Homily for the 20th Sunday of Pentecost, October 19, 2014
http://www.stja.ca/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/20121019homily.mp3 TAXING QUESTIONS “Is it lawful to pay taxes to the emperor, or not?” The Bible is full of what might be called “taxing questions!”
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Homily for the 15th Sunday of Pentecost – September 14, 2014
WHAT ABOUT THE EGYPTIANS? Homily for the 15th Sunday of Pentecost September 14, 2014 Have you ever noticed that after a televised sports event, the cameras virtually always zero in exclusively on the winners, and the losers, who just moments before were a vital part of the event, are instantly dismissed as irrelevant?
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HOMILY – WALKING ON WATER
Homily for Pentecost 10 August 10, 2014 There’s a well-known book called If You Want To Walk on Water You Have To Get Out of the Boat. In this book, obviously based on today’s Gospel, John Ortberg suggests that Christians are called to be “water walkers.” Like many things, it sounds appealing in many ways, but it’s more difficult than it might sound.
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Homily for August 3, 2014
Homily for Pentecost 8 August 3, 2014 In the modern world, we are fascinated by stories of super heroes with super powers standing out from the multitudes and saving the day while the rest of the population stands back and watches with grateful awe, that is, unless a flying car, train or toppling high rise falls on their heads (super heroes do tend to be quite destructive).
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HOMILY – DON’T SWEAT THE BIG STUFF
Homily for the Eighth Sunday of Pentecost July 27, 2014 “The Kingdom of Heaven is like . . .”
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HOMILY – WHO ARE YOU CALLING A WEED?
WHO ARE YOU CALLING A WEED? Homily for the Seventh Sunday of Pentecost July 20, 2014 Isaac must have wondered what he did to deserve a son like Jacob, who from the moment of his birth was already such a nasty personality that his parents gave him the name Jacob, which means “one who supplants another” because he came out of the womb attempting to do his twin brother harm. And supplant he did. Jacob eventually found a way to cheat his brother Esau out of his inheritance – he lied to his father – he was manipulative, conniving, self-centered – he was a thief and a coward — a son only a mother could love, as they say. Isaac clearly preferred Esau, and for good reason.
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Homily for Pentecost 5, 2014-07-06
THE TIME FOR SINGING (THE SONG OF SONGS) HAS COME “The voice of my beloved! Look, he is coming, leaping upon the mountains, bounding over the hills . . . . My beloved says to me, ‘Arise, my love, my fair one, and come away.’” The Song of Solomon, or Song of Songs, as it is also known, is seldom read at weddings, though it should be, and seldom preached upon, which is unfortunate.
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Homily for Pentecost 2 – Holy Humour
LET’S GET SERIOUS ABOUT LAUGHTER! Since turning 60, I have suddenly become aware of the prejudice against seniors — I proudly tell people I’ve recently become a sexagenarian and people immediately give me these weird, disgusted looks and move away from me. It’s rather distressing.
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Homily for Pentecost – June 8, 2014
Being Spiritual Means Connecting with the Spirit As Luke tells the story of the advent of the Spirit, beginning in the latter part of his Gospel and continuing into the Book of Acts, the disciples, having lost their mentor, their guide, their rabbi, their reason for being disciples, were tending to scatter, to lose focus, to give up, or perhaps to think that the onus was all on them going forward.
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Easter 6 Homily – MAY 25, 2014
WE BEGIN AGAIN — NEW EVERY MORNING http://www.stja.ca/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/2014Easter6Homily.mp3 At Synod this past weekend our theme was “We Begin Again,” a line taken from St Benedict of Nursia, who at the age of 14 withdrew from the world, went into solitude for several years, and eventually founded the Benedictine monastic order in the 6th Century.
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