Scripture Readings Christ is Risen! He is Risen Indeed! Alleluia! Old Beatrice Brown was known as the ‘chicken lady’. She loved chicken and made the best chicken soup this side of Parkbeg! She went down to the local butcher shop to go and buy a fresh chicken. “I’ll have a chicken please” said Edith. The butcher went into the back and grabbed his last remaining bird from the cooler. After weighing it he said “that will be $12.54 ma’am.” “Do you have a larger one?” Beatrice ask

Scripture Readings Christ is Risen! He is Risen Indeed! Alleluia! Today’s Gospel lesson is definitely one of my all time favourites. The Disciples on the Emmaus road. St. Luke alone records this event and he places it as the first detailed post-resurrection appearance of Jesus, immediately after the women’s report of the empty tomb and Peter’s independent fact-checking: he “rose and ran to the tomb; stooping and looking in, he saw the linen cloths by themselves; and he went h

Scripture Readings Christ is Risen! He is Risen Indeed! Alleluia! In this last Lenten Bible Study we did on The Chosen, Season 3, they pointed out a phrase that the Jews often said to each other. “Shalom Shalom.”  If you remember episode 7 where the Roman Gaius asks Peter why he says it twice, he answers “Well, once means ‘peace.’ Twice means ‘perfect peace’ … complete wholeness.” This isn’t just The Chosen movie magic, either. It is actually a Biblical greeting that comes fr

Scripture Readings Christ is Risen! He is Risen Indeed! Alleluia! Christ  is Risen! Christ is  Risen! Christ is Risen!  No matter on which syllable you place the emphasis, it is all true! The stone was rolled away and the tomb was empty! The crucified Lord and Savior Jesus Christ was not there! The neon sign outside the tomb flashed “vacant!” “He is not here! He has risen,”  the angel said to the bewildered women. “Come, see the place where He lay. Then go quickly and tell Hi

Scripture Readings: St. John's Passion Grace, mercy and peace be to you from God our Father and our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen! The cross . You literally see it everywhere. It hangs around peoples’ necks. Athletes often make the sign of the cross before competing in events. Hospitals frequently have crosses or crucifixes in the halls. And of course, churches are adorned with crosses inside the sanctuary and on top of steeples. The cross is a very popular symbol of re

Scripture Readings Grace, mercy and peace be to you from God our Father and our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen! “For the Lord will pass through to strike the Egyptians, and when he sees the blood on the lintel and on the two doorposts, the Lord will pass over the door and will not allow the destroyer to enter your houses to strike you”  (Ex 12:23). There you go, folks. That’s the whole reason we have gathered here tonight at God’s house. On this night that is not like an

Scripture Readings Grace, mercy and peace be to you from God our Father and our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen! Back in the good ol’ glory days of the Roman Empire, there was no shortage of pomp and circumstance. To boast about the achievements of the Empire was ingrained into every single citizen. At times of war this concept was never more clear. The Roman Triumph  was a prime example. It was one of the most prestigious customs in ancient Rome. It coupled a grand civil

Scripture Readings Grace, mercy and peace be to you from God our Father and our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen! Way back in 1905, a guy named Frederick Wells conducted a routine inspection of a diamond mining operation that he was managing. The story goes that Wells spotted a flash of light reflecting from the wall of the open pit about 18 feet below the surface during the inspection. He climbed up to the location and pried it out with a pocket knife. Initially he though

Scripture Readings Grace, mercy and peace be to you from God our Father and our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen! Most of the time, when people think about Religion or the church, it often drifts into morality. I need to be a ‘good person.’ Or I’ll put my kid in Catholic or Christian School so they learn some good morals. And this is because our sinful and fallen human nature instinctively wants to work with works. Maybe I’ve been bad, therefore I really need to be good. O

Scripture Readings Grace, mercy and peace be to you from God our Father and our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen! “How is it that you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a woman of Samaria?” (For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans)“  (JN 4:9). Ain’t that a dilly of a pickle?! A Jew, from Judea, travels north into Samaria and asks for a drink of water from a well. It has all the makings for a good joke, doesn’t it!? “A Jewish Rabbi walks into a bar in Samaria…” But this is

Scripture Readings Grace, mercy and peace be to you from God our Father and our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen! You know, without a doubt, one of the worst things in life is moving.  Having to move to a new house or new apartment or new condo or whatever. A new residence. It’s not so bad when you’re young or in the kraft-dinner college stage of life and everything you have fits in the back of a 1992 Nissan Pathfinder. But the older you get, the more stuff you accumulate,

Scripture Readings Grace, mercy and peace be to you from God our Father and our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen! The Shrove Tuesday pancakes have been eaten and enjoyed as the last of the sweet treats before Easter. The ashes have adorned our foreheads to remind us of our mortality. The water used to clean them off reminds us of our Baptism which has washed our sins away. Our Lenten pilgrimage and journey has begun anew this year - our journey to the cross. This is the bl

Scripture Readings Grace, mercy and peace be to you from God our Father and our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen! Some friends of ours went on a Roman Catholic pilgrimage known as El Camino de Santiago.  It’s an 800km hike that takes you from France to Santiago de Compostela on the Spanish coast, the place where St. James’ remains are said to be buried. That is Big James, the son of Zebedee. It is said they brought his relics or bodily remains to Spain from Jerusalem afte

Scripture Readings Grace, mercy and peace be to you from God our Father and our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen! Today we wind up the season of Epiphany. It is the season of light. It is the season of God revealing to the world exactly Who He is in the person of Jesus Christ. It is the season of manifestation. We could say it is a Divine game of “ peek-a-boo! ” where God lifts up the veil and we see His glory. Epiphany began with the light of a star leading the Magi to th

Scripture Readings Grace, mercy and peace be to you from God our Father and our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen! One of my fondest memories as a kid was going to pick out a puppy! I had been begging my parents for quite some time to get another dog. I said all the usual promises that every kid does: “I’ll walk it!” “I’ll clean up the landmines!” “I promise!” Every parent knows that this means that they  will end up doing all this, and also paying for it! But I had my hea

Scripture Readings Grace, mercy and peace be to you from God our Father and our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen! When you read through the Scriptures, over and over again you encounter contrasting themes. Light and darkness. Justice and mercy. Law and Gospel. Life and death. You get the idea. There’s zillions of these kinds of examples in the Bible. One that hits home in today’s readings are God’s Kingdom vs. Worldly Kingdoms. In particular, the idea of worldly success. T

Scripture Readings Grace, mercy and peace be to you from God our Father and our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen! Last Sunday we talked at length about the Confession of St. Peter. “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God”  (MT 16:16). We talked about how he was a rough and tumble fisherman, a regular work-a-day Pete. Impulsive, perhaps rather brash and definitely not a refined scholar with degrees and book learnin’. Completely opposite to St. Peter we have St. Paul,

Scripture Readings Grace, mercy and peace be to you from God our Father and our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen! “But who do you say that I am?” Simon Peter replied, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God”  (MT 16:15). There it is! The now iconic words that formed the original confession of the Christian church, voiced by none other than the absolute legend, St. Peter,  disciple and Apostle. It is precisely these words that we commemorate today as God’s people bec

Scripture Readings Grace, mercy and peace be to you from God our Father and our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen! The video sharing site YouTube  is really a modern marvel of information. It hosts zillions and zillions of videos encompassing pretty much everything of interest to every person on earth. Want to fix your car? There’s a video for that. Need a recipe for supper? There’s a video for that too. Want to explore the ever practical world of equestrian vaulting ?! The

Scripture Readings Grace, mercy and peace be to you from God our Father and our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen! “ Beam me up, Scottie! ” I’ll bet at least a few of you recognize those words. They come from way back in the 1960s. On September 8, 1966 the very first episode of Star Trek  was aired on TV. It followed the adventures of the starship USS Enterprise, commanded by Captain James T. Kirk, with First Officer Spock, and Dr. Leonard “Bones” McCoy. And of course, it h