Gratitude & Generosity

Pentecost 8c Luke 12:13-21 Preached at Hilldale Lutheran Church, Thunder Bay, on the occasion of a pastor’s retirement Grace and peace to you in the name of Jesus.  Amen. In our gospel reading today, Jesus is speaking to his disciples as a crowd gathers.  Jesus knows that his time with them will… Continue reading

God IS Relationship

Trinity Sunday–Year CJune 12, 2022Sherwood Park Lutheran Church, Winnipeg, Manitoba Today is Trinity Sunday—a day to focus on a concept that we use to explain what we know is complex and unexplainable.  We can’t confine the Trinity—this idea that God is 3 separate but united ‘persons’—to one Sunday. Just like we… Continue reading

Not Just a Pentecost Moment

Day of Pentecost-Year CActs 2:1-21; John 14: 8-17 [25-27]Brandon Lutheran Church, Brandon, Manitoba Grace, mercy and peace to you in the name of Jesus.  Amen.   Today, we come to the end of the Easter season. Pentecost Sunday is the 50th day of the Easter season, the season that began with Mary… Continue reading

One-ness and Relationship

Easter 7CJohn 17:17-24May 29, 2022 Grace, mercy and peace to you in the name of Jesus, Amen. Today is the final Sunday in the season of Easter.  But instead of a resurrection story, our gospel reading today takes us back to the evening before Jesus is arrested, tried and crucified.  In John’s… Continue reading

Saving Seats and Measures of Greatness

A sermon based on Mark 10:35-45, Oct. 17, 2021 If your home was anything like mine, there was more than one sibling spat about who got to sit where.  I grew up with brothers, and we would regularly compete for the best seats at the table, in the car, or even… Continue reading

Nurturing Faith with Children

We don’t need new programs, expensive curriculum, or charismatic staff to nurture and support faith formation with children.  We also don’t need to hold on to metrics of success anchored in old models.  We DO need to clarify our purpose for wanting to engage children, become comfortable telling our own stories of transformation, take seriously the promises we say together at baptism, regenerate a commitment to tend to our own faith, and continue to respond to the Holy Spirit’s presence in our communities. Continue reading

Object Permanence

This devotion was initially created for publication in Eternity for Today, a devotional resource from the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada, for the week of March 12, 2022 Isaiah 55:1-9 Seek the Lord while [the Lord] may be found, call upon [God] while [God] is near; (Is. 55:6) In early… Continue reading