Sermons
How is Not the Right Religious Question
May 27, 2018 | Lorne Bostwick
Series: Pentecost Season
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Nicodemus comes to Jesus wanting an answer to the question "How." How can one be born again? How can I get into heaven. How can I believe? Jesus answers his question with a birth story. It is not about what you doctrine your hold. It is not about what works you perform. It is about your willingness and vulnerability to be born. You can't birth yourself. Only the author of life can give you birth from above. Embrace what you have already been given.
Angels in the Desert
February 18, 2018 | Lorne Bostwick
Series: Lent 2018
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At the beginning of Lent we pay a lot of attention to the call to resist temptation and repent but Mark makes a special point of reminding us that angels were present in the wilderness ministering to Jesus as he faced those 40 days. We have angels in our lives too. They might not look like we imagine angels to look -- long white robes and fluttering wings but more like a middle school teacher who believed in us when we didn't believe in ourselves or a coach who let us play a sport even when we weren't so good at it. When facing our own wilderness experience it is good to know that there are angels in our wilderness.
Pentecost Diversity
June 4, 2017 | Rev Lorne Bostwick
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Pentecost is the birthday of the church. We celebrate the coming of the Holy Spirit and the empowering of the Church. Some interpreters see Pentecost as the solution to the Tower of Babel but I'm not sold on the idea that somehow Pentecost re-unites us in language and culture. Pentecost is a celebration of the Spirit's power to enhance our hearing, no matter what language we speak. There are some deep human connections that do not depend on culture, race, gender or religious homogeneity. While in Turkey on Sabbatical my heart was touched just as deeply by the poverty in rural communities as it is in the U.S. when I see people begging on the streets. I'm just as touched by kids playing and laughing on a playground in Syria or people greeting each other with a hug as I am seeing it at home. The language of the Spirit is deep and meaningful beyond words and we can sense the Gospel in a world away just as powerfully as we can within our church family.