What Are You? – Sermon, Jan. 2, 2011
“What Are You?”
John 1:1-18
Can you imagine. It’s 2011 already. It seems like yesterday we were getting ready for the start of 2010. It’s the time of year when we start to wonder what every turn of the calendar will reveal to us. Will it be better than 2010? Will it be worse? Will there be celebration? Or mourning? This, of course, usually depends on if you are an optimist or a pessimist; a cup half full or a cup half empty kind of person.
However, I’ve found that even most pessimists tend to look at the start of a new calendar year with some degree of hope. This will be the year where things will change in their favour. And why not? This weekend we hang our shiny new calendars up on the wall with barely any events scribbled on them. It really is a blank slate. We can’t say that about the rest of the year because slowly it will begin to fill with ink. Meetings, doctors appointments, trips, parties, all sorts of things will begin to fill up the calendar, and it will probably happen a lot faster than we hope it will. read more…
Worship Transitions
It’s the week after Christmas. It’s the middle of the week, and I’m looking ahead to Sunday’s service.
Over the last 6 weeks we’ve had lots of special services. We’ve had services of celebration in music, we’ve had the Sunday School involved, we’ve even had a service for those who find the season difficult to get through joyfully. We had the special celebration on Christmas Eve. We also had a wonderful lessons and carols service with our Baptist and Presbyterian neighbours in town.
That’s quite a month of worship!
Are you like me and wonder how we can continue to capture the “specialness” and continue it into January? As a worship planner I don’t want to go back to the “normal” routine.
We just had a month of very special worship. A month where people are excited about what’s coming up and wondering what will happen. Now it seems the feeling is gone.
I wonder if this ever happened to Peter or Paul?
After Peter and the rest of the disciples would have a “dry” spell after they would baptize thousands after they taught in the streets?
I wonder if Paul had a down period after successful visits to new cities.
How about you? How do you feel about worship in the cold of winter after the sacred celebrations of Christmas? How have you kept the Spirit alive in your worship?
Prepare Ye The Way: What’s Next? – Sermon, Dec. 26, 2010
“Prepare Ye The Way: What’s Next?”
Colossians 1:9-20
When we look at the readings from our service this morning, you can see we’ve covered a lot of ground this morning. We’ve started with Genesis and have moved into Paul’s letter to the Colossians, with a number of stops in between. This approach tends to give one a difficult focus when preparing a sermon!
We’ve all heard the Christmas story not more than 2 days ago as we gathered on Christmas Eve to celebrate Christ’s birth. We know the stories of the visit of the magi. This is one time of year where everyone seems to have at least a basic understanding of the birth of Christ and what happened around that time. The trick is, do we all understand what it means? read more…
This Is It – Christmas Eve Sermon, Dec. 24, 2010
My Christmas Eve reflection. Merry Christmas to all!
“This Is It!”
Well my friends. We have made it. This is the night we’ve all been waiting for. No more shopping. No more baking. No more fussing. No more endless running around. Tonight we relax and enjoy the fruits of all our busyness. We enjoy the quiet moments knowing all is in place.
I love this night. This is the night we put the final gifts under the tree. This is the night I like to just sit in the peaceful silence of the living room before crawling off into bed for a long winter’s nap.
There is also the beautiful peacefulness of the service we share tonight. The music, the candles, the faces of friends and neighbours. For many, it is a highlight in the church calendar. It’s a celebration of the life and gift given to us by God. read more…
God As Our Helper
I shared the following at our Blue Christmas service where we focused on God as our Comfort, Our Strength, Our Helper and Our Joy. This was a shared service. This is my reflection on God as Our Helper.
God as our Helper
Psalm 121
The Psalms are beautiful pieces of poetry. They cover a vast array of emotions. There are Psalms of joy, there are ones of desperation, fear, celebration, and pretty much whatever else you can think of.
Psalm 121 is one of my favourites. I imagine the author on some sort of journey, feeling lost and alone, unsure of what the destination holds when he arrives there. As he walks through a valley, he lifts up his head at the hills and wonders where his help will come from. read more…