Author, Minister and President of Princeton Theological Seminary Craig Barnes says of our text today, “When the promising young Hebrews were dragged into exile in Babylon, they were not kept in prisons or even camps. They were free to marry, build homes, plant crops and exchange goods. Some became quite wealthy. They were also free to assemble, elect leaders and worship...

In a sermon by The Rev’d Alisdair Smith of Christ Cathedral in Vancouver on this very text we hear about General Romeo Dallaire and his impossible mission in Rwanda. “While he did all he could to save lives, he was forced by inactive governments and the UN to face this genocide with a small band of lightly armed soldiers...

I wish all of our mothers a happy Mother’s Day. I also want to wish all of our families a meaningful Christian Family Sunday. Family is a word that is being defined in a more open and fluid way these days. I am not speaking specifically here about marriage, though that obviously is part of that evolution. Here I am making reference to the way we define who is and who is not our kin. Let me share two recent examples...

I have never taken any formal courses in Marriage Counseling, though I have read several books and attended a few workshops on the subject. One thing I do recall from both text and lecture is that in the early stages of the couple’s work it is important to ask what it was that originally kindled their romance, what it was that brought them together, how did they fall in love...

Some of you know I help facilitate the faith sharing and worship time at Brunswick Street United every Sunday night, 6-8 pm. We gather in a circle, everyone participates and I offer up a brief overview of the theme for the night, a little background on the scripture, and a question designed to promote conversation and stimulate deeper thinking on what God is doing in our lives...

When we think about faith and the Earth the thinker and poet we most often go to for inspiration and ideas is Wendell Berry. He is after all the author of that beautiful piece of writing The Peace of Wild Things:

When despair for the world grows in me and I wake in the night at the least sound in fear of what my life and my children's lives may be, I go and lie down where the wood drake rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds. I come into the peace of wild things who do not tax their lives with forethought of grief. I come into the presence of still water. And I feel above me the day-blind stars waiting with their light. For a time I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.

I like how the Rev’d David Sellery describes our Easter text this morning. “They weren’t looking for the Risen Jesus. They were sure he was lost forever. And then he was there with them…walking and talking, explaining scripture, opening doors to spirituality. He moved with them so easily, so unobtrusively that they did not recognize the risen Savior until he revealed himself in the breaking of the bread..."

Our text is about a parade. Have you attended a parade? Have you marched in a parade? For me the answers are yes and yes. But all of these parade experiences come from my childhood. You see my mother once presided over all of the majorette groups in Halifax. Some of you likely have never heard of majorettes but at one time almost ever girl and young woman would have participated...

Writer Sarah Dylan Breuer believes the core of our lectionary text this morning can be found in John 11:44 “Unbind him, and let him go.” Or in her words, “Open every dark place to light and air; this is the time to uncover and unbind!” Breuer’s analysis of this text is this, Jesus has come to heal and mend that which is broken. And Jesus heals these wounds, our wounds, and the world’s wounds, by unbinding those in pain and letting them go...

Last Sunday in an excellent sermon by retired Minister Brian Brown we heard again the surprising ending to the Gospel story of the Good Samaritan. But before that ending there was a question from a lawyer. “What must we do to inherit eternal life?” Then came the story. And remember that the crucial part of the story was the surprise ending. It was not the lawyer or the Minister who stopped to help the Jewish man in the ditch. It was the hated Samaritan. Jews and Samaritans loathed each other. Although the lawyer who asked the question, as well as you and I here today, may prefer simple questions with simple answers that is not how God reveals truth...

Some time ago I attended a large United Church gathering that showcased the various Christian communities throughout the Maritimes. I went to the L’Arche presentation. The assistant who spoke to our group described the community as a place where women and men of different abilities live together as sisters and brothers. The assistants tend to be able-bodied and the residents live with some form of physical or mental challenge. But their way of relating to one another is the same as any family...

Clarence Jordan was a very clever man. He earned two Doctorate degrees, one in Agriculture and the other in Greek. As a white man living in the deep-south during the more tense days of segregation Jordan did something almost no Christian was doing, he lived in community with Christians of African-American background. As a result Jordan was threatened, the Christian community that he founded based on the Book of Acts (that included persons of difference races) was fire bombed and boycotted and had a Cross burned on their property. Jordan could certainly identify with the early disciples of Jesus...

My dear mother had a “calling” from God that began at an early age. She shared this with me, that throughout her life she felt God’s hand on her to be a missionary in a far off land doing Christ’s work. That is until she met my Dad. But even then she attempted to live this call by focusing her work as a teacher on special needs children. And then I came along. But even then she regrouped and lived out her call by parenting my brothers and I in a way that made us aware and connected to children living at Bonny Lea Farm and Rainbow Haven Camp. Every birthday party or summer project that she supervised included we three boys raising funds and awareness about children with special needs. And when we got older she would take us after church to visit those seniors who we isolated and lacking in friends and family...

In the movie Field of Dreams the central character Ray played by Kevin Costner is trying to decide whether he should sell his farm or turn it into a baseball field. As he discerns this crucial decision, central to his life, he is visited by persons who share what appear to be divine messages. One of these angelic messages comes from Terence Mann who is played by James Earl Jones. He says, “Ray. People will come, Ray. They'll come…for reasons they can't even fathom. They'll turn up your driveway not knowing for sure why they're doing it. They'll arrive at your door as innocent as children. They'll pass over money without even thinking about it: for it is money they have and peace they lack. And they'll walk out to the bleachers on a perfect afternoon…And they'll watch the game and it'll be as if they dipped themselves in magic waters.”...

It all started with a PBS documentary on the life of renowned architect Frank Lloyd Wright. Then on a trip to Chicago with an old friend we walked the streets of the windy city with the aid of an architecture student, telling us about the various architects who had participated in rebuilding the downtown after the city’s great fire. I’ve since watched extensive interviews with famous architects and two films about architects; Sketches of Frank Gehry where Gehry credits his long time therapist with his creative work and My Architect that shares the search by a son for the presence of his famous father Louis Kahn in the buildings Kahn’s designed. I have become an avid fan of architecture, how buildings are designed, most importantly how the architect imprints a sense of purpose into the structure s/he creates...

On one cold winter evening in 2014 I was in a hurry to get to the bus that would take me home to Tantallon. I was then serving the good people of St. Andrew’s United Church in Halifax and thus I was running down Coburg Road, across South Park Street, to Spring Garden Road. As I passed the Lord Nelson hotel I saw a group of 7-10 young men, likely of Middle-Eastern background, handing out roses to persons along the sidewalk. This sight stopped me in my tracks and I had to find out what was going on. As I came to a halt one man looked me in the eye, smiled, handed me a rose and said, “please give this to your wife.” I was stunned, how did this man know I was married? But then I noticed he was starring at my wedding ring. I thanked him for the rose...

Randy and I met years ago when we planned a funeral together for a man from Advocate Harbour. I had more and darker hair then and he looked exactly like he does now, save for the fact that he no longer has a “perm”. Randy is ageless and I am convinced this has to do with a lingering sense of wonder he brings to life. When we sat down to figure out how we would work as colleagues in team ministry we first had to sort out our expectations. I like working with people who are not “dramatic” and Randy assured me I would not find him so. Randy had heard I was some kind of workaholic and wanted to know if I would expect the same of him. I assured him I would not...

We’ve just heard the moving and personal story of Arlene Riches, a colleague of mine, a member of this church and someone you all know so well from her time serving as Supply Minister on several occasions. Arlene reveals how deep personal pain can be addressed and healed through God’s presence in Creation, how the mystery that is landscape, green life, sky, sun, moon, stars, rocks, trees, air, contain a life-source we often overlook as we try to escape our pain. There is a surprise quality to Creation, a sense that we cannot control her, that she bears life and produces life and can take a moment of death and pain and transform it into something new...

Do you have a crèche scene, a little manger in your home? I am always struck at the ones people have on their lawns, the scene looks so peaceful, so pastoral, so calm and familiar. And yet the story itself was intended to be exactly the opposite. The author of Luke-Acts wanted to surprise his audience, not give them more of the familiar. Here are some surprises to note...

After being married for ten years Kim and I sensed there was something missing in our lives. We had a good marriage but we needed something to save us from ourselves. And by that I mean that everything had become far too familiar. Kim came from a tight-knit family in Timberlea. Everyone in Timberlea knew the Frasers! And I was sixth generation Haligonian, you couldn’t get much more Halifax than me. I had tried a political campaign and Kim tried Ministry in a variety of settings. Something was missing. We needed a light to our...