Sermons & Worship Audio

View Archived Sermons  Listen to this Sermon    2nd Corinthians 9:6-15 Today my sermon begins at the end.  Starting with the last verse of our text from Corinthians:  New Revised Standard version of our Bibles: Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift.   King James version:  Thanks be unto God for his unspeakable gift. English Standard Verson:  Thanks be to God for his inexpressible gift. New Living Translation:   Thanks be to God for this gift too wonderful for…

View Archived Sermons Listen to this Sermon    I Corinthians 10:15-18   As many of us are painfully aware, several Mennonite churches in British Columbia have cut themselves off from TUMC, in effect excommunicated themselves from us, as a result of our process several years back regarding human sexuality.1  Excommunication in the history of the church has generally been reserved for much more important and grave situations.  For instance, around the year 190, the first “strong” Pope in the Roman…

View Archived Sermons Listen to this Sermon    Intro:  As I immersed myself in today’s lectionary texts, reflecting on our fall theme “Room for All” and on our congregational life, what emerged were three “words” for us today. Foundational words for our community, first from Jewish scriptures, then from Paul’s letter to the church at Philippi, and then thirdly from the Gospel of Matthew. Umm, a three part “Trinitarian” sermon – you never expected that from me, eh? … Let’s…

  View archived sermons Listen to this sermon   Matthew 20:1-16   And Jesus told them this parable. The kingdom of Heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire labourers for his vineyard…. In this way, Jesus begins a story like so many of the stories that he told in order to create a worldview that we are invited to take residence inside. I have heard that with his parables or stories, “Jesus creates…

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View Archived Semons Listen to this Sermon    Ezekiel 33:7-11; Romans 13:8-14; Matt. 18:15-20   If you heard me preach two weeks ago and you experience a bit of déjà vu this morning with today’s gospel reading it will be understandable.  It’s either a déjà vu or a second chance. I have a sense that the winds of the Spirit that we want to pay explicit attention to this summer are giving me a second chance this morning to preach on a…

 View Archived Sermons Listen to this Sermon   It had been a long, hot summer.  The windless air was stagnant, refusing to blow in the much needed rain clouds. The blazing sun was burning up whatever sparse grass remained along the hillsides, so the shepherds were forced to wander farther and farther away from home, in search of food for their animals.  But it was a summer like any other.  The shepherd was tired.  He had left his wife and…

View Archived Sermons Listen to this Sermon  The Rock and the Wind Matt. 16: 13-20    Just over a week ago, in North Carolina – as the sun was rising, I woke, got dressed quickly and headed up the mountain behind our hotel room at the Ridgecrest Conference centre.  The early morning sun was shining on the mountains above me, but had not yet risen far enough to illuminate the hotel and so being the morning person I am –…

View Archives Sermons Listen to this Sermon  Listen and Understand Texts: Isaiah 56:1, 6-8; Matthew 15:10-28   I have seen the wind, our framing metaphor for sermons this summer, gives opportunity to reflect on some of the surprising ways in which God speaks to us.  As I’ve meditated on today’s sermon over the past month or so, there have been a number of instances where it wasn’t difficult to sense the Spirit’s presence.  One was at Mennonite Church Canada’s Annual…

View Archived Sermons Listen to this Service    Have You Seen the Wind?: Comfort in the unpredictable Matthew 14: 22-33   As Emily and the children have reminded us, we last heard the sound of wind chimes here on Pentecost Sunday when we used them to symbolize the wind that entered the room where Jesus’ followers were praying and waiting for the Spirit of Jesus to comfort them.  But it didn’t just comfort them, it gave them power: strange power. …