Rev Chris Roth

  Mark 11:1-11; Isaiah 50:4-9; Psalm 118:1-2, 19-29; Philippians 2:5-11 ;   Mark 14:1-15:47 Palm Sunday is kind of like Holy Week packed into one day. Palm Sunday is when we begin the slow journey towards the cross that makes up the last week before Jesus is killed. We inch along with him. We listen to his teachings, and even imagine ourselves as part of the crowd that is leaning-in to hear him. … It requires a certain kind of emotional strength to walk through these days. It is the kind of strength that is needed to walk into the hospital room of a friend who has been diagnosed with a terminal disease, and to actually talk about that diagnosis rather than change the subject and talk about the weather. It is the kind of strength needed to attend the funeral of someone you love. … Some people do almost anything they can to avoid that sadness. To them, Good Friday is “such a downer”. It is uncomfortable, so they don’t attend. … But tragedy and sadness are a part of life. We migh...

  Jeremiah 31:31-34; Psalm 51:1-12; Hebrews 5:5-10; John 12:20-33 When Jesus speaks about his “hour” and being glorified he is referring to the cross. As you know, the symbol of Christianity is a cross. It is so normal to us that we don’t usually grasp how strange it is. To pre-Christian Rome It was offensive and grotesque. It was a shameful and horrifying way to die. The cross has sometimes been a difficult aspect of Christianity to explain for missionaries in non-Christian societies. It is natural to think, if the universe was just and made sense, that Good people shouldn’t die that way. If a good person does die that way, then we quickly jump into questions about how the universe can be a just place when things like that happen in it. The universe doesn’t make sense if they do. In the 16th century, a Jesuit missionary named Matteo Ricci arrived in China. He was a brilliant renaissance man who quickly mastered Chinese language and culture. In the style of Paul in Acts, Ricci a...

  Numbers 21:4-9;  Psalm 107:1-3, 17-22;  Ephesians 2:1-10;  John 3:14-21 The Hebrew people in the book of Numbers seem to constantly get stuck in a pattern of ingratitude as they wandered in the wilderness. I’m sure we can’t really judge them for that. We live with technology, medication, and access to information and food that most of humanity that has lived on this planet couldn’t even dream about, … and yet we never seem to lack a reason to complain. So maybe we can identify with the Hebrew people as they wander the wilderness and grumble. When we meet the Hebrew people in our Numbers reading (chapter 21), they are in the middle of complaining. Despite the miraculous way God has rescued them from slavery in Egypt, they complain that they were better off as slaves. They complain that they will starve, and God provides them with manna for food (Ex 16). They complain that they are thirsty, and Moses strikes a rock and God provides water (Ex 17). They complain that t...

Exodus 20:1-17; Psalm 19; 1 Corinthians 1:18-25; John 2:13-22 We have great readings today. First, we read the Ten Commandments . It has been a long tradition in the church that when we examine our lives, one of the ways to do that is to turn to the Ten Commandments and we compare them with our lives. We read them with our hearts tuned to the deeper purposes and principles behind the commands. So the warning against idolatry isn’t just about whether we have bowed before a stone statue of Zeus lately, rather it is about if we have put anything on God’s throne in our life. Honouring your father and mother isn’t just about treating your parents well, it’s also about honouring elders and showing gratitude for what our ancestors have built and handed on to us. When we read about murder, it isn’t just about killing someone, but it is also about anger, which Jesus suggests is the seed of murder (Matt 5:21-26). Adultery isn’t just about a sexual act outside of marriage, it is also about allow...

  Genesis 9:8-17; Psalm 25:1-10; 1 Peter 3:18-22; Mark 1:9-15 We have now entered into the season of Lent. The practice of observing Lent began sometime in the 200’s. That was a time when being a Christian could be quite dangerous, and it was also a time when Christianity was spreading deep into the Roman Empire to people who had very little experience with Judaism or the Hebrew Scriptures. For Jewish people who came to believe in Jesus they already had a lot of the basic beliefs and practices in place- they had a solid foundation. However, Gentile Pagans needed more time and training to understand what they were getting themselves into. The time of Lent became a time when new converts prepared for their baptism, which would happen at Easter. The preparation would involve intense study of Scripture, and the abandonment of cultural values that were contrary to their new Identity in Christ. It was a time of repentance. They seriously considered what it meant to become a Christian, an...

  2 Kings 2:1-12; Psalm 50:1-6; 2 Corinthians 4:3-6; Mark 9:2-9 We have reached the end of the Season after Epiphany, which begins with the Magi kneeling before the infant Jesus, and ends with the Transfiguration. We have interrupted our usual readings to talk about practices that strengthen community. The usual readings show how Christ’s identity is revealed, and today we are returning to our usual readings, so we will be looking at the Transfiguration. There is a lot of symbolism in this little passage, and I don’t think we can really appreciate the Transfiguration without spending some time looking at these elements. We have Elijah appear in both our Old Testament and our New Testament readings today. Elijah was the prophet’s prophet. He was surrounded by supernatural acts of power. He famously faced off with King, Queen Jezebel, and the prophets of Ba’al. God miraculously consumes the sacrifice that Elijah offers, proving to be the true God. He fled that event because Jezebel w...

Daniel 7:9-10, 13-14; Psalm 95; 1 Corinthians 6:12-20; John 4:7-30 I once heard someone describe a dream they had. They were walking through an ancient cemetery in an old European church yard where many medieval kings were buried. As they walked through the cemetery, suddenly the ground started to shift as warrior kings in armour rose from their graves, swords in hand. As the kings saw each other they started to engage in battle. This vicious battle continued until Christ descended from the sky and all the kings stopped fighting, turned, and knelt before him. It is an interesting metaphor. We all can be like kings and queens of our own little kingdoms. We all have opinions about how things should be, and how people should behave. Things tend to be peaceful as long as we don’t cross the threshold into another person’s kingdom and act like it’s our kingdom. Maybe you are a parent and someone else tells you how to parent your child. Maybe someone comments on the state of your ...