One of the difficult things about growing up is learning to make choices. In our confirmation class, I have been saying that confirmation is a choice — choosing to follow Christ. Life presents us with all sorts of choices, large and small, from what to eat for breakfast in the morning, and what we will wear that day, to what job we might have, whether we will get married and whom we will marry, and where we will live. Some choices are easy. Some are of little consequence.
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'Be careful how you live' (Trinity 10)
“Be careful then how you live, not as unwise people but as wise, making the most of the time.” So the Apostle Paul writes to the Ephesians. Paul almost always ends his letters with advice to the people, the church, he is writing to. He gives advice about how to live as a Christian, because believing in Christ was considered a new way of living life. In fact, in the earliest years after Jesus died and was resurrected, living a life following Christ was called “the Way.” It was intended as a way of life.
Read More'Transformation in Life's Complexities' (Trinity 9)
When I sat down to prepare this sermon, I was going to skip the story about King David. It did not seem necessary to what I had in mind to preach. But then I thought, we’ve been reading about David for weeks now, in stories that tear at the heart and stick in the mind: stories about him being just a lad and killing Goliath, and the story about Uriah the Hittite, David’s warrior, whom David has killed so he can marry Uriah’s wife, Bathsheba. …
Read More'An Ideal World' (Trinity 8)
Wouldn’t it be nice to live in an ideal world? Wouldn’t it be nice to be free of all the things that trouble us?
Read More'Rest and Peace' (Trinity 7)
One purpose of holidays is to give us rest. Rest from our work. Rest from school. Rest from the routine we live in. Holidays are to give us something different, so that we can have a break — so that we can rest.
These days, by this time, we might need something different. After 18 months of one lockdown after another, it is glorious to be able to go out again — to see people, to eat at a restaurant, to travel farther than 2 or even 5 kilometers from one’s own house.
But it seems people are working very hard at their resting.
Read More'Promises' (Trinity 6)
You may have heard me say that Kirk and I have been reading through the Bible since the beginning of January. We have been using a system that will get us through the entire Bible in a year. So, with half the year gone, by now we have read a whole lot of Bible stories. One thing I have been reminded of, from reading this much, is that whenever someone in the Bible makes a promise, they must stick to it. In fact, there have been a few stories where I start cringing as Kirk is reading it aloud, because I can tell that a person is making a promise that could come out very badly.
Read More'Freedom' (Trinity 5)
“O God, the author of peace and lover of concord, to know you is eternal life, and to serve you is perfect freedom…”
I remember when a line of this prayer suddenly jumped out at me, that line “to serve you is perfect freedom.” I thought what an interesting combination of words: to serve you (meaning God) is perfect freedom. This doesn’t fit with the way we usually think of freedom. To serve somebody — anybody — is freedom?
Read More'Defenses' (Trinity 3)
David and Goliath. Now there’s a story every child in Sunday school learns: how the lad David (he was perhaps a teenager) came up against the giant Goliath and killed him with a pebble fired from a slingshot. All the men of Israel’s army were afraid of this gigantic Philistine.
Read More'Look on the heart' (Trinity 2)
“The Lord does not see as mortals see; they look on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.”
Read More'Expectations' (Trinity 1)
Expectations can get us into trouble. When I meet with couples to help them prepare to get married, the main topic of conversation is expectations. The reason is, people come to a marriage with a set of expectations about how marriage is supposed to work. Often the expectations are unspoken, sometimes they are even unconscious, but they are there nonetheless, and they can rear their ugly heads at the most unfortunate times.
Read More'Conquer the World' (Easter 6)
There’s a word that keeps showing up in our readings, both last week and this week. It’s the word love…. That word love shows up in some way 5 times in the Epistle and 9 times in the Gospel. And last week, in a reading from John’s Letter, we heard the word love 27 times! In my sermon last week I said that we need to turn aside from everything that is not of love. I recognise there’s a problem with this, if I may say so. It could just sound so wimpy….
Read More'Abide in Me' (Easter 5)
We might talk about abiding by Covid-19 guidelines. It means to follow them, to act in accordance with the guidelines we have been given for living safely in the midst of this pandemic. The readings this week use the word “abide” several times, but it means something much deeper than just following rules. It means to let something dwell in you so deeply, to become so much a part of you, that it changes who you are.
Read More'What We Will Be...' (Easter 3)
“Beloved, we are God’s children now; what we will be has not yet been revealed.” This line is in the First Letter of John, in one of our readings today. It is quite a statement: “What we will be has not yet been revealed.” What does John mean?
Read More'Idealism' (Easter 2)
What are the characteristics of the Church? This was the question I asked at a Vestry retreat I was leading for a small church I served about 20 years ago. … At this particular retreat, the Vestry divided up into small discussion groups at first. Each group was given a passage from the Acts of the Apostles that described the behaviour of the very first Christians — those apostles who had been close disciples and friends of Jesus, and the people that they had baptised into the Christian faith at the very beginning of the Church.
Read More'Hosanna' (Palm Sunday 2021)
Whenever Palm Sunday comes around each year, I remember a certain event from my childhood. I was about seven years old, and I went to Sunday School at a Methodist church. This particular church was in a community with a lot of children, and so the church had a children’s choir.
Read More'Key to Happiness' (Lent 5)
A news report came out a few days ago that has fascinated me. It is the ranking of 149 countries of the world according to how happy its people are. Finland came in at #1, for the fourth year in a row, followed by Iceland, Denmark, Switzerland, and the Netherlands.
Read More'Refreshment' (Lent 4)
If you have been outside working, and you get all hot and thirsty, what do you do when you come inside? Perhaps reach for a nice glass of something cold to drink. Oh, sorry, with all the hail and sleet we have been having lately here in Ireland, perhaps I should say, if you are outside and get caught in the wind and the wintry mix, what do you do when you come inside? Perhaps reach for a nice hot cup of tea, or something else steaming.
Read More'Trying to Get It Right' (Lent 3)
I have a challenge for you. Take a sheet of paper and down the left side, put the numbers one through 10. Then see how many of the Ten Commandments you can list from memory.
Read More'The EMT of the Spirit' (Lent 2)
Someone once asked me why I follow Christ. Why would I choose to do this? It was a person who was struggling with church and faith, perhaps wanting to believe but not quite willing to commit. I think the person recognized that faith and religion were important to me and was curious what had made me take this path. I was surprised by the answer that automatically came out of my mouth. I said, “Because Christ rescued me.”
Read More'An Unpopular Word' (Lent 1)
There’s a joke that I know has been making the circuit in Adare recently, and perhaps farther afield. It is this: “For Lent this year, I’ve given up going to the pub.” Sometimes we have our Lenten disciplines imposed on us from the outside.
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