Fort Garry MB Church - Winnipeg, Canada

Having reached the end of our Lenten journey of 2022, Pastor Call invites us to consider how we as a church and as Christians are to participate in the work of Easter.

He is risen!  Listen to Pastor Carl's sermon from our Easter service of 2022, wherein we wrap up our series, Seeking God's Ways. In John's telling, Mary Magdalene is the one who discovers that the tomb is open.  After the two male disciples see the empty tomb and leave, she is the one who meets Jesus.  Her sorrowful certainty that Jesus' dead body has been taken away is transfo...

Jesus acknowledges that he is king, a king who comes in peace with a compassionate, humble power.  Some people were looking to him to be a king who would have power over everyone and everything, power to make the circumstances of Roman occupation go away.  God's way of power is to empower with love.  We can look at the donkey in the Palm Sunday story as an insignificant character empowered by...

Isaiah reminds us that God is about to do a new thing.  God's way is amazing abundance in a wilderness place of scarcity.  We can find this surprising abundance again in Paul's words to the Philippians: everything else is like trash next to knowing Christ, the source of abundance.  Oneness in Christ transforms us to be generous and compassionate, to humbly receive grace and share it with...

The human point of view named in 2 Corinthians 5:16-21 causes us to think that we are "in" ad others are "out."  In Jesus' parable, the elder son is stuck seeing from this perspective and thinking that his father should love only him, not his brother who left home.  The elder son struggles to realize how blessed he is.  The younger son experiences reconciliation, which can...

Like the gardener in the Luke 13 parable, Jesus doesn't. give up on us.  Jesus continues to nurture us like a fig tree/. The tree does not earn his loving. care: it is not bearing fruit.  Christ's living water and cultivation are freely given. to us.  We couldn't afford. to buy. this true nourishment if it. had a price tag!  It is difficult. for us to accept. this grace, or even ima...

Jesus challenges our conception of compassion and living compassionately by confront fear head on.  Listen us as we seek God's way of compassion, moving away from our human way of fear.  

The devil came to tempt Jesus in his hunger, his neediness.  Jesus said his needs were met in the word of God; that was the source of his security.  Once we release what we have, things that make us feel secure and self-reliant, that's when we receive God's security of being in Christ.  That's when we can become generous.  We can wonder about the Israelites, who had just harvested t...

Welcome to Fort Garry Mennonite Brethren Church.  This coming Sunday, Pastor Carl will be walking guests and congregants through this very short text where Jesus redefines the meaning of family.  For Jesus, our true family is to be found in the context of those who are “children of God” and who are engaged in the work of God’s kingdom.  Even something as powerful as our family systems becomes seco...

Mary and Martha are friends and followers of Jesus and welcome him into their home and lives.  Martha is preoccupied with the duties of hosting while Mary sits and listens to Jesus.  This story reminds us of how Jesus calls us to value the fellowship of being present with those we love.  Where have we made our faith in Jesus more about what we are doing for him instead of doing with him?   The con...

A Jewish leader’s daughter of 12 years is dying – A ritually unclean woman who has been suffering for 12 years – Jesus heals them both – showing that they are both “beloved daughters.”  There is Good News for those who wonder if they are seen, known, and loved by God – who wonder if they belong or not.   

Levi was the worst kind of person – a traitor to his own people, corrupt and a collaborator with the oppressors.  Jesus makes a point of entering into his space, his home, and his circle of friends.  The results are a changed heart and a changed life.  Who are those people in our own lives, like Levi that are in need of a doctor/Good News?  If Jesus can use Levi, can he use even you and I?

Simon and his brothers had fished all night without success.  They were tired, frustrated and probably a little annoyed when Jesus told them how to do their jobs.  When they follow his commands, the results are miraculous.  What might Jesus have to say about our own work or the things that are not going well and leaving us tired and frustrated?

The people of Jesus’ hometown are astonished by the authority with which Jesus speaks.  But they also want proof - signs and wonders before they will believe. They get angry when Jesus questions whether they deserve these signs and then points to how God also does miracles for outsiders and even enemies.