River East Church Podcast

On August 3 we were joined by Janessa Nayler-Giesbrecht, pastor of our sister church, Jubilee Mennonite. With Isaiah 42:1-7 in the background, Janessa offers a chapter from Niigaan Sinclair's book "Winipek." (Longtime listeners may remember we had Niigaan as a guest preacher some time ago!) This message is especially poingnant for those of us who live here in Winnipeg, and the complex history we t...

On July 27, Gordon honoured the late Walter Brueggemann with this timely sermon on 'totality,' drawing on 1 Kings 10:26-29 (Solomon's extractive economy), Jeremiah 22:13-17 (Jeremiah speaks against the king), and Isaiah 19:23-25 (Isaiah’s alternative to imperial power politics). Unfortunately, we experienced a power outage that morning, which cut off the beginning of the sermon and dramatically af...

Our recylced sermon this week comes from a book by Glenn Jordan and Pádraig Ó Tuama, entitled, Borders and Belonging: The Book of Ruth: a Story for our Times. Drawing on the chapter "Counter Narratives," Lori guides us into the more surprising aspects of the book of Ruth.

Continuing with our recycled sermons over summer, Mary Anne offers a sermon she received from Helen Paynter this past May at the Believers Church Conference in Amsterdam. Through Mary Anne, Paynter walks us through Isaiah 6:1-11, and how the call of Isaiah might address us as Christians today—and the honest ways we might respond.

River East is sister churches with Jubilee Mennonite Church, just down the road, and this summer we are populating our pulpits in partnership! This week we welcome Elfrieda Schroeder from Jubilee, who offered us a sermon she had once prepared but never had the chance to preach, reflecting on the Road to Emmaus story in Luke 24:13-35.

Rather than continue through the Narrative Lectionary, over the summer months REC is continuing our tradition of offering 'recycled' sermons. Rather than create something new each week, speakers are instead invited to choose a sermon that they have heard in the past that has stuck with them, for whatever reason. Then, at the pulpit, they share the story of why the sermon stood out for them, and th...

In this final re-upload of 2022's "Four Faces of the Prodigal Son" series, Aaron shares a so-called "dark reading" of Jesus' famous parable. Drawing on author Kester Brewin, this strange interpretation is a warning of how our best revolutionary instincts can be pacified and swallowed whole by the comforts of wealth.

Continuing with the throwback series "Four Faces of the Prodigal Son," this time Aaron takes a look at the parable with the help of Jewish New Testament scholar, Amy-Jill Levine.

Happy Pentecost Sunday! At REC, our practice is to accept new members into the church in the Sundays surrounding Pentecost, which means our sermons are replaced by stories from new members' lives—which we do not record. Thus, for the podcast, today we are continuing our re-uploads of 2022's "Four Faces of the Prodigal Son" series, this time Aaron interprets the parable in a more medieval, Christol...

For the next several Sundays at River East—due to Table Sundays, new member testimonies, and the annual church picnic—we won't have new sermons to upload to our podcast. Thus, for the next month, we'll instead be uploading an old, 4-part series that Aaron preached in late 2022, entitled "Four Faces of the Prodigal Son." Each week, Aaron examined the famous parable of the Prodigal Son (Luke 15:11-3...

On May 25, Aaron took a look at the political turmoil behind the letter to the Galatians, and the emotions it seems to be stirring up in the Apostle Paul. What does love look like when our understanding of God's story clashes with other people's... especially people we care for?

On May 18, Charlotte used the image of a quilt as a way to enter the text of Acts 15:1-18—how both the early church and us today are being woven and re-woven into God's tapestry.

On May 11, Aaron stretched the metaphor of "Love makes the world go 'round" to include Newtonian physics, and then mapped it onto the story of Philip and the Ethiopian Eunuch in Acts 8:26-39.

On May 4, 2025, we were pleased to welcome Niigaan Sinclair to speak with us on Acts 6:1-7:2a, and 44-60. Niigaan is an Anishinaabe writer, editor, and activist in Winnipeg and heads the Department of Native Studies at University. Stay tuned for our next upload, which will feature Niigaan's Cross Training session with us.

On April 27, Mary Anne kicked off our exploration into Love this Eastertide—one of the Christian names for God, as well as one of the Seven Sacred Teachings of the Plains First Nations. Here we see how the theme of sight is intertwined with story of the Emmaus Road from Luke 24:13-15.

On Easter Sunday, Mary Anne reflected on the ways that collective 'ruptures' affect our public life together. Be it the bombing of Hiroshima, 9/11, or the discovery of the residential school graves here in Canada, these 'ruptures' almost ialways involve violence of some kind. But Easter is a rupture of an entirely different sort... How will we let it shape us today?

It's a short one this week. At River East, it's our tradition to commemorate Christ's washing of the disciples' feet as part of our Palm Sunday service. This is the short meditation Mary Anne offered to guide us into this practice this year.

On April 6, Jon Isaak took us through the story of Zaccheus, the "wee little man in a tree." Beyond seeing this story as a charming tale for children, he invites us to see the deeper questions lurking beneath the surface. Who is really lost? Who is really saved, and how?

On March 30, Aaron offered an unorthodox interpretation of the Parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus (Luke 16:19-31)... which didn't get recorded because all our audio systems went down that morning. Presented here is a re-recording.

On March 23, Mary Anne tackeld the trio of parables in Luke 15—the lost sheep, lost coin, and lost son—picking up on the theme of celebration that connects three stories together.

Given all that's going on these days, on March 16, REC chose to forgo a formal sermon during our worship service and instead focus on the practice of lament. Thus, this week we bring to you the 'Cross Training' session from that morning, where Dr. Dan Epp Tiessen shared with us his experience of travelling to Palestine and Israel this past November. His slides were impactful—it is unfortunate they...

On March 9, Aaron took another look at the famous parable of the Good Samaritan in Luke 10:25-37. Rather than assume we already know this story is simply about "helping others," we might instead see this parable as a challenge to break our internalized cycles of violence—something that can be terribly difficult to do in our current day.

On March 2nd, we welcomed Jamie Howison to once again join with our in-house jazz quartet and guide us in a jazz liturgy. This time we used the medium of jazz to explore Christ's Transfiguration, as depicted in Luke 9:28-45.

Since this past worship service was our regular Table Sunday gathering around a communal meal, we are once again diving into the archives for this week's episode. In anticipation of our Jazz liturgy on March 2nd, here is a sermon drawing on John Coltrane's famous tune, "Giant Steps," and how it relates to Acts 10 and 11. Originally offered by Aaron on July 10, 2022, it was recorded at a time when...

On February 16, we were grateful to have Darryl Loewen—the Executive Director of MCC Manitoba—speak with us on Luke 7:18-35.