St. George's United Church: Recent Episodes
St. George's United Church
"But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have died." - 1 Corinthians 15:20
The Tenth Commandment in our Sermon Series on the Ten Commandments, “you shall not covet anything that belongs to your neighbour.”
The Ninth Commandment in our Sermon Series on the Ten Commandments, “you shall not bear false witness.” Our guest preacher was the Rev. Dr. Jonathan Wilson.
It’s been said that “the road to hell is paved by good intentions?” According to the Bible it’s just as easily paved with gold, Bit-Coin, or stock options.
For Jesus, the issue isn't just that we kill. That’s a given. He knows that killing doesn't just happen out of the blue. Killing's a symptom of a deeper disease, one that infects each and every human heart.
The Rev. Foster Freed offers this sermon on the commandment to “Honour your father and your mother” in the form of a letter to his own children.
The Second Commandment keeps us from getting God horribly wrong. But it also helps us get God right.
In the words of the late author and essayist David Foster Wallace, “we all worship.” We just get to choose what we worship."
Now, as then, the Commandments paint a picture as to the kind of life that’s possible with this freedom-loving God.
On the surface, the Song of Solomon is steamy ancient love poetry. In a deeper sense, however, it points us to God's unbreakable love for us in Christ.
"Here Comes the Sun" by Gregor Schoenberg on guitar.
The story of Solomon suggests that seeking wealth, power, and longevity can be at odds with seeking and finding true wisdom.
David longs to bring back his son and reverse history. But none of us can do this. God can, however.
We've become so accustomed to Jesus and Christianity that we've become closed to the beauty and power of Jesus.
God's all about getting us out of our comfort zones to bless the four corners of the world.
The story of Cain and Abel isn't just about a murder, it's about what it means to live and struggle with our own darkness.
The way things are isn't the way it's supposed to be. But God outfits us for life as it is.
St. George's member Virginia East reflects on the Creation of Adam and Eve as stewards of creation.
From the beginning of the world to the beginning of the church to the present day, God's Spirit has been bringing order out of chaos.
Jesus' first instruction to his disciples after he ascends is to "wait." Waiting on the Spirit is the first discipline of the church.
In our "Secular Age" (Charles Taylor), we are encouraged to find our most authentic selves. There are upsides to this, but it's not quite enough.
“Sheep” sounds like an insult. But that’s what we are. The question is: who will shepherd us? Sermon by Rev. Ryan Slifka
Our bodies may be a real pain, but they are where our redemption happens. Sermon by the Rev. Ryan Slifka, hymn "Love Divine, All Loves Excelling" by St. George's music team.
Sermon by guest preacher the Rev. Foster Freed. Podcast includes bonus song by Luke Guthrie
We celebrate Easter every year, and worship every week, because we are liable to forget God’s power for life. Sermon by the Rev. Ryan Slifka
Jesus is the Saviour of the world. Just not on the world’s terms. Sermon by Rev. Ryan Slifka
We generally think of glory as success or triumph. For Jesus it’s in the shame and failure of the cross. Sermon by the Rev. Ryan Slifka
If the true God is revealed in Jesus, it means that our lives are not exposed as a way to shore up the court case against us…. the face that sees us is the face of Jesus Christ. The divine Son, who gives his life out of love on the cross for the sake of the whole world.
God or no God, the common assumption is that if we do or give something big enough or sacrificial enough then our problems will be solved.
Scripture like today’s passage from Mark is trying to draw our attention to the hidden spiritual reality in ordinary events.
Here Jonah’s given a parable of the inexhaustible grace of God. It’s good news, but also deeply troubling!
Jonah’s infuriated by God’s leniency towards Nineveh. Here we discover that God’s about saving Jonah from himself, too.
Jonah was swallowed and spat up by a whale. The real miracle, however, is that Nineveh, the great city, turns away from its evil and averts disaster.
Jonah prays in the past tense because he trusts God will act in the future in the same way that God has acted in the past.
“We may be cowards on most days like Jonah. We may be uninspiring individuals who often have little to show for in terms of showcasing our spiritual skills or strength. But we’ve still been given a power just as potent. We’ve been given something that can be just as compelling in our witness to the world: the gift of God’s grace.”
“What’s your place of darkness? Where’s your Nineveh? And where’s your Tarsish, your place of escape? The good news is that you can stop fleeing from your pain, you can stop hiding out of fear, you can stop running from the prodding presence of God.”
“It may not feel like it, but Christmas isn’t over, yet. Because Christmas was just the beginning.”
Part 3 in our series, "Why Church?" Each week looks at a movement in worship to answer this question. This week is "Kneel"--come to church to confess.
Part 2 in our series, "Why Church?" Each week looks at a movement in worship to answer this question. This week is "Praise"--we praise God to be reminded of who God is and who we are.
Part 1 in our series, "Why Church?" Each week looks at a movement in worship to answer this question. This week is "Come"--we gather together, called by the God of love to community.
To be truthful. To be living. To be loving. To be human. This is the reason the wise men were drawn by the star.
The following sermon was delivered as part of a joint service including the congregations of Comox United Church, Comox Presbyterian Church, and St. George’s United Church held at St. George’s. Rev. Murray Etty is a retired United Church Minister living in Campbell River.
The incarnation, Christmas, means not only Jesus is God. But that God is like Jesus. And that means everybody gets a present.
How we picture God usually depends on how we've grown up. But the nativity story offers us an image of God unlike all others.
We long for a different way. We long for another world to be born... Even though we believe that it’s too good to be true, we truly long for it to be so with every fiber of our being.
The Bible is relentless in its conviction that nothing that is skewed and distorted and deathly need remain as it is.
Isaiah shows us that God's work is more often than not slow and unseen--like green shoots from a stump.
We tend to think of the "end times" as a time of terror. Isaiah's vision is one of perpetual peace.
Testimony by St. George's member Betty Thornton for Stewardship month, accompanied by Rev. Ryan Slifka's sermon.
The state of the world can cause us to lose heart. Jesus counsels pray as the gateway to persistent hope.
Faith is more a process than a possession. And through faith incredible things happen. Like forgiveness.
10 lepers are healed in this scripture passage, while only one returns in gratitude to Jesus. This man, we will see, has been "twice healed."
The straighforward reading of this parable--that we are to share our wealth or else--doesn't account for the fact that Jesus says threats don't actually work.
Jesus' "hardest parable" suggests that we are to engage in a great campaign of sabotage.
We are tempted to think that the spiritual life is about seeking after God. But here, we find a God who is relentlessly seeking us.
Luke 14:25-33. One of the “hard sayings” of Jesus where he says that if we want to follow him we must learn to hate family and life itself, take up the cross, and give away all our possessions.
Some of us are oppressed by our failures, while some of us are imprisoned by our success.
We are tempted to believe that the spiritual life is about maintaining our own moral purity. According to Peter, it's about crossing boundaries to minister to "impure" people.
This sermon was the sixth and final in our series, “Practicing Christian,” on the spiritual practice of Giving & Gratitude
An introduction to prayer and Ignatian Spirituality by Catherine Kelly, Retreat Director at St. Mark's Parish, UBC.
Part 3 in our sermon series "Practicing Christian" on the Six Spiritual Practices for Following Jesus.
Part one, “Spiritual Friendships,” in our sermon series Practicing Christian on Six Marks of Discipleship.
This week’s sermon is from guest preacher, retired United Church Minister, the Rev. Murray Etty.
If Christ has been raised. then this life is a journey fixed toward the most beautiful destination: the eternity of God’s never ending love.
The point of the resurrection isn't just that it happened. The point is that it happens.
At our healthiest the church looks like Jesus, with Christ walking, talking, reaching out, mending lives and pulling down division through us.
We are each given spiritual gifts, all gifts are equal, and all gifts are given for the common good.
We have many identities, but baptism reveals our God-given identity--one that no one can take away.
We tend to see freedom as freedom from authority and other people. Freedom, according to the biblical narrative, is the freedom to serve the right person.
“Jesus is God” doesn’t do Christianity or the meaning of Christmas justice. But if God is like Jesus, that’s good news for us all.
the truth is, the tremendous good news is, that ours is a God of both the darkness and the light; despair and joy. We celebrate a God who willingly enters the darkness in order to bring the light.
Mary speaks as if God has already accomplished everything. But she’s right: God has already won. We might as well give up and join in.
When we hear this story we tend to focus on the Virgin Birth. But there may be a greater miracle here: the fact that Mary says "yes."
Revelation 12 suggests that there's more going on under the surface of the Christmas story, and more going on in our own lives, than what we can see and touch.
The idea of a monarch sounds pretty outdated, medieval, oppressive, even. But followers of Jesus call him Lord and King because he's completely unlike any other king.
Our culture's imagination is filled with apocalyptic images of doom and destruction. Apocalyptic literature, however, is intended to stoke hope in the emergence of a new thing.
We tend to imagine God’s work in the world as a “shock-and-awe” power. The widow shows us more the “God of Small Things.”
Jesus says the commandment to love God with everything you’ve got, and to love your neighbor as yourself is important than any other law or religious ordinance. It would be a relief if it weren’t actually impossible in practice.
We tend to think of spirituality like fast food—we order something, we get it, and then we’re better people. The Jesus Way is different—it’s more slow food. A lifelong path of being healed from the inside out.
One of the biggest obstacles people can have to church, faith, God, are the behavior of Christians and their portrayal of God.
Jesus knows the things that, below the surface, gnaw at our souls, the things that enslave us. In this case it's money.
Jesus is pretty hardcore when it comes to divorce. But he's also pretty hardcore when it comes to the joy and blessing of marriage.
Harsh words from Jesus this week, including images of dismemberment and everlasting fire. But these are intended to underline a sense of spiritual urgency.
We see greatness as something achieved, and something to be held over others. Jesus says that greatness is giving all that away in loving service to others.
Following Jesus is cross-shaped: it means a willingness to give up everything to inherit the only thing that matters.
Here Jesus doesn't look too good. Even so, this is a pivotal point where Jesus' ministry extends beyond insiders and the so-called "unclean."
“It doesn’t matter what I think about Assisted Death. And frankly, it doesn’t matter what you think about it either. What matters is that we are called by God to confront the reality of our own mortality in the context of the cross which tells us that death is not something to be feared.”
Suffering itself is ultimately a mystery. Even so, the core conviction of the Christian tradition is that we have a God who doesn't cause our suffering, but helps us bear and transform it for good.
Generally, we see free will as our ability to make unhindered choices. However, in our passage the Apostle Paul shows us that it’s more like a tug of war going on inside us.
Read together, evolution and faith are far from incompatible. They are both enriched by each other.
We tend to assume that the universe uses and rewards strength and success with more strength and success. According to Paul, God's power, however, is "made perfect in weakness."
No matter how hard we try to make things right, sometimes people turn away from us. Paul, on the other hand, refuses to turn away.
Christianity is less about morals, justice, belief or afterlife than it is about a whole New Creation.
We spend most of our time cultivating our outer appearances. But, unlike our outer nature, which is fleeting, there’s something about our inner nature that mingles with the eternal.
We are the life of Jesus made visible because God in Jesus has chosen to join us in our imperfect bodies in an imperfect world.
The spiritual life begins with telling the truth. Not the truth about other people, however, but the truth about ourselves. And that’s hard, it’s scary and it can be painful.
Guest preacher Andy Gilman shares reflections on Jesus as the True Vine, and Phillip's encounter with the Ethiopian Eunuch.
We live in a time of seeking where the dominant form is the "spirituality of the quest." While the metaphor has its limits, the Way of Jesus can be seen as a quest.
Like Thomas, we want concrete evidence of Jesus' resurrection. But Jesus says "blessed are those who have not seen, and yet believe," suggesting a different kind of evidence is in order.
Mark's gospel seems to end abruptly, with Jesus' followers running and hiding, rather than joining him on the road. But this is intentional. Mark is giving we who hear the story our own choice as to leave the empty tomb unchanged or transformed.
It's easy to see God in the beautiful places of our world--like the face of a baby or a sunset. It's much harder to see God in the ugly places of our lives and in our world. But that's precisely what's said in the mystery of the cross.
Often Christianity is presented as a set of ideas to be affirmed or rejected. Yet, it's more than that--it's fundamentally trust in a person.
We waste so many good things we've been given: talents, potential, relationships, and even creation itself. Nonetheless, the limits of God's mercy have not been set--God always has more to waste on us.
We live in a fast-paced culture, with hectic schedules, stressful careers and incredible, competing demands on our time. Busy-ness is often seen as a mark of success, or importance. Unless you're God.
St. George's welcomes guest preacher Rev. Dr. Richard Topping, Principal of the Vancouver School of Theology
Church can be a sanctuary where we withdraw from the chaos of the world. Nonetheless, even the best protected sanctuary can have its predators.
Bad religion creates people who are self-serving, privilege gathering. Good religion creates people who live sacrificially for love of God and neighbor.
In these three little verses, Jesus is all about how to be in relationship with God, flipping societies’ expectations on their head. He says, this ain’t no insiders club – truth, is, its easier if in all the rest of your life you just don’t fit.
When we think of God as powerful, we assume that God's power is like human power: destructive, fearful. Jesus suggest God's power is more like mustard.
Our job is to scatter the seed of God's grace indiscriminately, with the trust that the outcome, the fruit, is God’s doing.
With Jesus, it’s both/and. Hearing and doing. Receiving and giving. And this is the pattern he sets for the Christian life, the whole human life.
Christianity is often thought of as a "family-friendly" faith. A youthful Jesus in the temple seems to suggest otherwise.
Take a look at the Christmas story, and it's anything but nice. But that's the point: it doesn't need to be.
Christmas needs the season of Advent because Advent gives the diagnosis for which Christmas is the cure.
It's becoming harder to believe that one person can make a difference in the world. But what if it isn't about us changing the world, but God changing the world through us?
We tend to think the world works a certain way. Jesus is God's wisdom--showing us a different way.
Where others don't see much in David, God sees a king, and a vessel for the Holy Spirit.
Where others don't see much in David, God sees a king, and a vessel for the Holy Spirit.
In a culture like ours that holds up independence as one of its most important values, being a burden on others is one of the worst things we could imagine. The story of Ruth offers an alternative.
Others are always setting the stage, helping with daily tasks, encouraging us, guiding us, to where we need to go. No matter how hard we’ve worked for what we have, we are always building on the work of others.
You can be a good person without believing in God, and without going to church. Hope, though, is the thing that makes all the difference.
Faith communities often see themselves as offering something that changes other people. But in this story of Abraham and Sarah we discover that it's those who do the welcoming who are most changed.
We're future-oriented creatures. Without something to inspire us, to make us excited to be alive, we become imprisoned by fear and anxiety.
The story of the Bible isn't souls judged and sent to an afterlife. It's creation redeemed and made whole, beginning to end. We join in.
Giving is often thought of as a burden. But what if we thought of it as an act of true freedom?
For us, talking about money is like walking on eggshells. We’ve gotta be very careful. But like in so many other places in the Bible Jesus. According to today’s passage Jesus’ preference is less about tiptoeing over or around our eggshells. His strategy seems to be to stomp them into oblivion.
How do we reconcile the Bible's cultural assumptions about women with our convictions about equality?
“What is both Good and New about the Good News is the wild claim that Jesus did not simply tell us that God loves us even in our wickedness and folly and wants us to love each other the same way and to love him too, but that if we will let him, God will actually bring about this unprecedented transformation of our hearts himself." -Frederick Buechner, "Wishful Thinking"
God's love for Jonah's enemies shows Jonah's love is too small. Are we prepared to accept God's love for our own enemies?
"Truth be told, our own lives are lived between these two cities, whether we know it or not. Our natural instinct is to try to get ahead. To survive, to protect ourselves. To look out for our own well-being, the good of our families, the cohesion of our group. To find comfort, to avoid stress. This survival instinct… well, it helps us survive. It keeps us alive. But is it enough?"
We'll be continuing a three-year tradition this summer by hosting joint worship services between St. George's, Comox United Church, Cumberland United Church, and Comox Valley Presbyterian Church. Make sure you're at the right church--at the right time!
"Inward, then outward. This is the shape of an authentic spirituality. From the self to the world."
"It may first sound like bad news. Because according to Pentecost, is that with this living God there’s nothing we can do to gain the kind of joy, the kind of life, the kind of power we long for. So much religion is about manipulating the divine into giving us what we want. Bad news is that there’s no sure-fire technique to gain it. Because God works in God’s own time.
Join us for a family friendly event, featuring Jubilation Choir from Bloomington Minnesota who will be performing Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber's hit musical Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat!
Maddy Erickson, Max Sander, Adelie Simson, and Charla Johnson are hosting a fundraising concert to attend the Provincial Music Festival in Kamloops, B.C. with Piano accompaniment by Dagmar Kilian and Carter Johnson.
"Evangelism has a bad rap thanks to people’s bad experiences. Which has made many of us timid at best, terrified at worst about sharing faith."
"We’ve found a path, and relationships that have brought us face to the good, the beautiful, and the true. We’ve discovered that we’ a calling in life. Some of us have. Each of us has a calling given by God. To be living stones."
"God used Christ’s suffering to bring about healing for all. And if God can do that… God can use our suffering to bring about good, too. Even for our enemies. In the end, that’s what this text is all about."
Our destiny is to be fully alive in the way Christ was and is fully alive. To live in loving relationship with God, to be united with Christ, and to grow fully in to his likeness. Our destiny is to be part of the larger work of God’s healing of all creation. God has a plan, our lives get to be part of it. Easter not only shows us the path to journey on. It shows us where that path will lead us. The destination makes all the difference.
"Thomas got what everyone else got, a one-on-one with Jesus. And this is a tremendous truth about our faith. It is about relationship. It is about deep and abiding presence with God. I can’t have faith based on your encounter. But also, I cannot have an encounter without hearing your testimony about experiencing God."
"Easter is an interesting day for people like me, people who hold leadership roles in faith communities. Easter is a day where all sorts of different people show up. At so many different places in their lives and relationship to faith, to spirituality. It’s a once-or-twice-a-year opportunity. So I thought I’d make the most of it, and rather than preaching a single sermon for you today, I thought I’d kick it up a notch. I figured I’d preach three sermons for you today instead."
"The kind of love that Jesus models, Jesus incarnates, the love of God, is more than a saying. More than a universal teaching. It’s more than a feeling. The love that Jesus commands from us is the same love he’s shown. It’s risky love. It’s dangerous love. It’s the costliest kind of love."
"When you think of the phrase “to save the world” what do you think of? Jesus’ contemporaries hoped for the overthrow of their Roman oppressors. We picture the overthrow of communism (or capitalism), or something called “radical Islam.” Terrorists foiled before they can set off the nuke. Or the bad guys get beat and peace, truth, justice and democracy are restored and reign forever. Chemical weapons and airstrikes. This is the strangeness of this story that we who hear this story year after year seem to miss. Jesus doesn’t accomplish anything like that at all. The crowd calls out to Jesus “Lord save.” Jesus suffers. Jesus calls out to the crowd “I’m thirsty.” Then he dies."
"If only there were a God, or a God who cared, then we would be spared our suffering. Then the world would be spared its suffering. This is probably why Easter Sunday services are always more popular than Good Friday. Why we prefer upbeat gospel hymns to depressing dirges in the minor key. Because so much of our spirituality is built around doing our best to avoid suffering, sin and pain, that when we actually face suffering then none of it seems to make sense."
This year, join us in the season of death and new life. For Holy Week, St. George's will be celebrating services on Palm/Passion Sunday, and a joint Maundy Thursday and Good Friday services with Comox United Church, Cumberland United Church, and Comox Presbyterian Church (for Good Friday). For Easter, we will be celebrating an Easter Sunrise service (with Comox United at Goose Spit) early morning, and Easter Sunday worship on Easter Day.
"Miracles are not exceptions, where God is somehow absent, then decides to reach in to our world toshow up and act one day. No, miracles are part of God’s greater work on a small scale. But local, intensified. Like an underground spring that suddenly bubbles up to the surface."
We are spiritually thirsty people, in one way or another. We have thirsty souls. But the problem is that we try to satisfy this spiritual thirst that we have with all sorts of things that won't satisfy.
We all want new life, a new start. And we’ll try just about anything to get it. But it isn’t that easy. It requires a restart. Becoming a whole new person, being born again from above. It’s not something we can create, not something we can strive for or accomplish. No, it’s God’s doing from beginning to end, the work of the Holy Spirit that blows where it will.
"Spiritual immaturity, it seems, is to believe that you have no more maturing to do. And I think this is our human default. It’s kind of ironic that the moment we hit adulthood is when we become most set in our ways. When our opinions become the most fixed, and we become the most averse to change."
Beginning Ash Wednesday (March 1), you are invited to join us in an intentional personal and spiritual growth and development challenge. Through the season of Lent, we will be engaging with daily reading, spiritual practices, and small group discussion with the intention of going deeper in our relationship with God and one another. This year we'll be reflecting on John's gospel together.
Like the Corinthians who saw wisdom as a way gain status for themselves, and power over others, we live in a culture that sees knowledge as a weapon. As a tool for the same.
In community, it’s so easy to forget the point of things. To insert other less important things in the place of the most important thing: common purpose, common purpose, common mission. This is what’s happening in Corinth, and what so easily happens in any community.
Are you interested in participating locally in a cross-Canada walk to support charities helping the homeless? Comox Valley is holding a walk (2, 5, or 10 km) to support two local non-profits – Comox Valley Transition Society and Dawn to Dawn. Last year our St. George's team raised over $2000.
We can be so naïve about community. Thinking that it’s just a lovely place where everyone is always nice and polite to each other, everyone follows proper etiquette and procedures. People share the same beliefs and political views. That true community is actually doing our best to avoid conflict, annoyance, and hypocrisy.
Behind this terror, this destruction. They knew there was more to life that what we can see. They could hear the voice of the God who Created… and is Creating. The Source of all life, the Love at the heart of everything echoing through the ages. Inside the flood, the darkness, the fear. We hear a voice that will never be drowned out. One that will never be defeated or destroyed. A voice that will never be silent. One that promises strength. And brings with it peace.
So, this God of ours who has come in human form is known first as Emmanuel and second as an immigrant, as a refugee. Jesus knows specifically the experience of the displaced and the disadvantaged, because he lived it and stands with all who continue to do so. He has a heart for those babies whose fathers were not fortunate enough to hear the call of danger in the night. How will we meet the needs of the world? With a God who knows through experience what it’s like to be human.
God spoke once. God spoke decisively in the flesh. And God continues to speak, continues to reach out and change lives today. This is the message of Christmas, message of the incarnation. That God still speaks.
Quirinius, the governor, officially represents the empire in occupied territory. The world’s story at this point is a story of power. A story of wealth. Of influence. The world’s story at this point in time is the Roman story. And so this is why the story begins with the opening camera shot on Rome. Focusing on an Emperor and a Governor. People of power, wealth, influence. People of significance.
Where we may find ourselves with less of a clear identity, a clearly defined role as men, God is casting us in a whole new one. To say “yes” to God, so often means letting go of who we thought we were to follow the leading of the Holy Spirit. This doesn’t mean we have to stop being men. But it means that rather than judging ourselves on the jobs we have, or the gender roles we play. Rather than judging ourselves on our productivity, or how our culture defined us in the past or defines us in the present.
Anthony B. Robinson, an American pastor and church leader once said that theology is "practical wisdom," meaning that it is meant for the contemplation and living of everyday life. This is your opportunity for deeper study in the work and tasks of theology. St. George's is partnering with Vancouver School of Theology over three weekends to provide this opportunity for the engagement with crucial, relevant topics led by talented and engaging teachers.
From the first light of Creation to the launching of the Ark, the stories of Genesis are unforgettable, and the issues they raise are as compelling as ever. But they're also more than stories—they're theological reflections of a high order, challenging us to grapple with fundamental questions about God, the nature of the world, and humankind.
Think about it, and you’ll spot yourself through the bars in the prison window. Somewhere. Think about it, and you’ll know what that old hymn means when is says “O Come O Come, Emmanuel, and ransom captive Israel.” Because we are all prisoners of one kind or another. Prisoners of our own brokenness, prisoners of the world’s brokenness. Captive. With no obvious way out. No way home.
John tells those of us who are preparing for the coming of Christ that this is no easy path of instant joy. John is here to hold up a mirror to us. To show us that we, like the Pharisees and Saducees, can become so complacent, so accustomed to our yearly rituals and traditions, that we slide into them every single year with ease or hesitation. We go through the motions, rest on our laurels jump through the hoops.
Truth be told, I don’t know when or if a time like this will come for us. There’s plenty of stuff for us to be worried about on the horizon. It’s hard to say. Maybe there won’t be one. I pray there won’t be one. But Jesus says that when that time comes, we don’t have to be afraid. We don’t have to drop the ball, or toss out our deepest convictions. Because Jesus says that it’s when the whole world’s falling apart. It’s our time to shine. Or more precisely, time for him to shine through us, by the power of the Holy Spirit.
Resurrection is all about God. It’s not about us having a blueprint for the future. It’s not a theory, or an explanation. It’s not about us having faith in the immortality of the soul, or that there is a better place when we die. Resurrection in the end is all about God. And the power of God’s love.
Jesus is kind of like a new baby. We all love the idea of welcoming a new life into our own. But when it finally happens it turns everything upside down. When Jesus walks into Zacchaeus’ home, when he walks into his life. He gets so much more than he bargained for. Because Jesus ruins everything.
the spiritual life, Way of Jesus Christ is not our way to get a leg up a ladder to the heavens. Or to get a leg up on others. It’s a way to come to terms with the darkness in ourselves. So it can be illuminated by the love of Christ. And we can carry that love to the world’s dark places.
This gets to the heart of it, you could say. About how real change happens. Real change doesn’t come to us from the outside in—as rules, fixes, or techniques to change us from the outside in. Whereas laws written in stone can be broken and put aside, the divine relationship etched into our hearts, the Spirit that is at work inside of us is more enduring. This is what God is up to at St. George’s. This is what God is up to in our fragile, hurting world.
Friends, this is the power that gratitude can have. It’s not something so glib as “be positive.” It’s not something so simple as “be satisfied with what you’ve got.” Or “changing our personal vibrations,” in the words of our dear friend Oprah. No, it’s so much more. It’s that within all of our lives. However joyous they may be. Or however dark they may become. Within each of these, within our world, there is light, if we have the eyes to see.
If you know what it’s like to long for more in life. To have your heart so on fire with truth, goodness, and beauty, that other people in your life wish they were more like you. If you know what it’s like to want that, you know what it means when the apostles say to Jesus “increase our faith!” You know what it’s like to ask for enough faith… to be faithful.
Like the rich man, we can spend our whole lives putting up a gate between us and suffering. Without even knowing it. Even in church. We do our best to separate ourselves from the suffering of others—especially the weak, the oppressed, and the lost. But Jesus says when we do this, we are like the rich man hiding himself from Lazarus. We are actually hiding ourselves from God.
Throughout the year, we provide opportunities for people to expand and deepen their spirituality, explore established and new beliefs, and to join others for connection and open, non-judgmental conversations. We strive to meet the needs of both newcomers and those who have been around a while.
Alpha is for anyone. It’s your opportunity to ask anything about life, faith and God. Whether you’re new to the Way of Jesus, or are still finding your way, each session looks at a different question and is designed to create conversation. It’s an open, informal & honest space to explore and discuss life’s big questions together.
On the evening of September 8, St. George's pastor Rev. Ryan Slifka was invited to offer a Christian perspective on the meaning of peace, along with representatives from Buddhist, Jewish, Wiccan, and Indigenous communities. Rev. Ryan reflected on images from Revelation 21-22, which comes at the very end of the Bible.
in considering this morning’s scripture, I started to wonder if we’ve not only misunderstood how the Christian tradition thinks about non-Christians. We may have also misunderstood something fundamental about Christianity itself. What if Christianity isn’t a way for us to get to God… and everybody else be damned. But what if it’s a way for God to get at us?
On August 20th, St. Georges partnered with the Comox Valley Transition Society to welcome First Nation Elder and Shaker Minister, Anne Bob to conduct a traditional Shaker service.
Like the Pharisees in our passage, we can have all the right opinions on all the right issues. We can serve people, we can give our time, and our money. We can be all about justice. We can do all of these things. And not have a single friend, or relationship with someone who is different than us.
Even in the world we live in, words don’t have to be “just words.” The Bible, the Christian tradition, the way of Jesus Christ, puts huge stock in the power of words. “In the beginning” says the book of Genesis. God spoke… and it was.” The cosmos created by an act of loving speech. And Jesus is named as “the Word made flesh.” That same spark that brought the universe in to being was fully present in the life of Jesus. God’s loving speech to us. One who was able to create a whole new world for us with his words, his teachings, and his touch, his death and his new life. And that, by the Spirit, this same spark is able to heal and set free. Able to re-create our own lives and our own world. Here and now.
In our text for this morning, Jesus, the great physician of our souls, offers us a diagnosis. That our hearts are not set where they are supposed to be. They are set towards earthly goods that do not last, and will never satisfy, yes. But Jesus he also offers a treatment. When Jesus says to sell what we have, and give alms, to sell what we have and give it away. He’s giving a prescription for fullness of life. Jesus prescribes giving, he prescribes a deep generosity, as the treatment for what ails our hearts and our souls.
I wonder if we wrestle with the text as it is, we might discover something about ourselves and our world that we don't already know. Even if it might be uncomfortable or challenging for us. For me, I've found that it's the uncomfortable or challenging places where my most fruitful and life-changing encounters with the Spirit seem to happen the most.
If we’re truly honest with ourselves, Jesus kind of sounds like he’s out of his mind. I don’t mean to sound cynical. But this prayer sounds crazy. It sounds impossible. A prayer for a parking spot actually seems perfectly doable in comparison. Because Jesus’ big prayer just seems a little too big.
This is something I think’s easy for us to forget. In all the worthwhile work it takes in keeping a place like this going, it’s so easy for us to forget why in the first place. Speaking as someone who walked in to a church for the first time a decade ago. We so easily forget that the most attractive thing about us, or a community like ours isn’t the tasks we need done, or the bills we need paying. It’s not the roof that’s being fixed, and it’s not the seats on committees. These are all good things. Necessary things. But they aren’t the inheritance we’ve been given to pass on. Those things are all here to help us pass on our inheritance, what we have to give.
You see, Elijah thought he was finished. He was no longer the person he once was. But God sustained him long enough to bring him in to his presence, and then to give him a whole new commission. He’s no longer fighting kings, no. That life is behind him permanently. Now he’s called to anointing new ones .He has a new vocation. Because God isn’t finished with him yet. Because when one chapter in our lives ends, God always has more in store.
Yahweh’s blaze of fire was impressive, for sure. But that’s not the real miracle. The real miracle here comes after. The real miracle is the end of the drought. After the fall of the prophets of Ba’al, Elijah confronts the king again. This time, it’s not with judgment. But with good news. With grace.