Sermon: “Table Talk”
Have you ever heard this table grace? “Be present at out table, Lord, be here and everywhere adored...” When I went to camp, we used to sing it at meal times. It’s a prayer that Jesus will be present with us at our table as we eat together. Perhaps we need to rethink this in the light of today’s reading from the Gospel of Luke. Do we really want Jesus at our dinner table? Jesus was not always the most congenial dinner guest.
Keep on loving each other as brothers. Do not forget to entertain strangers, for by so doing some people have entertained angels without knowing it. Remember those in prison as if you were their fellow prisoners, and those who are mistreated as if you yourselves were suffering. Marriage should be honoured by all, and the marriage bed kept pure, for God will judge the adulter and all the sexually immoral.
On Father's Day, June 2010, I spoke at Keswick Ridge United Church, to address our high school graduates. I spoke on "Things My Daddy Taught Me". Thanks to James, for recording this, and to my son for cleaning up the recording, making it possible to offer it to you for your listening pleasure. Enjoy!
Alice
There is some strange parallels between climate change and Jesus.
If one goes up to a 'normal' secular human in our society, and starts talking about Jesus, they wonder what planet you're from. Their life is going fine. It's under control. The mortgage just got paid off, the promotion at work just happened, and retirement is only five years off. Life is good and under control. What on earth are you talking about Jesus for?
Although this Sunday morning gathering is audibly silent, it’s visually loud. When Helen Bickle leads the weekly worship service at her unique congregation for the Deaf in Belleville, Ontario, no words are spoken. Rather, Deaf congregants enthusiastically sign prayers and songs, while the text is displayed on a screen.
Worshippers have come together at Quinte Deaf Fellowship since 2007, when Deaf members of several local churches decided to form their own non-denominational church. Bickle, who was born Deaf, serves as the lay pastoral minister.
You dont have to be a scientist to know that the Sun is our planet's best source of energy, and the perfect fuel for life on Earth. Properly harvesting this energy will change the world.
Did you know that almost all forms of commercial energy on planet Earth are derived from the sun?
I'm currently drafting my creed as a personal exercise in response to some reading and contemplation that I've done over the summer (and am itching to take the more formal route of completing the UU Building Your Own Theology course). And I'm finding that the word "God" isn't appearing in it. Nor is it likely to. And that doesn't bother me in the least. It's not that I'm becoming an atheist. As I read through the statements I'm making in it (I'll post it in a blog someday), there's more than a few that suggest a kind of pantheism or even panentheism.
You dont have to be a scientist to know that the Sun is our planet's best source of energy, and the perfect fuel for life on Earth. Properly harvesting this energy will change the world.
