Sermons and Preaching

The Matter of Amalek

Read Exodus 17: 8-16 and 1 Samuel 15: 1-8 to start.

How often has it happened to you that you are assigned a task that you don’t really want to do? That probably happens a fair amount for most of us. At home, I tell my kids to empty the dishwasher, or load the dishwasher, or empty the dish rack, or other things that may not even involve dishes, and no one is jumping with joy because they were really hoping to do that. At work I ask people to do things, I assign them tasks, some more welcome than others, and I likewise am frequently asked to do various tasks, some of which are ‘sure, no problem, I’ll get right on that,’ and others are more of  is there an option to apply a cheese grater to my face instead of doing that, because that would be preferable?

How do you respond when given an assignment, in particular one that is unpleasant, unwelcome, or one that might seem to be nigh impossible? Do you undertake it willingly, eagerly, or with great reluctance and delay, because if you do it too slow, or too poorly, maybe it will go away, and you won’t have to do it after all?

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Sermons and Preaching

Choosing Daily

Read John 14:21-31 to start.

At work I have a tendency to put on background music on Spotify, because my family all wanted get the premium version of that, and if I’m going to be paying for it, I’m going to get my money’s worth. This can be very random at times, because I’m picking music every day, and I like to keep it varied. Besides, often I’m away from my desk so lots of it I don’t even hear.

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Sermons and Preaching

Who Do You Think You Are?

Read Revelation 3: 14-19.

Before we get started, I’m going to let folks in on something that might surprise you. If you knew me when I was a kid, then you might not be surprised at all, mind you, but there’s not too many people here today that knew me then. In any case, when I was a child, there were times when I was, well, let’s use the term “too big for my britches.” Even though I was at times shy and socially awkward, once I felt decently confident in a given situation, or when I was certain that I was right, which was probably not quite as often as I thought it was, then I would push forward boldly and assert my position, regardless of consequences or hurt feelings.

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Sermons and Preaching

David and the Gibeonites

Read 2 Samuel 21:1-14 to start.

Before I begin this morning, I’m going to start with a warning. This is not a pleasant or happy passage of scripture, and this is not a pleasant or happy sermon. It details with a lot of disturbing and violent things, so if you are squeamish, I apologize in advance. It also raises some real and important questions that I think we all need to address, now perhaps more than ever.

I will start with the questions, there are three of them.

  1. How do we behave when the balance of power tips in our favour?
  2. How do we react when things go wrong?
  3. How do we respond when we are treated unfairly?

We’ll get to those in a few minutes, but first, here’s something that you probably don’t know about me. You might know that I was born in a country that no longer exists, namely, the former Yugoslavia. But you probably don’t know that technically speaking, I’m Serbian Orthodox. They baptized me into that particular church when I was a baby, because my mom had been raised Catholic, and really, really wanted to make sure I got baptized right away. Serbian Orthodox was the most readily available option in Belgrade in 1975.

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Sermons and Preaching

Chosen and Accepted

Read Luke 1:46-56.

This morning I did something that I do almost every morning, and something that I generally only do on Sunday mornings when I know I’m going to be up here behind the pulpit. I made choices, specifically this shirt and tie combination. Yes, I also chose my pants and my socks, but you can’t really see those at the moment, can you? This might seem like a trivial thing, but I counted and I have 32 collared shirts that I could wear with a tie, and more than 20 ties, so that is a lot of combinations. If you’re wondering why I have so many shirts and ties, back when I worked retail I had a wear to a tie to work most days, and even though I don’t now, I still have most of them.

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Sermons and Preaching

Mountains and Valleys

Ready 1 Peter 4:12-19 and Ecclesiastes 11:1-8 to start.

This will probably not come as a surprise to anyone, but I’m not a climber. I really don’t climb all that much. Not trees, not rocks, not ladders if I can help it, and certainly not mountains. Stairs I can handle. I might hike trails from time to time, but climbing is more of a challenge for me. Having short legs and being a heavyset person doesn’t exactly mesh with vertical ascents.

Some people do like to climb mountains though. People climb pretty much every mountain there is, even when it’s incredibly dangerous. Sometimes I expect because it’s incredibly dangerous. More than 400 people have died on Mount Everest, for example, five of them so far this year. I certainly wouldn’t want to try climbing it myself, especially when weighed against the risk, but lots of people do it. All of those dead bodies on Everest, for example, were once highly motivated individuals. They wanted to get the top of the tallest mountain on earth, and they endured severe hardship to do so, even at the cost of their lives.

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Sermons and Preaching

The Bread of Life

Read John 6:1-14 and 26-41 to start.

Many years ago, when I was in high school and starting university, I worked at a 24 hour gas station. There are lots of stories I could tell about that place, between interesting coworkers, colourful customers, the unbelievable amount of mess that you have to clean up when you break a 1.5L glass bottle of Pepsi, but that’s not what I want to talk about this morning. This gas station was special in that it had a bakery, a real bakery, with dough and ovens and everything. That meant that most every morning, six days a week if I recall correctly, there was a baker who came in and baked bread. When you worked night shift, which ended at 7:00 am, and the baker came in around 6:00, if you were lucky you would enjoy the smell of fresh baked bread at the end of shift.

I don’t know about you, but there are few smells better than the scent of fresh baked bread. Usually we get store-bought bread, but Laura bakes bread occasionally, and the smell just fills the house. It’s so good. A loaf of fresh bread also looks amazing, she brushes a little melted butter on top of the bread while it’s still warm to crisp up the crust and enhance the flavour. It’s rare that a loaf lasts a full 24 hours.

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Uncategorized

Hope Devotion

We are gathered here today to remember and celebrate Garry Hope, or Hope as many people called him. Garry was my father in law for the last 22 years, and he was a father, a grandfather, a husband, a neighbour, and a friend, to so many others for far longer than that in many cases. No matter how you knew him, what your relationship with him might have been, you no doubt knew his smile, his laugh, and his enthusiasm.

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Uncategorized

Stuff My Kids* Have Said, Volume Three

It’s been a full year since since the last volume of Stuff My Kids Have Said, and four years since Volume One. But of course my children continue to talk, and some of what they say is far too memorable and far too amusing to keep to myself.

Last time I included a quote from myself, this time there’s one from my wife, because it’s entirely deserving to be here.

Once again, kids, apologies in advance.

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Sermons and Preaching

Darkness and Light

Read to 1 John 1 and Genesis 1:1-4 to start

Are you familiar with the song “The Sound of Silence” by Simon and Garfunkel? While I enjoy the song, it’s not exactly a cheerful tune; it’s about social isolation and alienation. Although it’s more than 60 years old, it feels even more relevant now than it did in the 1960s. I mention it this morning because we’re going to be talking about darkness and light this morning, and that song starts with the line “Hello darkness my old friend, I’ve come to talk with you again.”

Let’s get one thing straight right off the mark — darkness is not your friend. Oh, you might be friendly with darkness, you might be comfortable with it, but certainly darkness will be as comfortable and accommodating as you want it to be, but it’s not your friend. A friend wants good things for you, and darkness does not.

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