The Little White Church on Main Street, Canmore, Alberta
Just before I start, I want to set the stage a bit. Today’s sermon is not set in a general “somewhere”; this one is situated in a particular place. So imagine with me the risen Christ, and some of his disciples, sharing breakfast on the rocky beach at Tabgha, in Galilee. In this place, Jesus had walked and talked with the disciples and now the risen Christ and Simon Peter have some one-on-one time, talking about Peter’s role in the …
Hope. What an important word for us right now. We need hope. With widespread fatigue and discouragement as public health needs necessitate greater restrictions, and the kinds of emotional and spiritual hopelessness that many people are experiencing, we need things that help us find hope: short term hope, close-to-home hope, as well as bigger, more far-reaching hopes for the world. So long as it brings no harm to self or others, this is a time when we need to be …
TRANSFIGURATION SUNDAY: The term, “mountaintop experience”, is a great descriptor for those moments in life that are indescribably grand. After great effort or a long, arduous journey, experiencing the strived-for moment is indeed a “peak” moment. An academic career culminates in an award, a scholarship established in one’s name, or some other great honour. A team’s season culminates in winning the championship, or a veteran player finally wins a championship after many seasons. Nine months of morning sickness and backaches …
You are the salt of the earth. You are the light of the world. There is so much empowerment in today’s reading, the second preaching segment of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount. This morning, though, it’s the next part of what Jesus said that insisted I keep coming back to them: “Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets” said Jesus to the crowd, “I have come not to abolish but to fulfill. For …
Fritz Wendt, a German Lutheran pastor now working in the USA as a trained therapist, offers this assessment of today’s reading from the 4th chapter of Matthew: “[the ministry of Jesus] has begun, and he immediately begins recruiting staff for his work; he breaks into the ordered lives of Simon Peter and his brother Andrew and calls them into service. His simple words hit the mark: ‘Follow me and I will make you fish for people.’ click here for PDF …