The Pastor's Blog

Our Scripture reading for this Sunday is Jonah 1:1-16. For the next four weeks we will be working through the book of Jonah. Next week we will look at Jonah 1:17-2:10. The following two weeks we will look at Jonah 3:1-4:3 and Jonah 4:1-11. As an introduction to Jonah and in preparation for this Sunday I invite you to read this quote from Paul Mackrell in his book, “Opening up Jonah.” Having been told to get up, Jonah gets up. But instead of going north and east, he chooses west. To use a British analogy, directed to the John O’Groats...

Our Scripture reading for this Sunday is Romans 12:1-8.  This Sunday we will commission leaders, teachers, counselors, helpers, and others for the work of the church in this upcoming education season. Please take some time to pray for them today, and throughout the year, as they use their gifts to serve God, the church, and each of us. To prepare for the sermon, I'm including a quote from a short article written about this passage (especially the first two verses of Romans 12) by Elizabeth Shively. "Looking at the first two verses [of Romans 12], we might conclude that worship...

The Scripture reading for this Sunday is Romans 13:8-14. (The sermon on Sunday will address more closely the reasons for Paul’s command to love in verses 11-14). “Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another, for whoever loves others has fulfilled the law.” – Romans 13:8 It’s important to note that in this verse, Paul is not talking about financial debt when he says let no debt remain outstanding as though we shouldn’t borrow any money. In verse 7, Paul has just instructed the Roman Christians to ‘pay what they owe’ with the idea being...

The Scripture reading for this Sunday is Matthew 16:21-28. “From that time on Jesus began to explain to his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of the elders, chief priests, and teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life.” – Matthew 16:21 In Matthew’s Gospel, this verse marks a transition in Jesus’ ministry. At the beginning of Jesus’ ministry in the Gospel of Matthew, just after the Jesus was tempted before his ministry began and the comment that Jesus would live...

The Scripture reading for this Sunday is Matthew 16:13-20. “But what about you?” [Jesus] asked. “Who do you say I am?” Simon Peter answered, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.” Last night I played in the first “playoff” game of the Windsor Ultimate (Frisbee) Summer League season. Since my team had the worst record throughout the regular season, we played the best team last night. And we got beat … bad (17-6 bad). But that’s beside the point. As the game got out of hand I got a little frustrated. I didn’t like the fact that...

The Scripture reading for this Sunday is Psalm 67. A lot of Hebrew writing follows a very different structure than our English writing. In our writing, it’s normal to see a structure where the writing flows from beginning to end, concluding with the main point (or the climax of the piece) at or near the end. However, in Hebrew, there are a lot of writings where the main point is in the middle with parallel ideas surrounding the main point. This structure is called a chiasm and it is especially common in Hebrew poetry like the Psalms. Psalm 67 follows...

The Scripture reading for this Sunday is Psalm 85. We don’t usually spend a lot of time remembering how good God used to be when things are going pretty well. We don’t wonder why God can seem so distant when we are in the middle of a time that God seems to be so close. We don’t wonder why God’s promises seem so far off when everything seems to be falling into place. We wonder those things when the opposite is true. We remember how good God used to be when, at the moment, God doesn’t seem so nice. We...

Our Scripture reading for this Sunday is the Parable of the Weeds found in Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43. Theodore Wardlaw writes, “This parable shines a bright light on our inevitable human preoccupation with drawing lines between who is ‘in’ and who is ‘out.’” After all, the servants seem to have a pretty practical approach to the presence of these weeds. Why not run through the field with a large group of workers, pull out the weeds, and cleanse the field? It’s obvious, isn’t it, in this parable that the wheat is ‘in’ and the weeds are ‘out’? Yes and no. There...

The Scripture reading for this Sunday is Mark 12:1-12 – The Parable of the (Wicked) Tenants. Take a moment to read through this parable. If you can, read through it a couple times. It all seems pretty clear, right? The vineyard planter is God. The tenant farmers are the religious leaders of Israel. The servants sent by owner of the vineyard are the prophets. The (beloved) son is Jesus. And this all becomes clearer when this parable is considered alongside Isaiah 5:1-7 where the image of a vineyard is used to describe God’s covenant people – the house of Israel....

The Scripture reading for this Sunday is Luke 15:11-32. For the next few weeks, like last summer, we will be studying the parables of Jesus. This week we look at one of the most well-known ones, usually known as, “The Parable of the Prodigal Son” or “The Parable of the Lost Son.” That name given to this parable indicates where we most often place the emphasis of this parable: on the younger brother. You know, the one who spurns his family responsibility, who takes his money and runs off to the big city lights away from the watchful eyes of...

The Scripture readings for this Sunday – when we celebrate Ascension Day – are Acts 1:1-11 and Ephesians 1:15-23. Acts 1:7-9 – “He said to them, ‘It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.’ After he said this, he was taken up before their very eyes, and a cloud hid them from their sight.” Ephesians 1:18-21...

The Scripture reading for this Sunday is Acts 17:16-34. “All the Athenians and the foreigners who lived there (Athens) spent their time doing nothing but talking about and listening to the latest ideas.” Acts 17:21 Even though Athens wasn’t the bustling major city that it once was when Paul visited – no longer was it at the “center of the world” for economic activity or military power – it was still a bustling city when it came to philosophical ideas. The Athenians loved to learn. They loved to ponder philosophy and religion and new concepts. They took pride in being...

The Scripture reading for this Sunday is 2 Peter 1:12-21. Parts of the service this Sunday will focus on World Renew and the Canadian Foodgrains Bank and not necessarily on this passage. Along with other CRC churches in Canada we will collect an offering for the ministry of the Canadian Foodgrains Bank and we will use a confession and assurance litany provided jointly by World Renew and the Canadian Foodgrains Bank. If you would like more information about the Canadian Foodgrains Bank, you can check out their website here.   In the past few days, Phoebe and I have been...

Our Scripture reading for this Sunday is 1 Corinthians 1:18-31. What is wisdom? According to the Oxford English Dictionary (online) wisdom is defined as: the quality of having experience, knowledge, and good judgement; the quality of being wise. (eg. “listen to his words of wisdom.”) A similar but different definition is found at Dictionary.com: the quality or state of being wise; knowledge of what is true or right coupled with just judgment as to action; sagacity, discernment, or insight. Those definitions fit the definition of wisdom in our world and in our culture today. Many believe that people gain wisdom...

The Scripture reading for this Sunday is Matthew 2:13-23. I invite you to read all of Matthew chapter 2, and as you do, you will notice something about the focus of Matthew’s writing – something that makes him distinct from the other Gospel writers. Four times in chapter 2 (three times in our passage for Sunday) Matthew quotes or alludes to the Old Testament finding it’s fulfillment in Jesus Christ. It’s not that other Gospel writers don’t do the same, but Matthew is particularly interested in showing his reading audience (predominantly Jewish) how Jesus is the fulfillment of the Torah...

Our Scripture readings for our Christmas worship service are: Luke 2:1-20 and Romans 5:1-8. At the beginning of our Advent series I read the following passage written by Rev. Paul DeVries (Brookside CRC, Grand Rapids, MI) and I think it is especially fitting to reflect on that again as we prepare to celebrate Christmas. We long for more. Especially at Christmastime, we long for more. I don’t mean the common longing for toys and family, carols and jolly feelings, eggnog and Santa. I mean a real, deep longing for something that actually fills us up and satisfies. We long for...

Our Scripture readings for this Sunday, the fourth Sunday of Advent, are: Isaiah 40:12-26 and Romans 4:18-25. Our theme is: We Waver. “Waver” can be defined as: “to become unsteady or unsure.” (Dictionary.com) In the song, “What Have We Become” by dc Talk, we hear of man and a child who waver. ========== A preacher shuns his brother because his wife’s a different colour, And this is not acceptable, his papa told him so. It was love that he’d been preaching, but this was overreaching, A boundary stretching further than his heart would choose to go. Ooh … like an...

Our Scripture readings this Sunday are: Luke 12:22-34 and Isaiah 40:9-11. Our Advent theme is, “We Worry.” These comments below were found by Troy Borst and placed on the SermonCentral website. He found them at ExperienceProject.com under the section, “I worry too much.” I think that we will all find that we can relate to one of them, or all of them, in some way. ********** Rodwali: Yes, I worry too much, and I admit that I don’t really like it. Although I know worrying is useless, but still can’t tame my worrying nature! It all started when I was...

The season of Advent in an intentional season of waiting. It is designed to cultivate our aware- ness of God’s action – past, present, and future. During Advent we hear the prophecies of the Messiah’s coming as addressed to us – the people of God – who wait for Christ’s second coming. During Advent we long for the ultimate fulfillment of all Old Testament promises, when the wolf will lie down with the lamb, death will be swallowed up, and every tear will be wiped away. In this way Advent highlights for us the larger story of God’s redemptive plan....

The Scripture reading for this Sunday is Exodus 20:15 (“You shall not steal”) and Matthew 6:19-24. Stealing isn’t a crime reserved for crooks and criminals. We all do it.             Maybe we take an extra long lunch hour, knowing that our boss won’t notice.             Maybe we just put in our time at work, but not really give our full effort.             Maybe we take advantage of a few loopholes when we file our taxes. While this is fully ‘legal,’ we abuse the spirit of the law in order to save a buck or two.             Maybe we notice when...