Category: Sermon

St.Mary’s Anglican Church, Canon Claude Schroeder

Mark 3:20-35

I announced last Sunday that for the rest of this church calendar we are going to be reading through Mark’s Gospel in church on Sunday mornings. In his Gospel, St. Mark is concerned to present and defend Jesus’ universal call, to men and women everywhere, to follow Him. The question before us is this, “What does it mean to follow a crucified and risen Saviour, who is Jesus Christ?” We might also ask, “ls it worth it?” Continue reading “Trinity 2 – June 10, 2018”

St. Mary’s Anglican Church, Canon Claude Schroeder

Mark 2:23-3:6

Today marks another shift in our plan for Sunday mornings at St. Mary’s. Having gone through the seasons and the Festivals of Advent, Christmas, Epiphany, Passiontide, Easter, Ascension, and Pentecost, where we have rehearsed the mighty acts of God in the birth, baptism, miraculous manifestations, temptation, suffering, death, resurrection, ascension of the Lord, and the sending of the Holy Spirit, and having celebrated last Sunday the revelation of the worship of the Holy Trinity, we now embark on the season of Trinity, which will take us all the way to the end of current church calendar in November. Continue reading “Trinity 1 – June 3, 2018”

St. Mary’s Anglican Church, Canon Claude Schroeder

Lectionary: Isaiah 6:1-8; Psalm 29; Romans 8:12-17; John 3:1-17

It was the spring of 1996, 22 years ago, that I experienced my first theological crisis as an Anglican priest. The trauma of that event is still with me. I was serving a small rural community in Alberta’s Peace River Country, and was driving down the highway one afternoon with my eldest son, who was three at the time, strapped in the child seat in the back of the car.

It was dead quiet, and then it happened. All of a sudden a voice called to me, “Dad, who is God?” Continue reading “Trinity Sunday – May 27, 2018”

St. Mary’s Anglican Church, Canon Claude Schroeder.

Lectionary: Acts 4. 5-12, Psalm 23, 1 John 3. 16-24, John 10. 11-18

Well, the Easter lilies packed it in in this week. It’s always a little sad to see them go. But our celebration of Easter continues. Today on the Third Sunday after Easter we are still wanting to grapple with the implication of the Resurrection of Jesus for our lives on this earth.

The way in which the Christian faith sometimes gets presented, it’s as if the Resurrection of Jesus was all about life after death, about going to heaven to be with Jesus after you die. But what, if any thing does the Resurrection of Jesus have to say about life before death? Continue reading “Easter 3 – April 22, 2018”

St. Mary’s Anglican Church, Beth Christanson

Thomas the Pragmatist

Thomas gets a bad rap in the church, and I don’t think he deserves it. Imagine being stuck for two millennia with the moniker “Doubting Thomas!” i would like to suggest a name change for our poor friend. I wish to advocate for the name “Pragmatic Thomas.” Continue reading “Easter 1 – April 8, 2018”

St. Mary the Virgin Anglican Church – Revd. Canon Claude Schroeder

Alleluia! Christ is Risen. He is Risen Indeed! Alleluia!

So runs the ancient Easter greeting, with which Christians throughout the ages have greeted one another during the Great 50 days of Easter , which starts today. And with these words I greet you all this happy morning!

Let’s try it. Alleluia! Christ is Risen! He is Risen Indeed. Alleluia!

As far as Christian greetings go, it beats “Happy Easter” don’t you think? Continue reading “Easter – April 1, 2018”

St. Mary’s Anglican Church, Rev’d Canon Claude Schroeder

We began our service this morning with the story of Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem where the crowds, we are told, waved palm branches in the air.

But today isn’t really about the Palms. It’s about the Cross, which explains the our Palm Crosses. Although Good Friday marks the actual day Jesus was crucified, starting today and throughout this Holy Week, it is the Cross, and everything that led up to it, which is the subject of the Church’s worship, meditation and devotion.

What is the Cross? Continue reading “Palm Sunday – March 25, 2018”

St. Mary’s Anglican Church
Septuagesima – January 28, 2018
Canon Claude Schroeder
1 Corinthians 9:24; Matthew 20:1-16

Today we are shifting gears at St. Mary’s. Today marks the beginning of the season of pre-Lent in our liturgical calendar. We have the three Sundays of Septuagesima, Sexagesima, Quinquagesima. What fun these exotic sounding Latin names! Septuagesima, which stand for 70, Sexagesima which stands for 60, and Quinquagesima which stands for 50. We are symbolically counting down the days to the Great Fast and the 40 days of Lent leading up to Easter. If we are honest, the thought of Lent is probably the last thing on any of our minds, and our hearts are not in it. That’s OK. We have the next three weeks to ready our minds, and prepare our hearts. Continue reading “Septuagesima – January 28, 2018”

St. Mary’s Anglican Church
Epiphany 4 – January 21, 2018
Canon Claude Schroeder
Mark 1:14-20

(Sermon transcript)

Today we are continuing our theme of Epiphany in which we are given to see God manifesting and showing Himself in the person of Jesus Christ. In Epiphany we come to church to order have God open our eyes that we might see Jesus for who He really is, so that, seeing him more clearly, we might love him more dearly, and follow him more really, which is what we are going to try and do in the season of Lent, which is coming up. You see the wonderful logic in our church calendar. Continue reading “Epiphany 4 – January 21, 2018”

St. Mary’s Anglican Church, Epiphany 2, Jan 14, 2018
Canon Claude Schroeder
John 1:43-51; 1 Corinthians 6:12-20

(Sermon transcript)

Today is the Second Sunday in the season of Epiphany. Epiphany, which comes from a Greek word meaning to reveal or manifest, something which previously had been hidden, comes out into the open.

In the season of Epiphany we are celebrating the fulfillment of the announcement that was made at Christmas that God Himself has come to us in the flesh in the person of Jesus. Continue reading “Epiphany 2 – January 14, 2018”