through the valley of the shadow

This coming Thursday, March 8 I am to be the first of three speakers in a Lenten series that is being sponsored by the United Church Campus Ministry at UBC. My colleague Caroline Penhale and the campus ministry program assistant Ryan Slifka have invited three of us to address a psalm through the lens of the theme "Through the Valley of the Shadow: Reflections on Pain, Suffering and Life with God". The gatherings begin at 12:30 in room 200 of the Iona building at the Vancouver School of Theology. I will offer a witness grounded in Psalm 30. My testimony is titled: "I Was Dismayed: Living with an Incurable Illness". In the weeks following two of my colleagues in the Vancouver-Burrard Presbytery - Kathryn Ransdell and Bruce Sanguin - will offer reflections, one on living with mental illness and distress that will be rooted in Psalm 25 and the other on the ecological crisis as an identity crisis that will be rooted in Psalm 19. If you live within reach of VST you are most welcome to attend any or all of these sessions. If not, you will find the notes of my presentation posted here on Thursday afternoon.

the joyous cry of Christ

"Nevertheless, the sermon itself is not a personal performance by the pastor for the purpose of displaying his ability to produce something from hard texts. The sermon is first and foremost the 'joyous cry of Christ' (Luther)."

- Dietrich Bonhoeffer (Bonhoeffer: Worldly Preaching", p. 159)

it is not a good sign

"It is not a good sign when someone says that the sermon was beautiful or moving. It is a good sign when the congregation begin to open up their Bibles and to follow the text."

- Dietrich Bonhoeffer ("Bonhoeffer: Worldly Preaching", p. 157)

wouldn't you like it?

"We can neither understand nor preach the gospel tangibly enough. A truly evangelical sermon must be like offering a child a beautiful red apple or holding out a glass of water to a thirsty man and asking: Wouldn't you like it?"

- Dietrich Bonhoeffer ("Bonhoeffer: Worldly Preaching", p. 16)

a strange country

"I have noticed that the most effective sermons were those in which I spoke enticingly of the gospel, like someone telling children a story of a strange country. The difficulty in principle remains: one should give milk, but one doesn't know what that means and wonders whether one isn't giving sugared water by mistake."

- Dietrich Bonhoeffer ("Bonhoeffer: Worldly Preaching", p. 12)

ephesians week one

The word picture here indicates the number of times words are used in the letter to the Ephesians and portrays the letter's emphasis well. The heart of the faith, of the church, of the gospel is Christ who makes us one people. Our first week hosting this letter caught us up in its elliptical phrases and spiraling logic. Like an impressionist painting, its power is often experienced as a whole piece more than in the individual verses.

preacher's notes on ephesians 2:11-22

The following article was written to provide preachers with some suggestive options for a sermon that proclaims the message of Ephesians 2:11-22. If you were preaching a sermon on this text ... or listening to one ... where would you want the emphasis to fall? What is the Word from God from these verse for our time and place? for you at this point in your life?

This text is one that every congregation needs in its repertoire. Here Paul describes the shocking nature of the church. Reading these verses one guesses that it did not take long for the church to forget the radical nature of its life together. Yet Paul does not sound impatient. “So then, remember ... that you were at one time without Christ” (vs. 11-12) he begins. “So, then, you are no longer strangers” (vs. 19) he concludes. A sermon grounded in this passage will do well to adopt this moderate “so then, remember” tone as it unfolds the extraordinary story that it tells.