St. Mary the Virgin Anglican Church, Regina, Saskatchewan
St. Mary the Virgin Anglican Church, Trinity 8, 2020, Aug.2, 2020 Canon Claude Schroeder
“Ho!” cried the prophet Isaiah, “Ho!”
Ho?
What is this “Ho?”
That isn’t a word is it?
Turns out, “Ho,” as it appears in the 55th Chapter of the Book of Isaiah, is a call for attention to something that has been seen, as when sailors say,” Land, Ho!”
Look! There it is!
Continue reading “Sermon Trinity 8”In today’s Gospel lesson from the thirteenth Chapter of St. Matthew, “Jesus put before them, that is his disciples, another parable.” But as it turns out, Jesus set before them not another parable, but another five parables, for a total of seven parables here in the thirteenth Chapter of St. Matthew.
Continue reading “Sermon for Trinity 7 – July 26, 2020”Beth Christianson
July 19, 2020
Well, we find ourselves well into summer today by the Earth’s-trip-around-the-sun calendar, and well into Trinity season by the church calendar. Trinity season encompasses all the long, lovely days of summer and fall in which we slow down from our mad rush from feast day to feast day that takes up December to May, and begin our slow and systematic journey through one of the four Gospels, Matthew this year. We move carefully through the chapters, examining the ministry of Jesus, the miracles, the sermons, and the parables. Trinity is the season where we dig deep into what Jesus taught his followers, and through the Gospel writers, teaches us, about what it means to be Christ-followers, and to participate in God’s Kingdom.
Continue reading “The Parable of the Weeds and the Wheat”Scriptures: Isaiah 55: 6-13, Psalm 65: 1-13, Romans 8:1-11 and Matthew 13:1-9, 18-23
Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of our hearts together, be acceptable in Your sight, O Lord, our strength and our redeemer.
Be Intentional
I have chosen to use Isaiah 55 as the text for today’s sermon and I want to begin by inviting you to join me on two imaginary grocery shopping ventures.
Continue reading “Be Intentional – Sermon July 12, 2020”(If the audio player above doesn’t work, try this link to the Anchor podcast hosting site)
Welcome to the Fifth Sunday after Pentecost in the name of the Father, the Son and Holy Spirit.
Dear brothers and sisters, Apostle Peter invites us to be “hospitable to one another” and “serve one another with whatever gift each of you has received.” (1 Peter 4:9-10)This apostolic and prophetic request for love, compassionate, hospitality and generosity portrays a familiar scene to most of us.
As a nation, we welcome the refugees and asylum seekers to feel comfortable as they integrate into the Canadian society. As individuals, we invite friends and family members, throwing up parties for remembering significant life events, such as birthdays and anniversaries for marriage.
Continue reading “Sermon – July 5, 2020 Fifth Sunday after Pentecost”The Reverend Gene Packwood
Jesus
is the first of two words I have for you today—as in Jesus Christ our Lord—The One in whom God’s free gift of eternal life comes to us according to St Paul in today’s reading from Romans (Ro6.23). The only one through whom that gift comes, as it happens. St Peter makes it clear in Acts chapter 4—not one of our readings for today, but to the point—when he wrote
there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men and women by which we must be saved.
Acts 4.12
No other name. No one else, but Jesus only.
Well that’s not very open and inclusive someone might say—and people do. So, George Carey, three Archbishops of Canterbury ago, once wrote that
This is the scandal of particularity with which we must live. Christians cannot yield this un-negotiable element in their faith. We believe that the God of the universe longs to reveal Himself and He does in many different ways and forms, through religion, through reason, art, and human intelligence, but each and every one of these ways is limited. Only in a personal relationship with Jesus Christ can God be fully known, worshipped, and obeyed.
The Most Reverend George Carey, Archbishop of Canterbury, “Archbishop’s Voice,” The Anglican Digest, Pentecost 1992, p63
Jesus only.
So—more from Archbishop Carey:
Let’s not have any truck with bland theology, that Jesus is just one option among many. Dialogue with other faiths is very important, but I can respect another faith and a believer of that faith by saying I believe that Jesus Christ is the only way of salvation. Do with that truth what you may, but my job is to say that to you.
Ibid.
It’s our job, too, and just as the Archbishop wrote, Jesus, however scandalously particular, must always be the first, the most important, the defining Word on our lips and in the things we do and the places we go.
Which leads me to the second word for today. It appears six times in our Gospel reading. It’s closely associated with Jesus. The word is WELCOME. Jesus is God’s Word of welcome into the eternal life we read about in Romans this morning. Just as Archbishop Carey wrote, our job as Anglican Christians is to say, in all our words and deeds, in our relationships and consumption, in the way we live, as winsomely as we can, that we believe Jesus is the only way of salvation— welcome! Come on in. Come with us. Taste and see how good He is (Ps34.8). Welcome to the freedom and relief of a forgiven life—in Jesus (Lk1.77). Welcome to the richest, most satisfying, most challenging, fullest abundant life there is—in Jesus (John10.10).
As you live your welcoming life—welcoming Jesus into your own life and welcoming others into His—do it with absolute confidence that the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ
always leads us in triumphal procession, and through us spreads the fragrance of the knowledge of him everywhere
2Cor2.14
Always. Sweet smelling. Welcoming. Even across the social distances visited upon us these days—perhaps especially across those “distances”—spreading the heady, heart-warming, heavenly fragrance of the knowledge of our unique and scandalously particular Lord and Saviour.
Two words which go together for today. Welcome, and
Jesus
When I was a teenager, there was a phrase we heard a lot in youth-oriented church ministries: being “on fire for Christ.” Being on fire for Christ meant going to youth group every Friday, and showing up for Sunday School every week at 10 am. It meant going to the various youth retreat weekends on offer throughout the year, and going to Bible camp in the summers. It meant signing up for short-term missions. Being on fire for Christ meant going to the front of the church when the worship band was playing to sing and dance, raise your hands and speak in tongues. Being on fire for Christ meant going back from these mountaintop experiences to your school and telling your classmates about how cool God is, and how cool you were by association. Being on fire for Christ meant being fearless. You couldn’t care if anyone was looking at you, or talking about you. But that’s easy, right? What teenager cares about those things anyway?
Continue reading “The Cost of Discipleship”St. Mary the Virgin Anglican Church,
Trinity 1, June 14, 2020,
Matthew 9.35- 10.23.
Canon Claude Schroeder
Today on this the First Sunday after Trinity where we are embarking on the long season of Trinity in our church calendar, which is the season devoted towards the long, slow, patient work of growing in our knowledge and love of God, who is “Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.” This as we learned last Sunday, is who God is, and who it is that we have come to love and adore.
Continue reading “Sermon for Trinity 1, 2020”St. Mary the Virgin Anglican Church, Trinity Sunday, June 7, 2020 The Revd. Canon Claude Schroeder
In today’s Gospel lesson we come to the climactic moment in St. Matthew’s Gospel, where Jesus, after His Resurrection from the dead, appears to the disciples one last time, and says to them, “ All authority in heaven and earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always unto the end of the age.” (Matthew 28. 18-20)
This is what in the Church is known as “The Great Commission”, the task Jesus has given us to draw others into a relationship of faith and obedience to Himself. How do we do this? The task of making disciples involves two things: baptism, which only ever happens once, whether as a child or as an adult, and it involves teaching, which begins hopefully in childhood and continues for the rest of our lives so that we might grow up and mature in our faith.
Continue reading “Sermon – Trinity Sunday June 7, 2020”St. Mary the Virgin Anglican Church
Canon Claude Schroeder
Today on this 50th day after Easter, the Church celebrates the wonderful and joyful Feast of Pentecost, although it is for us a slightly bittersweet occasion, given the fact that we are not able to physically celebrate together. That is the bitter part. What is the sweet part? The sweet part is that “God has shed His love abroad in our hearts through the Holy Spirit is that He has given us.” (Romans 5.5.) It is the Holy Spirit dwelling in our hearts that causes us to cry out to God, “Abba, Father! So that you are not longer a slave- (to sin and the fear of death), but a child, a child of God, if a child then also an heir.” (Galatians 4,6,7) And so, wherever we are this morning, in this we rejoice, and in this we celebrate.
Continue reading “Sermon for Pentecost Sunday – May 31, 2020”