View Archived Sermons Isaiah 60:1-6; Matt: 2:1-12 Good morning and Welcome to the New Year. I wonder how it was for you – the holidays? Was it frantic or quiet, leisurely and relaxed, or intense? Did you spend much of the time alone or did your friends and/or family surround you? Maybe the last couple of weeks included some kind of balance of all or some of those things. I hope that however it was for you …. the…
Incarnation – Keeping it real Luke 1:26-56; Micah 5:2-6 It’s Advent IV. There are now five days until Christmas day. Expectations are high. Anticipation is mounting. You might ask, “anticipation of what exactly?” That might depend on your age or life circumstance. I remember as a child the anticipation of wondering what would be under that tree. As I have gotten older that anticipation is becoming, might I say, seasoned. The flavours of my anticipation are blending like a soup…
Isaiah 12:1–6; Zeph 3:14–20; Luke 3:7–18; Phil 4:4–7 A story made the rounds in Eastern Europe during the final dying days of Communism. Party officials were concerned that commitment to communist ideology was fading, so they decided to test the loyalty of all those who worked for the government. Two policemen were called to be tested. The first one went into the interrogation room and was shown three pictures: one of Karl Marx, one of Jesus on the cross,…
Preparation, Repentance, and Peace Disclaimer: While I’m generally against beginning sermons with disclaimers, I’ll begin with one anyway. When I heard that the theme in our worship material for this Sunday was peace, I begin planning for a sermon on Jesus, the way of peace, and policing. I’ve preached a sermon from Ephesians 6 against policing at many GTA Mennonite churches and Jodie and I wrote an article for the Conrad Grebel review to the same effect a…
Advent I Here we are at the Beginning of Advent,when we begin to anticipate our celebration of the birth of Jesus and the marvellous ability of God to break into our midst in unexpected ways.As you can see by looking around the sanctuary, the worship committee, specifically through the gifts of Shelley Lepp Fransen and with the banners from Deb Kopeschny and Carolyn Loewen, is trying to depict the magnitude and cosmic significance of God’s vision for the world.…
Eternity Sunday I had a sense before this morning that this Eternity Sunday service is an important service in the life of this congregation, but now because I have been present I know it to be true. When we participate in this basic and powerful ritual we open ourselves to memories, to the past and to the present, and to the feelings that surround us in the present when we remember someone that we have loved and who…
Booths and Baptism: Nehemiah 8 I. Here’s a home-improvement project for you to try: Every fall, as the leaves begin to turn and the chill starts to arrive, build a hut in your backyard. Not just any hut, but a hut with at least three walls and a roof covered with branches that allows more shade than sun, but still gives a view of the stars. You should plan to eat in it, and ideally to sleep in it, for…
Foundations Today is a good day, a very good day, when we, like the children of Israel, get to celebrate the beginning of something. And if our experience is like theirs, the event carries some emotion. In the midst of this, today is a day to look at and to gain new appreciation for foundations and all that gets built upon them. Until I read and contemplated this Ezra passage, I admit I had never really considered how truly significant,…
A Transcendent Shepherd October 18, 2009 Marilyn Zehr Isaiah 40 is the text for today. It has a very familiar beginning for us: In the King James version and the words of the Messiah it sounds like this…Comfort ye, comfort ye, My people… Thus says your God…. This overall theme of comfort marks such a radical departure from much that has gone before it in Isaiah that for a long time scholars called this text Deutero-Isaiah, or Second Isaiah, But…
Curled and Unfurled, the Challenge and Blessings of Gratitude October 11, 2009 Marilyn Zehr Joel 2:21-27 and Luke 12:13-21 Thanksgiving. There is much to be thankful for. We live in a land of abundance. It is the time of the year when much of the food in this province, in this country has been harvested and we know without even giving it much thought that we will likely have plenty to eat all winter. And yet, with…