The reflections listed here are transcripts of the Reflection presented by our minister or guest preachers. They are provided for those who may not have been present at the time, or for those who would like to review and reflect further on the words spoken during worship.
An archive of previous sermons can be accessed on the “Past Sermons” page.
Janet and I watched a PBS television program, Nova, about the factors that give us our climate; it was an episode called Decoding Our Weather Machine and aired last Wednesday. There are four major factors that give us our climate: atmosphere, land, ocean, and ice. They all interrelate along physics lines to give us our read on
There is a part of the Passion Week/Easter narrative that occurs near the end of the Gospel of Matthew and does not appear in other gospels. Nor is it included anywhere in the lectionary, likely due to its heavy racial bias. However, this past week I was drawn to a re-telling of this for modern read on
Last Wednesday was the 50th anniversary of the murder of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. I was almost 8 when news of his death was announced; I remember well the hush that fell over our home as my parents mourned his murder. We probably talked about it at school, but what stands read on
I tried to think up some elaborate April’s Fool’s ruse as this is April 1st, but I’ve never been much good at that sort of thing. And as I thought about it, perhaps the ruse is Easter itself, that God has the last laugh and new life wins out. Or maybe it’s the telling of read on
Phillip Harrison tells a parable that is repeated by Peter Rollins, a popular Irish theologian who is quite in demand these days for public speaking and leading workshops; he defines himself as an iconoclast who is eroding the comfortable ground upon which many Christians stand. The parable goes like this: The other day I read on
I came across a Maundy Thursday reflection this week as I was preparing for this evening’s worship; I was looking for deep reflections on the meaning behind what we do on Maundy Thursday: the mandate to love; washing feet; and sharing in communion. The piece that I encountered came from Baylor University in Waco, Texas. read on
Thirty years ago, I was a new minister in Northern Ontario, had benefitted from being within ½-hour of a wise, beloved minister who was nearing retirement and gently shared his wisdom and experience and had finally learned to preach a sermon rather than read a university essay. The Sunday Scripture reading read on
At our Wednesday evening Lenten Study about women in the Bible, Dr. Lisa Michele Wolfe is the presenter. She’s a humourous, knowledgeable and entertaining teacher. She’s an ordained minister in the United Church of Christ and teaches at Oklahoma City University. She describes herself as a “Bible nerd.” We’ve just gone read on
I was listening to a bit of As It Happens on CBC radio last week, and I heard a speech given by one of the survivors of the school attack in Florida; Lorenzo Prada talked about the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School that left 17 dead and many injured. read on
In the February 16th Daily Devotional that I receive from The United Church of Christ, our sister denomination in the US, Anthony Robinson wrote about asking for help. When he was younger, he asked his professor at Union Seminary in New York about what the difference was between predominantly black and predominantly white congregations. read on
