Benediction Church, #HamOnt

Advent is an annual season of reflection on the past year. In 2020, a year filled with disruption due to Covid-19, uncertainty, tension, and loss; we search for hope. In this message, David Howson-Jan shows how certain God's promises are, connecting prophecies in the book of Isaiah with the beatitudes of Jesus in His Sermon on the Mount.  Hope is restored; those whose hope is in Christ's retu...

How did Christians go from celebrating a love feast to taking a bit of cracker and juice? What happens when we do? Who should and should not participate? Communion tests our Table manners; will selfishness and divisiveness keep us from sharing the Table, or will it be a tangible expression of our spiritual union with, and unity in, Christ?

How come we get to the New Testament and Jesus isn't offering a bull, but preaching a sermon? Where did sermons even come from - like are these *the* form Bible teaching is supposed to take? What would be wrong with just downloading podcasts from our favourite teacher on the other side of the world? This week we focus on the role of the Word in our "Word and Table" gatherings, and ask what sets ap...

In this message, we ask what's supposed to happen when followers of Jesus gather to "worship". What does that even mean? What's so special about this gathering? This is the first of three messages on the subject of the liturgy; it challenges us to check our expectations. Neither the legalism many of us grew up with, nor the consumerism many of us have absorbed, are helpful; they're barriers to the...

Guess what put us on the map in 2018? Hamilton had more hate crimes than any other Canadian city. While there's lots of hate to go around on the right and the left, that's not the point; the Church isn't here to identify with an ideology, but with misfits. This message concludes our series: "In Hamilton as it is in Heaven" with many helpful, pointed corrections for Conservatives and Liberals. When...

(Delivered 10/18/2020) McGruff the Crime Dog taught us as kids that "Users are Losers". Was he right? Is addiction mainly a sin / crime problem? Is that how God expresses it in Scripture? This question is crucial for loving addicts in our city, and our church. Anyone can be an addict; the problem with addictions isn't what you might think it is, and Christ's preferred response to addicts was compa...

(Delivered 10/04/2020) There are two versions of Hamilton: one for wealthy gentrifiers, and one for Hamilton’s homeless. Both contribute equally to the lack of flourishing in Hamilton, and the Church ought to function as the bridge between them because every dividing wall that separated us has been torn down by Jesus.

(Delivered 09/20/2020) 
It’s no coincidence that as industries declined, crime and poverty in Hamilton increased. Our city’s poverty isn’t only a social issue; it’s a justice issue. Will it always be this way? Our responses to poverty will vary, and we won’t even get it right every time (Mike usually doesn’t) but God calls us to serve the poor because we're terrible at it, and so we might show oth...

(Delivered 09/13/2020) The city is the place of greatest opportunity, density, and diversity. This week we tell the story of #HamOnt: a story of broken promises, unfulfilled dreams, and hope for the future. This is the first message in our series, In Hamilton As It Is In Heaven. It offers a theology of the city; a vision for how we can be the church together - an alternate city, a city within the...

(Delivered 08/16/2020) What would have to happen to cause you to betray someone you loved? When Israel worshiped the gold calf, it was like cheating on a spouse on the wedding night. As we compare Moses to Jesus we see you can’t punish your way back into a right relationship.

(Delivered 08/02/2020) If you’re not put off by the story of God instructing Abraham to kill his son and set him on fire, you’re not reading it right. Is there an explanation that makes sense of the disturbing elements of this story? Yes, but not without Jesus. God sees and He will provide.

(Delivered 07/19/2020) What are you capable of if you believed God, your family, and the world were conspiring against you? What could jealousy drive you to do? As we read the story of Cain and Abel through the lens of Jesus, we know that whatever the reason for our suffering, it’s not because God has forgotten about us.

(Delivered 07/12/2020) Ever been busted doing something you knew you shouldn’t? The story of Adam and Eve has been used to teach many lessons that require zero faith in Jesus. And yet this story is incomplete without Him, who succeeded where Adam and Eve failed. He can handle our failure and shame.

What can the Church do about what the Church has done? This one-off talk aims to name and challenge common assumptions Christians make about race, and racism in Canada’s Church. It gives examples where Christians participated in, and tried to overturn, systemic racism, with a focus on Canada’s indigenous peoples in residential schools. Christ cannot be made to endorse racism, and this is a call to...

Jesus is what God wants to say to the world! When the troubles we face, and the evils we see in the world feel overwhelming, God has shown us that as powerful as the world’s ruler is, the Spirit is greater. He’s the perfect guide, a constant companion, a faithful teacher, a reliable witness, and, our star defence. Best of all, He’s with us.

(Delivered 05/24/2020) Jesus is what God wants to say about greatness. In a church culture when servant leadership is seen by some as degrading to one’s manhood (?) Jesus shows us that greatness is measured in whose feet you’re willing to wash.

(Delivered 05/17/2020) Mary had her reasons for anointing Jesus' feet with expensive perfume, and Judas had his reasons for wanting to stop her. Whose reasons do we relate to more? Just when we think we know what makes "good financial sense", Jesus shows us what God wants to say about greed, and this story that can help us discern the difference between greed and generosity in our own hearts. &nbs...

(Delivered 05/10/2020) Jesus is what God wants to say about death. Like Mary and Martha, it's super easy for us to believe that God has abandoned us when things get bad. But that doesn't make it true. At the tomb of Lazarus, we see how Jesus loved, we see what Jesus hated, and while our deepest need (and theirs) is resurrection, it can only happen if He's allowed into the tomb. Will He be? 

(Delivered 05/03/2020) Jesus is what God wants to say about culture! When Jesus showed up at  Sukkot, the Jewish Feast of Booths, it wasn't to overturn their traditions, but to show that He fulfills them. Jesus isn't the enemy of culture; He joins the celebration, and whoever  trusts Him is more a child of Abraham than the strictest Pharisee who rejects Him. 

(Delivered 04/19/2020) Jesus is what God wants to say about "biblical". What does "biblical" actually mean? The word is used in religious circles to add weight to what's  said, but there's a way to be biblical like the Pharisees, or biblical like Jesus. How can we know which we are? Jesus offers us His test in this passage. 

Easter 2020! When Mary Magdalene was first to meet the risen Lord Jesus, it was unbelievable news in the hands of an unreliable witness. What can God do with a person with demons? In this Easter message, Jesus has shown us some pretty great news, and He is what God wants to say about your demons.

March 29, 2020 (John 9:1-25) When Jesus healed the man born blind, it was a powerful lesson about real blindness. Just when the expert theologians felt sure they could look at a situation - not unlike this Covid-19 pandemic - and diagnose it as God's judgment, here comes Jesus. He's what God wants to say about blindness and true sight. He has a Word for us about what this is (and what it isn't).

March 15, 2020 (John 8:1-11) This is the famous story of Jesus' encounter with the woman caught in adultery, and the men who wanted her punished. How come whenever fundamentalists show up to a party to talk about sinners, someone always gets stoned? Jesus shows us. He is what God wants to say about sinners, and He corrects what we thought we understood about sin.  

February 16, 2020 (John, Part 3) Jesus' conversation with Nicodemus reminds us that you can look like a fine, upstanding evangelical, and still perish: It's not some alternative way to God; it's the opposite, and Jesus shows us.

February 2, 2020: John 2:1-11 When Jesus turned water into wine at the wedding at Cana, it was a crisis averted, religion subverted, and God's glory inverted. Most of us think we know what God's glory looks like, but Jesus has shown us that we've got it upside-down.