once-popular wristband, “What would Jesus accumulate?”
Continue reading
Posted in lectionary reflection, sermon
Tagged Ash Wednesday, heart, Luke 12:32-40, Luke 18:18-25, Matthew 6:21, treasure
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Where your treasure is
This upcoming Sunday’s Gospel reading includes Jesus’ aphorism: “Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also” (Luke 12:34 and parallels). Last week, looking for something I have already forgotten, I found at the back of my bedside drawer the name tag of my grandmother’s dog, which I have apparently and largely unknowingly kept for some forty years; hence this poem. Continue reading
Posted in lectionary reflection, poetry, prayer, sermon preparation, spiritual autobiography
Tagged Luke 12:34, Matthew 6:21, treasure
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Bonsai, barns, and building a legacy
I had not realized that such a wide variety of trees could be made into bonsai. Perhaps my favourite was the olive grove, a miniature version of the scene that greets visitors to the Garden of Gethsemane in Jerusalem. Some of the bonsai were relatively young; others were hundreds of years old. I got to thinking about the generations of trainers and nurturers who had tended those trees – how many hands must they have passed through? Continue reading
Posted in lectionary reflection, sermon
Tagged #GunstoGardens, bonsai, Ecclesiastes 2:18-23, inheritance, legacy, Luke 12:13-21, wills
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The sin of Sodom
It reads like a folktale, and as such it has taken on a resonance that permeates our culture. When we think of Sodom, we think of sin. But when we think of the sin of Sodom, we often get it quite wrong. Continue reading
Posted in lectionary reflection, sermon, story
Tagged climate crisis, Sodom and Gomorrah
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Where we sit
This is the setting against which we do our work. The inequality of labour and economics: Abraham ordering his servant to butcher and prepare a calf in short order, while he stands with his guests; Martha run off her feet and out of her mind. The violence that erupts between those who do not understand nor see one another as a father, as a child, as a person, but code them as an obstacle, an aggressor, or a threat. Continue reading
Posted in sermon, story
Tagged #GC80, 80th General Convention, Abraham and Sarah, angels unawares, Genesis 18:1-10, hospitality, Luke 10:38-42, Mary and Martha
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At the intersection, revisited
Listening to this morning’s Gospel of the parable of the Good Samaritan, envisioning the steep and scary road from Jerusalem down to Jericho, I was moved to revisit also the intersection referenced in yesterday’s prayer poem, to seek hope in the mercy that Jesus related. Where is our mercy? Where is our hope? Continue reading
Posted in lectionary reflection, poetry, prayer, story
Tagged Good Samaritan, Luke 10:25-37, Year C Proper 10
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