Tag Archives: Forgiveness

Ash Wednesday 2023

As we begin our journey through Lent this year, some of us will be using this book, “Images of Grace” as a source of inspiration for our thinking, praying, and reflecting. As we go travel towards Easter we will be considering different images that occur in the Bible, and what new perspectives they might give […]

Lust and Love

I thought more than twice about changing the subject for this morning’s sermon. It’s difficult enough to speak about these things when I can see who I’m talking to, when I can get some clues about how it’s landing with people. When I know that we’ve got prayer ministry folk around who can come alongside […]

Forgiveness

This morning we’re going back to exploring one of our church values in some more depth. As a church we value loving God, loving each other, loving our neighbours, celebrating and exploring. Over the next month or so we’re going to be looking at some different aspects of what it means practically to love each […]

All Saints

I know that you might find this difficult to believe, but when I was a teenager I could be quite annoying. Looking back I feel particularly sorry for my Sunday school teachers. You see, I had the privilege of growing up in a Christian household, I’d been in church since I was little, I knew […]

Hold on. Let go.

I wonder if you’ve ever had that deeply frustrating experience of calling after someone who just keeps walking away from you as you call. Or a pet. Have you ever had a cat that just ignored you, or even worse, seemed to take you calling as a sign to disappear even further into the bushes? […]

Confession Time

In 2006, two performing artists created an exhibit in a storefront in Manhattan that allowed passers by to confess. The two women dressed as nineteenth-century washerwomen and sat in the storefront. One underlined the words on the glass — “Air your dirty laundry. 100 percent confidential. Anonymous. Free.” Onlookers were encouraged to write their deepest […]

Handling Conflict

This morning we are continuing our sermon series focussed on living in community. This week we are thinking about conflict in the church, about how we can handle it well, so that it doesn’t become destructive or fracture our life together. The reality is that when people live together, work together, get closer together, there […]

Free Indeed

“It was badly done, indeed! You, whom she had known from an infant, whom she had seen grow up from a period when her notice was an honour, to have you now, in thoughtless spirits, and the pride of the moment, laugh at her, humble her–and before her niece, too–and before others, many of whom […]

Betrayal

I am a traitor. I thought that Jesus was going to overthrow the Romans, that he would liberate my country and our people from those Gentile invaders. I thought that following Jesus would put me in a position of political power, of being able to change things. I’d been a bit of an outsider from […]

Forgiveness: Letting off. Letting go. Letting in.

“Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us.” Is a well done phrase from a well known prayer. We will pray it ourselves in a little while. This theme comes up repeatedly in Jesus’ teaching to his followers, that the forgiveness we receive is dependent on the forgiveness that we give […]