Rev Chris Roth

Isaiah 2:1-5; Psalm 122; Romans 13:11-14; Matthew 24:36-44 Today is the church’s New Year. The Church year always begins with Advent. Advent is a season that brings a certain level of tension. Our culture wants to sing Christmas Carols, but the spirits of Advent says “wait”. Our culture wants to celebrate by eating cookies and decorating Christmas trees, but the spirits of Advent say “wait”. On the way to church we hear Frank Sentara’s voice on the radio singing “I’m dreaming of a White Christmas”, and our heads are filled with cozy images of sleigh rides and fire places and hot chocolate. When we get to church we hear readings that prepare us for God’s coming to us as the Christ-child (which we expect and hope for), but unexpectedly our readings also call us to repentance, and warn us to prepare for a coming judgement as we wait for Jesus to come again. It can feel a bit like Lent invading our Christmas celebrations. Advent is a season that many of us want to “bah-humbug”....

Gen 44:18-45:9; Psalm 32; 1 John 1:5-2:6; Luke 15:11-32 We are continuing with our sermon series today, which we have called Christian Caregiving. This is actually the last in the series because next week is the beginning of Advent. This week we are dealing with caring for someone who wants to forgive someone. We have dealt with caring for someone who sins and we spoke about how to help them confess and then to speak God’s forgiveness as a representative of Christ. This is a bit different. This week we are speaking about you, as a Christian caregiver, helping someone who has been hurt by someone else. Forgiveness is a persistent theme throughout Scripture. Within the pages of the Bible we meet a God who takes sin incredibly seriously, but who is also very willing to forgive his people when they honestly repent and humbly seek forgiveness. When we get to the New Testament there is an emphasis, not only on God’s forgiveness of us, but our need to forgive one another. Jesus says that if...

Judges 2:6-23;  Ps 16; Gal 6:1-10;  Matt 18:15-20   Today we are continuing our sermon series on Christian caregiving. We are going to be dealing with boundaries today. If we have compassion for others and we want to do the right thing and believe God is calling us to help make the world a better place, eventually we will deal with issues having to do with boundaries.  There will be situations where you are asked to do something by someone and you feel uncomfortable about it and you might not know why. Many people are afraid to get involved with hurting people because they are worried about getting stuck in uncomfortable situations. This gets somewhat easier when we have a good sense of boundaries.  What are boundaries? Basically boundaries are knowing where you end and another person begins. It is knowing where your responsibility is and where your responsibility isn’t. God allows people to make choices. He will give them information and allo...

Issues of war have often been difficult for Christians and we have often not been of one mind. Jesus’ words to us about enemies were quite plain: Jesus says in Matthew ch 5:38-44,  "You have heard that it was said, ‘Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth.’ But I tell you, do not resist an evil person. If anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to them the other cheek also. … “You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbour and hate your enemy.’ But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in heaven." These teachings led the early church father Tertullian to say in 204,  "I think we must first inquire whether warfare is proper at all for Christians... Should it be held lawful to make an occupation of the sword when the Lord proclaims that he who uses the sword shall perish by the sword? And shall the son of peace take part in battle when it does not even become him to sue at the law courts? And sha...

Sirach 38:1-4; Psalm 147:1–7;  James 5:7-20;  Luke 10:1-12 Today we continue our sermon series on Christian caregiving. Last time we spoke about caring for people who sin. Today we are going to talk about praying for people who desire healing.    Some find this topic intimidating because it brings to mind televangelists. Others dislike the topic because it is not predictable enough- we don’t know when a person will be healed and when they won’t be- there are no guarantees. There are no techniques or words that always bring a predictable result. It is a controversial topic for many people. And yet… it is a part of what we are called to do as disciples of our Lord.  St. James writes, “Are any among you sick? They should call for the elders of the church and have them pray over them, anointing them with oil in the name of the Lord. The prayer of faith will save the sick, and the Lord will raise them up; and anyone who has committed sins will be forg...

Gen 3:1-13; Ps 51 ;1 Jn 1:5-2:6 9; Jn 4:3-30, 39-42 Today we are continuing with our sermon series on Christian caregiving. Last time we spoke about caring for those who are suffering. This week we are talking about caring for people who sin. We’ll start by looking at what sin is. If we look at the interaction between Eve and the serpent we will see an archetype of how sin works. Eve knew the commandment. They could eat from every other tree in the garden, just not that one tree. The serpent, who we know to be the Devil, the tempter, planted seeds of doubt in her. He suggested that maybe God isn’t really all that good. Maybe God is actually keeping something good away from her. That is the way we often look at sin- it would be a lot of fun if God just didn’t have a thing about it (Dallas Willard). When Eve was convinced that God was not to be trusted in this matter, the first human couple decided that they would make their own decision about what was right and wrong, rather than ...

Job 2:8-3:1; Ps 22; 2 Cor 12:1-10; Mk 14:32-43 We are continuing our series on Christian Caregiving this week. Last time we spoke about listening to someone we are caring for. This week we are speaking about caring for someone who is suffering. Suffering can be one of the most difficult issues we deal with as Christians. I have found it helpful to deal with suffering on two levels. One level is the theological reality where I try to understand why suffering exists in the world. The other level is the emotional reality of the person who is suffering. I’m just going to share a few of the thoughts I have found helpful when dealing with suffering. They might bounce around a bit, so be patient with me. On a philosophical/theological level we are confronted with the dilemma of how a loving and all-powerful God can allow suffering to exist. Suffering is an issue many theologians have wrestled with and we should be wary of giving any kind of easy answer to the problem of suffering....