Text: Mark 1:29-45 (Jesus heals many people) * Video of the complete service * Order of service (PDF) How should we view Jesus? The Biblical scholar Marcus Borg suggests five different lenses: seeing Jesus as a mystic; a healer; a sage; a prophet; and a movement-founder; and this winter as the global pandemic enters its second year, we might … [Read more…]
Text: Mark 1:21-28 (Jesus teaches with authority) Video of the complete service * Order of service Has a sermon ever changed your life? Or can you barely remember most of them one hour after church has ended? Sermons rarely stick with me. My late father was a minister, and he must have delivered more than 2,000 sermons … [Read more…]
Order of service (PDF file) * Video of the complete service Preamble to worship Today as we read further into the Gospel of Mark, we encounter the first time that Jesus mentions the central symbol of his movement: “the kingdom of God.” Today, I will reflect on what this symbol might mean and its implications … [Read more…]
Text: Mark 1:1-13 (the baptism of Jesus) * Video of complete service * Order of service “Here begins the Good News of Jesus Christ.” So writes Mark as he starts his narrative of the life of Jesus of Nazareth. This is not the first sentence in the New Testament, but it should be. When the Roman Empire made … [Read more…]
Text: Matthew 2 (the visit of the Magi; the flight to Egypt) * Video of complete service * Order of service (opens PDF) What was revealed on Epiphany in Washington DC this past Wednesday? On January 6, a day in which the church celebrates the story of a journey by magi to Bethlehem, a mob of white supremacists stormed … [Read more…]
Text: John 1:1-18 (“In the beginning”) * Video of complete service * Order of service How are we supposed to feel after Christmas? During the season, we celebrate the birth of Jesus and rejoice in the rebirth of love within our hearts. But what if Christmas didn’t really pan out for us this year? On … [Read more…]
Text: Luke 2:21-40 (Jesus presented at the Temple) Video of entire service * Order of service (opens a PDF file) This week, as the calendar changes from December 2020 to January 2021, how will we name the year that is passing? Many have already named it the year of the pandemic, although it did not … [Read more…]
Text: Luke 2:1-20 (the birth of Jesus) Video of the complete service * Order of service On April 12, I titled my Easter Sunday reflection “Silent spring.” This referred to the gospel stories about Easter, to the private nature of the rebirth of love within our hearts, and to the eerie quiet in Edmonton during … [Read more…]
Texts: “Our deepest fear” by Marianne Williamson * Luke 1:46-56 (Mary’s song) Video of complete service “Christmas comes but once a year,” or so goes an old saying that encourages us to celebrate it with abandon. But when I was a child, I came to the happy realization there was more than one Christmas each … [Read more…]
Texts: from “Lifesigns” by Henri Nouwen * Luke 1:26-45 (the birth of Jesus foretold) Video of complete service When I dream about Christmas, I find it easier to imagine feeling joy next year – Christmas 2021 — than this year; probably because many of us hope and expect that by next fall, the COVID-19 pandemic … [Read more…]