Scripture Readings Grace, mercy and peace be to you from God our Father and our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen! Today is kind of a sombre day in the midst of our Christmas joy. Today, as has been mentioned, is the minor church festival of the Holy Innocents. It’s always commemorated on the 28th of December which this year happens to line up with a Sunday. Who are the Holy Innocents? These are the little Israelite boys, 2 years and under, who evil King Herod in his demoni

Scripture Readings Grace, mercy and peace be to you from God our Father and our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen! “That’s impossible!”  How often have you heard those words or even said those words in your life? Oh, probably more than a few times I’m sure. It’s often our response when something seems too tough to understand. Like little kids watching a magician pull a rabbit out of a hat. “Wow! How’d he do that?!” There’s a moment of intense fascination and wonder. But the

Grace, mercy and peace be to you from God our Father and our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen! 22 years ago, way back in 2003, my wife was serving as the Director of Parish Services at St. Peter’s Lutheran Church, smack dab in the middle of inner city Edmonton, Alberta. This church had a great history of inner city outreach, starting “ The Rock ” breakfast program, which fed hundreds of homeless and needy people several days a week. Among other ways they loved and served t

Scripture Readings Grace, mercy and peace be to you from God our Father and our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen! Picture it. 1979. No internet. No cell phones. If you wanted to learn stuff you had to look it up in  books,  you know, those things with pages in them! They were all the rage at one time, before digital screens took society hostage. But back in 1979 there were several popular “baby naming books.” And of course, at the top of the list in popularity in those bab

Scripture Readings Grace, mercy and peace be to you from God our Father and our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen! From forests and trees last Sunday to deserts and sand this Sunday, we’ve had a real botanical cornucopia during this Advent season! When we hear the world “wilderness” in our culture we tend to think about the forests of northern Saskatchewan or maybe the Rocky Mountains. Perhaps the Yukon or Alaska for some unspoiled, pristine wilderness that isn’t touched by

Scripture Readings Grace, mercy and peace be to you from God our Father and our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen! Growing up over the years, we had both real and artificial Christmas trees. Both have their advantages and disadvantages. Both look splendid when they are decorated. Real trees smell absolutely amazing when they warm up to room temperature. Artificial trees can be used over and over again and have no sap. And if we learned anything from National Lampoon’s Chris

Scripture Readings Grace, mercy and peace be to you from God our Father and our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen! Welcome to Advent! It’s the like the first day of school when you roll out all your new school supplies from a brand new backpack. It’s a fresh start. A new beginning. The church year resets and reboots us into this beautiful season of hope and expectation! Curiously, our Scripture readings don’t seem very ‘ Christmasy. ’ Instead, we seem to be plopped into the

Scripture Readings Grace, mercy and peace be to you from God our Father and our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen! Welcome to the  end ! The end of the church year, that is. We now call it “Christ the King” Sunday, the last Sunday in the church’s liturgical year, with the season of Advent right on our heels. But did you know that this concept of “Christ the King” is a very new thing in the church year. In fact, it will be exactly 100 years old this year. It’s only been aro

Scripture Readings Grace, mercy and peace be to you from God our Father and our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen! At this time of year, with Remembrance Day right around the corner, I often think about our soldiers and everything they went through as young men, many still teenagers. The Great War. World War II. The trenches. Combat. Good vs. Evil. You can watch war movies to get a glimpse of what they faced, but I think Hollywood’s best efforts and all the computer graphic

Scripture Readings Grace, mercy and peace be to you from God our Father and our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen! As I mentioned last Sunday, Luther posted his 95 theses on the castle church door in Wittenberg on October 31st precisely because the next day was November 1st, also known as All Saints’ Day or All Hallows’ Day (hence our word ‘ Halloween ’ from ‘ All Hallows’ Eve ’). We can trace the roots of this festival in the church all the way back to the 4th century when

Scripture Readings Grace, mercy and peace be to you from God our Father and our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen! Years ago when landline phones were still a thing, we had a  cordless  phone. Just imagine the freedom! No longer being wired to the wall in one spot, you could rove around the house, fold laundry, work on the car, go to the potty, all the while listening to cousin Mabel go on about her neighbour’s dog, still peeing on the front lawn, despite her sassy lawn sig

Scripture Readings Grace, mercy and peace be to you from God our Father and our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen! Our society really has gone down hill over the last 15 years for sure. Inflation. Crime. Drugs. Homelessness. Government corruption and scandal after scandal. I think most people will agree on the sad state of affairs that has taken over our country. But perhaps the greatest tragedy of our time is that, hardly anybody makes Western Movies anymore!  Westerns . T

Scripture Readings Grace, mercy and peace be to you from God our Father and our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen! I often wonder at “how stuff came to be.” You know, like traditions that we take for granted. Thanksgiving rolls around and oh look, there’s the turkey! There’s the pumpkin pie! Nary a second thought. But do you ever stop and wonder why that’s the case? Why are these things such a staple of the Thanksgiving holiday and not, I don’t know, Sharp-tailed grouse and

Scripture Readings Grace, mercy and peace be to you from God our Father and our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen! Our Gospel reading...

Scripture Readings Grace, mercy and peace be to you from God our Father and our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen! We’ve got a really...

Scripture Readings Grace, mercy and peace be to you from God our Father and our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen! A few years ago my...

Scripture Readings Grace, mercy and peace be to you from God our Father and our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen! Today is September...

Scripture Readings Grace, mercy and peace be to you from God our Father and our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen! Today we have a...

Scripture Readings Grace, mercy and peace be to you from God our Father and our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen! In my first church,...

Scripture Readings Grace, mercy and peace be to you from God our Father and our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen! Way back in 2008,...