encrusted words

Tag: death

  • Optimism vs. Hope, in a Pandemic

    Optimism vs. Hope, in a Pandemic

    My latest in the Christian Courier. _________________ Where would you put yourself on the optimism/pessimism spectrum? I suppose I land just slightly on the optimistic side, though with serious bouts of pessimism thrown in now and again. Among my friends there is at least one eternal pessimist (with an astonishing capacity to see the worst…

  • The language of death – new column #MAID

    The language of death – new column #MAID

    We all know the power of language within public debates. In such debates, most participants will use language that aligns their point of view with that of the wider culture. And most will try to distance themselves, lexically, from attitudes and actions that have negative connotations. In the abortion debate, for example, both sides describe…

  • division, baptism, unity — or, who we are

    division, baptism, unity — or, who we are

    Let me begin this morning by reading again just a few words from 1 Corinthians chapter 1. For me these particular words are more than a little odd – they almost stick out like a sore thumb – and for that reason I want to start with them. Paul writes these words to the church…

  • the sign of jonah – resurrection

    I begin this sermon with excerpts (including a few minor edits) from the first chapter of a novel entitled Galore. The novel is written by Michael Crummy, who is a is Newfoundlander, and this particular novel is set in a fictional Newfoundland town, a coastal town, called Paradise Deep. Galore won the Commonwealth Writer’s Prize…

  • my way or god’s way – a stark choice? #sermon #proverbs

    When you read through the proverbs, you very quickly discover that many of them offer a choice between stark alternatives. Always a choice – an either/or, if you will: either wise or foolish either hard working or lazy either righteous or wicked either upright or devious. Looking at these either/ors in the book of Proverbs…

  • Resurrection

    Some quotations, set at odds: Seneca: “What is the body? A weight on the soul to torture it.” Epictetus: “I am a poor soul, shackled to a corpse.” And: Paul: “Now if Christ is proclaimed as raised from the dead, how can some of you say there is no resurrection of the dead? If there is…