Last Easter Sunday I had the privilege of celebrating the resurrection with the Church of Pentecost in Winnipeg. Overseer Gabriel Addo-Asante has shared with me a recording of my sermon. In some ways, we find ourselves, just a year later, in a much different space. In other ways, though, it is the same world: God’s good creation marred by Sin, held in captivity to Death, redeemed in Christ’s cross, awaiting the final revelation of the children of God.
My friend Paul Johansen has been sharing daily devotionals with the congregation of Good Shepherd Community Church in Scarborough, ON during this Lenten season of social distancing. He’s given me permission to share his reflection for Holy Saturday. Continue reading “What in the World Is Going on Today”: A Holy Saturday Reflection
The social distancing measures that have been prescribed in the attempt to “flatten the curve” of the Coronavirus pandemic, have resulted in the unprecedented (in our lifetime) necessity of celebrating the events of Holy Week and the season of Easter in relative isolation in our homes.
In the attempt to encourage the faithful, and also recognizing that many people now have additional time on their hands, I will be aiming to make available some audio and video of previously recorded sermons and lectures.
Last summer, one of my Good Friday sermons, “The Death of an Extremist” appeared in the journal Theodidaktos published by the Evangelical Mennonite Conference. I was able to track down an audio recording of the service in which the sermon was preached at Good Shepherd Community Church in Scarborough, ON in 2009.
I’ve had the privilege of spending this week with the Doctor of Ministry cohort at Providence Theological Seminary leading them a week-long intensive course entitled “Thinking and Interpreting Theologically.” While not large in size, the members of the cohort manage to represent both coasts of Canada, the province of Manitoba, and the country of Nigeria. Continue reading The Meaning of a Sermon: Some Wisdom from Flannery O’Connor
My colleague at Providence Theological Seminary, Joshua Coutts, Assistant Professor of New Testament, recently presented a wonderful paper on the nature and use of Scripture at our Fall Biblical and Theological Studies Symposium. The paper was entitled, “Formed by the Word in an Age of Information: Recovering a Christian Approach to Scripture.” Another of my colleagues, Ed Neufeld, Professor of Biblical Studies provided a short response, in which he began by drawing some connections between Coutts’s paper and my essay “A Tale of Two Stanleys.” You can watch both the paper and response below:
“Who are the mourners?
The mourners are those who have heard the good news of God’s good future and weep because it is not yet, still sadly not yet. Their eyes have caught a glimpse of God’s future, and their eyes fill with tears because they see it challenged and contradicted in the present. Their spirits ache for the coming of the kingdom Jesus announced, the future he made present in his words of blessing and his works of healing. It is because they hope that they mourn. Continue reading Blessed Are Those Who Mourn