Author: The Rector

St. Mary the Virgin Anglican Church, Canon Claude Schroeder

Well, let me begin this morning wishing you all a very Happy Easter, in fact the very happiest of Easters!

Given the current circumstances, that probably comes across as something of a provocation. I mean, how can I wish you a happy Easter when all the things that we associate with the celebration of Easter, Easter flower arrangements and Easter music, a sense of new life associated with the coming to life of the earth again at springtime, Easter brunch with family and friends, and the delight and joy of children hunting for Easter eggs, has been taken from us? And we find ourselves plunged into this nightmare of a pandemic that has enshrounded the world in blanket of sickness, death, fear and anxiety and that has left many of us wondering, if, how, and when we are ever going to recover from this?

St. Mary the Virgin Anglican Church, Canon Claude Schroeder (John 11. 1-45)

Today we have come to the Fifth and final Sunday in the season of Lent, and the story of the Raising of Lazarus from the dead. This is the fourth in a series of encounters from St. John’s Gospel this Lent, where Jesus has been demonstrating His power to heal, save, and deliver us from all the powers of evil which threaten and destroy human life and God’s good creation. 

Canon Claude Schroeder ( John 9. 1-41)

So today we are continuing our Lenten sermon series, “Becoming the Story We Tell” where, in the Gospel lessons from St. John, we are exploring the meaning of Baptism, our “birth from above by water and the Spirit.” (John 3.5)

St. Paul, speaking of Holy Baptism, wrote, “For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly also be united with him in a resurrection like his.”( Romans 6.5). Baptism is union with Jesus in His death. What was the death of Jesus?  The death of Jesus Christ on the Cross was a death to sin. It was a death in which He entrusted Himself to God in love and obedience. It was a death unto life with God, and by that death He has defeated the power of death on our behalf, and was raised bodily to life again. 

St. Mary the Virgin Anglican Church Regina Lent 2 March 8, 2020 Canon Claude Schroeder (John 3:1—7)

The theme which we are exploring in our small groups this Lent and on Sunday mornings at St. Mary’s “Becoming the Story We Tell” which is the story of God’s love made known in creation and in the birth, baptism, temptation, preaching, teaching, miracles, suffering, death, resurrection, ascension, sending of the Holy Spirit, and the coming again in glory of His Son Jesus Christ our Lord to judge the living and the dead. This is the story that is embedded in both the Apostles and Nicene Creed, and in the calendar that governs our worship here at St. Mary’s.