The Cost of Discipleship

Sermon for Trinity 2 – June 21, 2020
Beth Christianson

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?

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Sermon for Trinity 1, 2020

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.

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Sermon – Trinity Sunday June 7, 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.

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Sermon for Pentecost Sunday – May 31, 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.

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Sermon for May 24, 2020 Sunday After Ascension

May 24, 2020 Sunday After Ascension

Beth Christianson

Jesus Christ, the King of Glory,
has ascended today into the heavens.
He sits at the right hand of the Father
and rules heaven and earth.

Now all the psalms of David,
our father, are fulfilled.
Now the Lord sits with the
Lord on the seat of God.

In this greatest of triumphs
let us bless the Lord.
The Holy Trinity be glorified.
Let us give thanks to God.

That’s the English translation of a 12th century Ascension hymn called “Coelos ascendit hodie”.  “Now all the psalms of David our father are fulfilled.”  I love that line!  

Ascension Day, the fortieth day after Easter was this past Thursday.  It was lovely to celebrate the feast together, and to see Claude and Nathaniel and Gene, even if only by video.  And while I will not be quoting from Led Zeppelin, we do continue on in the same vein today with our scripture readings and our celebration of the ascension of Jesus.  These final ten days of the Easter season, between Ascension and Pentecost, really are worthy of the joyful attention of all Christians.

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Sermon for Fifth Sunday after Easter 2020

St. Mary the Virgin Anglican Church, Regina, Fifth Sunday after Easter, May 17, 2020. Canon Claude Schroeder

Well, it’s a been a most unusual Easter season, where in the midst of a global pandemic, for the last six Sundays the Church has been celebrating the joy of the Resurrection, the appearances of the Risen Lord to his first disciples, and His being among us still. This Thursday, being the 40th day after Easter, we will celebrate the Ascension of the Lord, which begins a 10 day period of prayerful waiting and anticipation of the celebration of Pentecost, and the fulfilment of Jesus’ promise in the sending of the Holy Spirit. 

So liturgically we are approaching a bit of a turning point, and this is reflected in our Scripture readings for today. 

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Sermon for Fourth Sunday after Easter 2020

St. Mary’s Anglican Church, Fourth Sunday after Easter, May 10, 2020  Canon  Claude Schroeder.

At the time of his death in 1984, the distinguished biblical scholar, G.B. Caird,  who earlier in his career, taught at both in Edmonton and Montreal,  occupied the  Professor of the Exegesis of Holy Scripture at the University of Oxford. According to Bishop Tom Wright, a former student of his,  “Caird loved words, and how human beings enjoyed using and abusing them. He insisted that both the Old Testament and New Testament be permitted to speak with their own voices and that modern ideas, presuppositions, and biases not be allowed to get in the way.” (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G._B._Caird)

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The Lord is My Shepherd (and Bishop)

May 3, 2020, Easter 3

Beth Christianson

I’ve been reading and hearing a lot this week about the type of leadership the world is experiencing during this pandemic.  And it’s really as you might expect: some leaders are doing  a really great job.  And some leaders are suggesting we inject ourselves with bleach.  So, you know.  There’s a range out there.

I wonder if any of you have heard the quote from Silveria Jacobs, the prime minister of Sint Maarten that’s been making the rounds of the internet lately?  She sounded like every mom ever, and it was just so comforting in its familiarity.  “Stop moving,” she said.  “Simply: stop. moving.  If you do not have the type of bread you like in your house, eat crackers.”

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Sermon on Luke 24 – The Road to Emmaus

St. Mary’s Anglican Church, April 26, 2020. Easter 2. Canon Claude Schroeder. Sermon on Luke 24.13-35

In today’s Gospel lesson from the 24th chapter of St. Luke, who in his Gospel had a very keen eye for historical detail, furnishes us with some very important details with respect to the time and the place of the story he is going to tell. He writes, “on that same day, two of them, were going to a village called Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem, and were talking about all these things that had happened…”

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Easter 1 Sermon – April 19, 2020

Canon Claude Schroeder (John 20. 19-31)

Today we are continuing our celebration of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. Easter, in the Church calendar, is not a day, it is a season that lasts 50 days. Easter is for us a season of joy, of spiritual joy, in the restoration of our Communion with God through the forgiveness of our sins, and the gift of the Holy Spirit, which is eternal life. Easter is the celebration of the victory that Christ has won for us over Satan, sin, and death. 

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