May 10, 2026

One of the things that gets the apostle Paul into trouble is that he is quite arrogant about his faith. That sense of superiority tends to really annoy people of other faith. In this passage, it appears he has learned some lessons of the hard knock variety. What he has learned is to first take time to look at the culture, the art, and religious practices of Athens. If we are to be the most generous of our assessment of Paul at this time, we would say that he wasn’t looking for a weakness in the religion or culture but rather trying to understand some of their baseline metaphors.

May 3, 2026

We had two very powerful readings today. The first from the Act of the Apostles which is referred to as ‘the stoning of Stephen.’ But there is so much more going on in this passage than that horrible death. In it, we are hearing of the last days and death of Jesus directly mirrored in what happens to Stephen. 

In both cases, the actions of the leaders to attack Jesus or Stephen have more to do with jealousy than theology. It has much more to do with the fear of change than faith in God. ……………….

April 26, 2026

I want to thank the young people for their leadership all through the worship service and I’d like us to give them some feedback. I happen to really enjoy using American Sign Language when we are passed the peace with the shaking of hands. The passing of the peace by shaking of hands goes back before Covid. So I want to ask folks and this is not evaluation of one over the other, just, “how did it feel to have the young people begin the passing of the peace that gave you permission to shake the hands of others?

April 19, 2026

Last week I spoke about how those who gathered that first Pentecost morning were pilgrims. Pilgrims are by definition those who take time from the busyness of life to seek answers to the big questions in their lives. In some ways you could say that they are creating an emotional and spiritual crossroads. A dividing point where they aspire to be different. When they hear Peters witness about Jesus and know both in their head and heart that this is life changing truth. This is where they have truly hit that crossroads. We know they hit it because they ask,” what then shall we do?”

April 12, 2026

The reading this morning from Acts of the Apostles, which we will be following throughout the season of Easter is often read on Pentecost Sunday. Pentecost is considered to be the birth of the church. It was the day when the Holy Spirit touched pilgrims that had gathered in Jerusalem from all the various corners of the known world. These were faithful Jews, that had returned to Jerusalem, the centre of their faith for the high holy days. 

Something that we forget, or perhaps like myself had not really thought about before was that these were not followers of Jesus. So let be clear their reason for being in Jerusalem was not Jesus. They were there on pilgrimage so that they might come closer to God.

April 5, 2026

Last week, I said that the last discipline in our Lenten, and now Easter journey was the discipline of learning how to die, so that we might live. It is no accident that the various disciplines that I have talked about in the season of Lent leads us to this day and this ultimate of all disciplines. Learning to die in a spiritual sense involves two things. The first is being open to the voice of God and secondly, in how we see the world after we have heard that voice.