“Longing for New Life”: Matthew 28

Today we come to the end of our Lenten Series on the theme “unbound: longing for wholeness”,  

Where we’ve pondered whether “the opposite of being bound is being whole? “

We’ve come to realize that our world is filled with things that hold us captive. These things that bind us prevent us from living the...

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Do you ever long for courage?

Do you ever wish you had more courage for things that mattered?

Wholeness requires courage.

For us to be whole as individuals and as a community,we need to sometimes be brave.

Just sitting on our hands and remaining silent is not enough,

And we realize that part of ourselves is missing.

Sometimes you have to stand...

As a child,  

my mother would often read Bible stories to me before bedtime,  

and one of my favourite stories was the one about Joseph.

The story still sparks my imagination because it has all the elements of a powerful drama: jealousy, betrayal, false accusation, political intrigue, disaster, and reconciliation.  

Many of the...

It's probably not too surprising  

if I told you  

that I don’t follow professional Football.  

I also had never listened to any songs by Bad Bunny,the stage name of Benito Antonio Martinez Ocasio.

But there I was last Sunday, with millions of others,  

catching the Super Bowl Half Time Show,

Probably the biggest annual...

I don’t know about you,  

but when I hear the words “Behold the Lamb of God”,

I immediately think of the beginning of Part 2 of Handel’s Messiah,  

with the stately chorus  

(And no I won’t sing it) “Behold the Lamb of God”  

echoing the words of John the Baptist from today’s Gospel Reading.

John’s witness about Jesus starts...

It’s not usual to preach on Christmas Day about the beginning of John’s Gospel.  

Normally, the focus on this day is on the shepherds or the angels or another aspect of Luke’s version of the birth of Jesus.

So this will take a different direction than normal.

The verses I read from the Fourth Gospel describe a

Journey from  

above to...

I think that it goes almost without saying that there are lot of vulnerable people in the world today.

We might think about the undocumented migrants in the US

who are caught up in the waves of ICE incarcerations and deportations.

We might remember that there are over  

one hundred million displaced persons globally  

due to conflicts,...

On this last Sunday of the Church Year,  

the final Sunday of the three-year Lectionary cycle,

We get a text straight from Good Friday.

It seems strange to be hearing about the Crucifixion at a time other than Holy Week,

It almost seems to come out of left field.

But today, on a day where we ponder the Reign of Christ, or how Christ is King...

This is my first time leading a Remembrance Sunday service,  

although I’ve participated in many in Montreal.  

Growing up in the Anglican Cathedral,  

we were the regimental church of the Grenadier Guards  

(You know the ones with the crimson outfit  

and the tall bearskin hats),  

and we celebrated every...

In my early teens, a favourite hip-hop artist of mine was MC Hammer.

Nowadays he’s remembered for  

His “Hammer pants” which were super baggy pants made of parachute material,

Which might be worn by the female dancers of an Arabian nights harem.

As is common with many US American pop singers

Every so often they record a Christian-themed...