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Sermons on Matthew

October 10 – Thanksgiving

Reflections of Thankfulness – Cast In Bronze Voices United Choir – Peace Like a River Sunday School Activities Matthew 6:25-33 Happy Thanksgiving to each of you!  I want you to think for a moment about the Thanksgiving gatherings that have been a part of your lives over the years.  What were the traditions, the people, the sights, the smells, which made Thanksgiving…

August 22 – Just Keep Swimming

Matthew 16:13-20 Joint Worship with the Waterloo United Churches One of the things that I have loved in this time of worshipping together in this way is our virtual coffee times that we share each week. Those at Parkminster know how much I like to get my ministry teammate Joe going during them, but more than that, I have loved laughing and…

Settlers, Judgement and Sin – June 20

Blackbird – Jamie Hoffman Sunday School Activities We don’t like judgement and sin in the United Church. They are tainted words for us.  We associate them with a toxic kind of religion that puts up barriers to love and  inclusion, the tools of a Christianity rooted in moralism, literalism, and self-satisfied power used to bludgeon people on the margins of society—women, lgbtq2s…

May 2 – Carry On

Sunday School Activities Matthew 5:1-12 Asian Heritage Month Allegreto by John Stanley – Neil Murray Earlier last year, Raymond Chang went to Walmart. It was his first trip out of the house after he and many other Americans had started self-quarantining to fight the spread of the novel coronavirus. Soon after he walked into the store, two women looked at him, and…

Wisdom and Awe – January 3 – Epiphany

Wisdom and Awe- Matthew 2: 1-12 (January 3, 2020-Epiphany) I invite you to conjure for a moment in your mind images of wise people who have entered your life.  What is it about these people that make them wise?  What sets them apart from those you don’t consider so wise?  It’s only natural to consider such a question on a day when…

Burnt Barns, Moon Sightings and a Pandemic Christmas – Advent 3 – December 13

Voices United Choir – Can You See the Light in Bethlehem Sunday School Activities Advent Devotion – Do Not Be Afraid Family Advent Calendar Burnt Barns, Moon Sightings and a Pandemic Christmas—Matthew 1: 18-25 This is the kind of week where preachers earn their pay, preaching joy in the midst of a pandemic Christmas.  It was a week where I was reminded…

Reign of Christ Sunday – November 22

Sunday School Activities – The Sheep and the Goats The Band: Call It Dreaming Solo: Hannah Crawford – Sweet, Bide With Me Matthew 25:31-46 A new sculpture depicting homelessness in the region was unveiled last weekend in downtown Kitchener. Last Saturday, the KW Homeless Memorial committee showed off the piece, which is made up of a single bronze backpack perched on top…

The Grace of Not Knowing – November 15

Sunday School Activities The Grace of Not Knowing—Matthew 25: 14-30 (November 15, 2020-24th Sunday after Pentecost) When I sit down to write a reflection part of my process is to go back and read what I’ve written previously.  They’re little time capsules these old sermons.  Reading them I’m reminded of what was going on in the world or the church at that…

Remembrance Sunday November 8

Sunday School Activities Matthew 25:1-13  Rev. Heather Power Paper Lanterns is a documentary film about Shigeaki Mori, a survivor of the 1945 bombing of Hiroshima.  Mori was eight years old when the bomb fell on his home city.  In the film, he describes the mushroom cloud, and a darkness so total he could not see the fingers he held up to his…