Hope in Pandemic Times—1 Peter 3: 13-17 May 17, 2020-6th Sunday of Easter Hope is a funny thing. What brings hope to one person can come across as threatening to someone else. Perhaps we’ve gotten a sense of this with some of the tentative steps that Ontario is taking to re-open and some of the bolder and some would say reckless steps…
You are not alone. Come share the journey.
You are not alone. Come share the journey.
Sermons by Rev. Joe Gaspar
Have you found yourself taking notice and appreciating things that only a few weeks ago we took for granted? Let me give one small example from my own life. We are a two vehicle household. Since I’m working from home and my wife has been laid off she’s been running the errands in the van, her vehicle. My car has sat idle.…
Seeing, Believing, Living-John 20: 19 & 24-31 April 19, 2020-2nd Sunday of Easter I think Heather and I have been like most people in the last few weeks, alternately cursing and giving thanks for technology. Tuesday mornings are a time of gratitude for us as we host our weekly Parkminster Connects ZOOM gatherings. We usually start with a reading and some questions…
Insistent Love—Matthew 21: 1-11 (April 5, 2020—Palm Sunday) We’re all scared, by things we never imagined could make us fearful; touching the bananas in the grocery store, the neighbour coming your way on the narrow sidewalk you share, the mail, a trip to the drug store. For some of us, the fear is entwined with livelihoods. For some of us simply going…
The Upside Down[1]—Matthew 5: 1-12 (March 29, 2020—5th Sunday in Lent) If you’re a fan of the Netflix series, “Stranger Things”, you know about a place called “the upside down”, the alternate reality where the rules of daily living no longer apply, where fear and confusion dominate and danger lurks, I was going to say “around every corner” but there are no…
Persistent Friend—John 4: 5-42 March 15, 2020- 3rd Sunday in Lent I am a lover of words. I love to play with words. I love the power that words have to to change our way of thinking about something ordinary or mundane. One of my favourite examples of this occured in the relationship between between the former Waterloo Presbytery and former Hamilton…
Haunted by Eden[1]—Genesis 2: 15-17, 3: 1-8 March 1, 2020- 1st Sunday in Lent Adam, Eve, the serpent and the apple—it is one of the seminal and best known stories in the bible. Ask someone that’s never set foot in a church to name a story from scripture it’s likely they’ll name this one. I think it’s been given too much importance. …
God’s Beloved Community—John 17: 20-26 February 16, 2020-Black History Month Service There was a time when I struggled with the need for things like Black History Month, with displays of rainbow flags, with days set aside for women. I come across a fair number of well-meaning people who struggle with this as well. It can feel like the cohesion we used to…
Community and Change-Letting Go-Jeremiah 1: 14-16 & Mark 2: 18-22 (February 2, 2020) Here is another light bulb joke for you, how many Anglicans does it take to change a light bulb? The answer—ten, one to change the light bulb and nine to say how much they liked the old one. It can be hard to let go of the old, even…
Community and Change-Bread for the Journey-Exodus 16: 1-6, 13-15 (January 26, 2020) Last week I started this sermon series on community and change with a light bulb joke. What makes light bulb jokes so great for this topic is that they point our particular quirks or approaches to change. Here is another one, having picked on the United Church last week we’ll…