When I was a boy, one of the things my parents taught me was the saying, “You can’t judge a book by its cover,” which, of course, means that sometimes outer appearances are deceiving. What may seem humble and unassuming on the outside, may be wonderful and rich on the inside. This applies to actual books, of course, but also to people, places and things. The reverse may also be true, that what seems attractive and even flashy on the outside may be twisted and harmful on the inside.
I traced the saying back into the 19th century, but, surprisingly,… Continue reading →

The Reconciling Good News (Ezk. 37:15-23; Eph. 2:11-13; Mt. 5::43-48)

A short time ago we looked at the first half of Ezekiel chapter 37 as an Old Testament Lesson. It’s that strangely rich vision of the Valley of Dry Bones. I suggested to you that the main point was that God is able to bring individuals and communities back from their graves literally, figuratively, and missionally. Today, we are back in Ezekiel 37, looking at what God does next after bringing dry bones back to life.

Now, Ezekiel was not the most “usual” chap in the roll-call of Israel’s prophets.… Continue reading →

When Jesus was asked about the Greatest Commandment, do you remember what he answered? He said that folk were “to love God with all that is in them” (paraphrased from our Old Testament Lesson in Deuteronomy 6), and “to love our neighbours as intensely and with as much care as we love ourselves” (paraphrased from Leviticus 19). For those who follow Jesus these two are Policy from headquarters. Whatever else we do contextualizes either the love of God or the love of our neighbour. Today I want to think aloud about what it can mean for us to love God… Continue reading →

Today we enter a long period in the church calendar that will stretch until the First Sunday in Advent at almost the end of the Calendar year. We call it Ordinary Time, which zeroes in on stories of Jesus’ life and work. After the season of Easter in which we emphasized the Risen Christ, and the new life he brings, and after we celebrated the coming of the Spirit at Pentecost, with the new life the Spirit brings to God’s people, the Church, on this day, takes a moment at the beginning of this long period to reflect on how… Continue reading →

Happy Pentecost! Today we celebrate the coming of God’s spirit in a new way. The story of the wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle has been, shall we say, actively in the news here of late. There’s something in us that sort of resonates to love stories and stories about the British monarchy. Witness the popularity of such books and television programs as “The Crown,” and “Victoria.” Here we have a combination of the two. As Americans, we seem especially to love stories, in which, a little bit of a monkey wrench (or as our British cousins would say,… Continue reading →

One of the things that we’ve been talking about during the 50 days of the Easter season is what discipleship is like looking back on the Resurrection rather than looking forward to it. The New Testament as a whole, and especially the four Gospels all look back on the Resurrection, even though much of the story they tell is set in the period of Jesus’ life before it. Jesus’ teaching in the Gospels was originally received by and is intended for people who did not know of the Resurrection, but who looked back to it as a glorious beginning. So… Continue reading →

We preachers sometimes get cynical about churches. From some sermons I have heard or read, you might think that the main goal of the vast majority of Christians is simply to get to heaven when they die, and what they most want to know is the least they have to do to get to there. I understand the temptation, but it’s not been my experience. I do think that some of us preachers have taught people to read the Bible in ways that are so unhelpful, that, for example, if Jesus says, as he does in Matthew’s Gospel that the… Continue reading →

This morning we have already witnessed an enacted sermon in the Christian ordinance of Believer’s Baptism. Most everyone here today is aware that Baptists perform baptisms in ways that differ significantly from many churches: Episcopal, Lutheran, Methodist, Presbyterian and Roman Catholic just to name a few. I remember sitting at a joint worship service of theological schools and listening to the president of a nearby seminary speak. He began, in the fashion that many have been taught, by making a few jokes. As it happens, since he was among Baptists, he decided to joke about baptism, and the obvious differences.… Continue reading →

Family Snapshots: a Healing Community (Ps. 23; 1 Jn. 3:16-18; Jn. 10:11-18)

Jesus said, “I am the good shepherd,” as almost everyone that’s been near a Christian church knows. I both grew up in a church and worshiped in another for many years that featured beautiful stained glass windows featuring artists’ conceptions of this saying. It’s always been a favourite of mine. In the background that Jesus (and John, who tells this story) would have shared with their hearers and readers were the many “shepherd passages” in the Old Testament, found from Genesis (“Jacob blessed “The God before whom my… Continue reading →

Although we are in the season of Easter, I have chosen a Gospel text that is set in the pre-Easter ministry of Jesus. In my doing so, I want to remind us, once again, that, although most of the Gospel stories are set in the time before Jesus’ death and resurrection, all of them were written and published after these events. The entirety of the written Gospels were read or heard by communities of faith that lived, as you and I do, after Easter. So the Gospels tell the story of Jesus to those who know how the story came… Continue reading →