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Why bother being a Church?

Date: Sunday, February 04, 2018 Teacher: Rev. David L.S. Robertson Duration: 17 mins 50 secs

Passage: 1 Corinthians 12:12-27 & Acts 2:43-47

Series Why Bother - Winter 2018

Description: Why bother going to church? Rabbi Schmuel Kaplan tells the story of an employee who approaches the boss in order to ask for a raise. Well, you can imagine the boss pummelling the employee’s request with any number of questions that have to do with justifying why a raise is so deserving. While going to the boss individually is a worthy endeavour, imagine the difference if all the employees showed up at the same time or, the union reps are part of the meeting? The weight of the request would shift in a very different way. No doubt, the rational for the increase in wage would be more convincing. No matter, the boss would have to hear the request very differently. Well says, Rabbi Schmuel, imagine one person praying to God compared to a whole community praying to God. Not that individual prayer is any less significant, but there’s more capacity when a whole community prays. We must not underestimate the power of corporate prayer. And of course, the Hebrew Scriptures and the New Testament writings are filled with expressions of corporate prayer. In fact, the synagogue was developed to create a context for local corporate prayer so everyone in their town could come together and pray. The roots of the Judeo-Christian faith are community-based and grounded in congregational life. And the soul reason for that is founded on praying together. Why bother going to church? We go because it matters that we pray together in community one with the other. We bring our whole self to church. We bring all that matters to us. We bring our worries, our anxieties, our intentions, our concerns, our gratitude, our joy, our compassion, our vision, our hope, our skills, abilities, talents, possessions, our desires for everyone’s well-being into a corporate community expression of prayer. Amazing really.

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Why Bother Believing in God?

Date: Sunday, January 21, 2018 Teacher: Rev. David L.S. Robertson Duration: 24 mins 17 secs

Passage: Deuteronomy 6:1-9 & Acts 17:16-28

Series Why Bother - Winter 2018

Description: Rev. David explores what it means to believe in God, in non-traditional terms and rooted deeply in the Judeo-Christian path.

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Why Bother with Faith?

Date: Sunday, January 14, 2018 Teacher: Rev. Susan Lukey Duration: 24 mins 42 secs

Passage: Romans 12:1-8 & Matthew 4:18-25

Series Why Bother - Winter 2018

Description: We are in the year 2018. We are surrounded with technological advances and scientific understandings more than any other time. We have landed on the moon, have a space station orbiting the earth, and are talking about living on Mars. Information speeds around our planet instantaneously. We can talk and facetime with a friend on the other side of our planet with only micro-seconds of delay. The list could go on – we are a people who have so much, know so much, have discovered so much - so why do we bother with faith? The truth is that 100 years ago or 1,000 years ago or 10,000 years ago people probably were saying the same thing wherever they lived – we know so much more than our ancestors, we have discovered so much more. People living 100 or 1,000 years from now may look back at us and wonder at what primitive lives we lived. It all reminds us that we are part of something so much more, that there is something much greater and much more mysterious going on than all our scientific advances or medical knowledge or technological break throughs can totally capture. That is when we turn to faith – faith in God, in a More that is Mystery, and Love, and Wonder, and Possibility. We choose faith in our generation. In past centuries, faith was assumed. People included faith practice in their lives in the way they would include food and labour and sleep. They could not have imagined life without religious practice and a sense of faith as a foundation to all they did. But we are in a time when, because of all the science and technology, because of rapid change and human migration, and because of some horrendous actions by religious people which overshadow the good that faith can do, having a faith or religious practice at the core of your life is no longer assumed. We now live in a culture formed much more around materialism and science, though even science, too, has a hard time being taken seriously and is sometimes dismissed. For the first time in history, to follow a faith and a religious practice is a choice, not a given.

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Opening Our Eyes & Minds to Hope

Date: Sunday, January 07, 2018 Teacher: Rev. David L.S. Robertson Duration: 13 mins 19 secs

Passage: Isaiah 60:1-6 & Mark 1:9-12

Series Why Bother - Winter 2018

Description: Arise shine, YOUR light has come. On this Epiphany Sunday, it’s like the words of Isaiah are saying to us Christians: “OK, you have passed through Advent and lit the candles of hope, peace, joy and love in anticipation of the celebrated birth of Jesus. You have gathered on Christmas Eve and lit more candles and proclaimed the light of God that even the darkness cannot put out. you have gathered around the manger and pondered the mystery of God’s incarnation—of being born—in the baby Jesus and how amazing that is remembering of course that it’s the tradition’s way of inviting you to be aware that you are also the embodiment of God’s presence—the hands and feet of Christ. Then, if your household is like mine, we collapsed into the week between Christmas and New Years—perhaps still frantically working the kitchen, cleaning, travelling, eating and drinking, enjoying family time. And then we land on Epiphany with Isaiah’s words. It’s as if the prophet is wondering, “OK you have done all that. Now what are you going to do about it? Arise, shine, YOUR light has come. The glory of the LORD has risen upon you…. Lift up your eyes, look around..... While this is an awesome text post Christmas. I think it would be even more fun to read on Groundhog Day imagining the returning spring light as we drift out of winter’s hibernation. But let’s not get too far from the point. I believe that Isaiah’s words are intended to help us bask in God’s light of hope and promise and vision. Our light has come. The Prophet’s invitation is to lift up our eyes and look around. This is especially significant for our congregation. We have weathered the past 5 years of our own version of exile and return post disaster. We have suffered emotional losses, material losses, human losses and physical losses to be sure. We are finding our way home to a new kind of normalcy how ever we understand that and now, in this season of Epiphany—the season when the tradition remembers and points to God’s revelation in the newborn Christ—we enter God’s light arising and shining upon us. It’s the time when we move more deeply and intentionally into our spiritual identity as God’s people living our faith and compassion in community as a congregation. It’s the time when we own what we say and do, proclaim it, and reconstitute ourselves for a life in mission and ministry together.

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Smile!

Date: Sunday, December 31, 2017 Teacher: Guest Worship Leaders Duration: 12 mins 24 secs

Passage: Psalms 126 & Proverbs 15:13-30

Description: Guest preacher: Celia Penman talks about a new year's resolution of smiling!

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A Quiet Space on Christmas Eve 9:00 pm

Date: Sunday, December 24, 2017 Teacher: Rev. David L.S. Robertson Duration: 12 mins 5 secs

Passage: Matthew 1:18-25 & Luke 2:1-20

Series Advent 2017

Description: Rev. David speaks of the need for quiet space on Christmas Eve to reflect on our faith.

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Why We Bother with Christmas! - 7:00 pm

Date: Sunday, December 24, 2017 Teacher: Rev. Susan Lukey Duration: 9 mins 17 secs

Passage: Matthew 1:18-25 & Luke 2:1-20

Series Advent 2017

Description: So why do we bother? Why do we come to church on Christmas Eve, or any other day of the year? When we could be snuggled up at home, or feasting with family, or reading a good book, or enjoying a favourite Christmas movie? Yet, here we are – gathered on this sacred night to worship. We are unique in some ways. Many in our society have abandoned the Christ in Christmas, and still celebrate with gift-giving and parties, and big meals with family and friends. The sparkling lights of many colours decorating homes, streets and businesses are a delight in this season. News comes from friends and family far away in Christmas cards. A shopping frenzy marks the last weeks before Christmas. But, more and more, there is no sign of Jesus in any of these – not on the Christmas cards available for purchase or in the stories told around the season. Some of this is good, in that it recognizes that there are many faiths and many festivals of light celebrated in our country. Hanukkah, the Jewish festival was celebrated from December 12 to 20 this year. Diwali, the Hindu and Sikh festival of lights, was celebrated in October. Kwanzaa is celebrated by African-Americans for eight days, starting December 26. At the beginning of this month, our Muslim neighbours celebrated Eid-e-Milad, the birthday of the prophet Mohammed. So, some of the reason that we don’t see Jesus in all of the celebrations is simply that other faiths are celebrating their reasons for the season. And that diversity adds to the richness of spirituality in this country. But more and more, Christmas is becoming a secular holiday, devoid of faith and the story of Jesus’ birth. People happily put up trees, count down with Advent calendars, and buy gifts at this time of year, as something quite separate from what we do here this evening. So why do we bother? We bother because there is something profound, something mystical, something for which our spirits yearn, found in the story of Jesus. In a barn, some 2,000 years ago, a child was born, who was named, “God with us.” And in this child we find something that the world can not offer us. We find hope that transcends tragedy, peace that transcends chaos, joy that transcends grief, and love that transcends the judgement of the world.

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Overwhelmed with Joy - in the midst of sorrow

Date: Sunday, December 17, 2017 Teacher: Rev. Susan Lukey Duration: 10 mins 45 secs

Passage: Isaiah 55:1-13 & Matthew 1:1-12

Series Advent 2017

Description: Overwhelmed with joy! That’s how the gospel describes the feeling of the wisemen, when the star guides them right to the house in Bethlehem where they find the child named Jesus. Overwhelmed with joy! Can you think of a moment in your life when you have felt overwhelmed with joy? It is not an every day thing. It is something extraordinary, something more than could be imagined. It is a moment when there is a smile on your face and tears running down your cheeks; a moment when all seems right with the world, even if chaos is all around you. It comes unexpectedly; it is never anticipated or planned or managed. It is a moment that takes your breath away. That’s what it is to be overwhelmed with joy. Our society speaks freely of happiness. Happiness can be an every day thing. I feel happy when I’ve accomplished some work or found an item (on sale!) that I had been searching for in the store. But joy is something so much more. Joy comes even in the midst of sorrow. Joy is not confined to times when life has gone perfectly or easily. In fact, joy often follows a time of challenge or struggle. That’s what it was for these wiseones.

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A Time for Hope

Date: Sunday, December 03, 2017 Teacher: Rev. David L.S. Robertson Duration: 19 mins 22 secs

Passage: 1 Timothy 6:7-19 & Luke 1:39-56

Series Advent 2017

Description: Perhaps you have noticed that the light in the front entry way to our church is left on 24 hours. Early in the building phase of this facility a decision was made to keep the light on as a beacon of hope for our town and the world. The light shines because we are people of light and hope following in the way and wisdom of Jesus Christ. Our mission clearly states that our church a community of help, home, and hope. The letter of 1 Timothy helps us think about what that means even more. But first, lest we be distracted by one thing, let’s get that out of the way. The writer of 1 Timothy makes it clear that money is not evil. It is the love of money that is evil. It is the love of money and riches that leads to the entrapment of senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction and causes them to be pierced by many pains. Wow. So, let’s be sure we’ve got that. The second thing that we need to clarify is that 1 Timothy wants us to understand that because we are rich (and let’s just assume that by the world’s standards we are all rich) we are commanded not to be haughty or to set our hope on the uncertainty of riches but rather on God who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment. We are to be rich in our good works, generous and ready to share… So where does this wisdom invite us to place our hope? On our riches? Or in God who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment, our good works, and our practice of generosity? There is only one correct answer here. Our hope is God, the one who provides richly for us—the one who is the source of wisdom, the one who inspires hope. When we share generously, we rest our hope in God.

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We believe in God - our higher power

Date: Sunday, November 26, 2017 Teacher: Revs. Susan/David Duration: 24 mins 23 secs

Passage: Psalms 104:1-24

Series A Journey with Time

Description: A conversation between Rev. David & Rev. Susan about honouring God as the higher power in our lives, why we believe in God, and how science points us in that direction. We bless you today, o God, for you are great beyond imagining. You are clothed with honour and majesty, wrapped in light as a garment, draped in the beautiful deep darkness of space. Your love wraps the earth, underlying all that is. You do not intervene and interrupt the free will you gave us; yet you are always offering the influence & wisdom of your love. You, who are divine, invite us, who are human, to be partners in the mending and tending and repair of this earth. We bless you today, o God, for you are great beyond imagining, and yet, you love and know us, comfort and care for us, calling us to the Way of Jesus, for the healing of lives and planet. You, o God, are our higher power, the greatest gift of all. Amen.

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