Good Grief November 25, 2007 (Eternity Sunday) Rev. Jan Kraus Text: Psalm 23 Ecclesiastes 3:1-8 John 14:1-7 Merciful God, listen to our hearts, Enter into our time and seasons of pain. Bless us and all who are in need of comfort and your gentle presence. Amen. We have just participated in a very moving ritual. Even if you did not bring a flower forward and name a particular person you too have been touched by grief because…
The Tale of Two Coins October 21, 2007 Rev. David Martin Text: Mark 12:41-44 Matthew 22:15-22 I was a young pastor at the time and was rather taken aback by the cold, abrupt response of Millie’s neighbour. Joe and Millie had just moved from their home at Hagerman Corners into the seniors’ apartment in the old town of Markham and as pastor of Hagerman Mennonite Church, I was checking in on them to see how they were adjusting their…
How Was Your Harvest This Year? October 7, 2007 Tobi Thiessen Text: 1 Corinthians 11:17-34 In the 1 Corinthians passage that was just read, Paul is severely chastising the people at Corinth for failing to be true to the spirit of the Lord’s Supper. Disunity, humiliation of those who have nothing, allegations that they despise the church of God… The rebuke is severe and makes us wonder what was going on. Thankfully, we have Bible commentaries to give…
Fish, Feast & Ferment September 30, 2007 Rennie Regehr It’s simply not possible to hear the stories this morning without an overwhelming sense of the extraordinary; something huge is going on here. Isn’t it almost too much? Ridiculous in fact? Almost to the point of being gross? Just close your eyes and imagine: 1) These fishermen watching their two boats struggling to stay afloat under the weight of this remarkable catch of fish. 2) And what…
Christ Our Host September 23, 2007 Jeff Taylor Text: II Corinthians 5:14-21 Revelation 21:1-5, 22-27 Isaiah 60:1-5 Visit with me, as I recall it, a small apartment in 1990s greater Los Angeles: too many pieces of furniture for its size, a small kitchenette, a dining area with one of those early 70s faux-wood extending tables with the super heavy metal frame; and everywhere you look: mail, piles and piles of mail, almost all of it unopened. Lorina…
Basins, Pitchers & Crosses September 9, 2007Michele Rizoli Text: Jeremiah 18:1-11 Luke 14:25-33 Pottery has been around one way or another for about 10,000 years, it’s one of the most ancient artifacts (as any archaeologist could probably tell you). I guess it was an easy concept to figure out that one minute the clay could be squishing through your toes when you walked by the lake and a few days later the same stuff could be dry…
Walking the Race August 19th, 2007Jeremy Bergen Text: Hebrews 11:29-12:2 I didn’t want this sermon to in any way to be about “what I did on my summer holidays.” I really didn’t. After all, it has sometimes felt like Rebecca and I have been talking quite frequently about our trip to Spain in June. But, as I reflected on our texts for the week, and our summer theme of “at the crossroads, following God from grace to grace,” I just…
Being Rich Towards God August 5th, 2007 Kevin Derksen Text: Eccl. 1:2, 12-14, 2:18-23 Luke 12:13-21 Introduction I’m not sure I’ve ever heard a sermon preached on Ecclesiastes before. Sometimes at funerals or weddings or other such occasions we hear the list from chapter 3 about how everything has its season – ‘a time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to pluck up…’ – but we don’t hear much…
Flood, Grace, and the Winding Road to the Cross July 8th, 2007 Kevin Derksen Text: Genesis 9:8-17 God at the Crossroads When I started to think about the image of the crossroads as a summer theme, I imagined us, as God’s people, walking down the road of our lives, and coming to the inevitable intersections that open to us the uncertain possibilities of the unknown. I imagined God looking down benevolently from some vague ‘up there’ –…
The Unsettling Interim June 24th, 2007 Kevin Derksen Text: John 14:25-31 Romans 8:18-25 I was going to begin this morning by saying that June 24, 2007 is a day that will survive in TUMC consciousness only as ‘the Sunday after Gary and Lydia’s retirement weekend’. But I have a feeling that Ginny Lepp’s wonderful Kingdom Report just now is going to make that statement untrue. Thank you Ginny for reminding us that life goes on even without…