South Arm United Church's Podcast

Send us Fan Mail Today we welcomed back to the South Arm pulpit the wonderful, Rev. Sally McShane. Hear what Rev. Sally had to share with the church this World Communion Sunday.  Music between the scripture and sermon "I Heard the Voice of Jesus Say" (Voices United Hymnal #626). Words: Horatius Bonar, 1846. Music: English & Irish traditional melody. arr. Ralph Vaughan Williams, 1906....

Send us Fan Mail This Sunday we explored the Psalms as Hebrew Bible poetry. The Psalm in the Revised Common Lectionary for this week was Psalm 19. The Psalm opens with a broad perspective and call for all of Creation to praise God. And then the Psalm gets more specific to us. There is a Christian music artist who plays piano, sings and composes beautiful songs for praise and worship whose name is...

Send us Fan Mail Jesus Loves the little children. Whoever welcomes a child welcomes Jesus and not just Jesus, but the One who sent him. That's too easy. What's the catch? Lots of people love children. That's not counter-cultural, world changing, Kin-dom in-breaking news. There must be a catch. And there is. Children were seen as not-yet-persons and the property of their Father. Not...

Send us Fan Mail The tongue is a small but mighty part of our body. WIth it we Bless God and with it we sadly, say unkind things to one another, whom God also created and loves. That ought not to be so James tells us. As we bridle a horse and steer with a bit and reigns, so too we need to find a way to bridle and keep our mouth in check so we use our words for Good and not for ill. That's eas...

Send us Fan Mail Proverbs is 1 of 3 books of Wisdom literature in The Bible (along with Ecclesiastes & Job). The wise sayings are meant to help us live a good life in alignment with God. Mom said, "Eat your vegetables. Look both ways before crossing the street. Don't run on the pool deck". Proverbs says, "It is better to have a good reputation than to be rich. The rich and...

Send us Fan Mail This special service was to be held outdoors but due to rain the night before and the soggy field, we chose to do "Church in the Wild" in the sanctuary. The sanctuary was decorated with plants and throughout the service were references to Creation and Nature. The message written by Lauren and delivered by Rev. Kerry Child revolved around the topic of Discernment. As the...

Send us Fan Mail The temple that King David wanted to build for God for worship and where's God's presence would dwell (including the housing of the Ark of the Covenant with the 10 Commandments) was completed by his son, Solomon. With the temple complete, King Solomon offers up to a God a most humble, worshipful prayer. We breakdown that prayer and examine what we can learn from Solomon&...

Send us Fan Mail Song of Solomon (also known as Song of Songs) contains a number of poetic songs. Today we examine the one offered in this week's Lectionary readings and discuss whether it is written between two earthly figures (King Solomon and a peasant Bride) or as a metaphor for God and God's Bride (the church), or some combination of both. Whatever interpretation we gravitate toward...

Send us Fan Mail Jesus says, "I am the Bread of Life, those who come unto me will never be hungry or thirsty again". But our bodies need food and water to survive. So that doesn't on the surface, make sense. Jesus must mean something more than nutrition. Listen as we explore the depth of Jesus' words (In the title of the sermon and this episode, "I Am" has been capita...

Send us Fan Mail Today we look at a series of miracle stories featuring the prophets Elijah and Elisha where God multiplies the small offering of someone who is on the margins and has little to offer. God invites them to give what they have and trust that they will be provided for. Not subtraction, but addition and multiplication somehow happen time and again, just as God promises through the prop...

Send us Fan Mail In the Beginning God made the heavens and the earth and declared each piece of creation, "Good". Today we remember that God will again bring all things into harmony with Godself at some future date and time unknown to anyone but Godself. The story will come full circle one day when all will be "Good" again and God will walk amongst the Created. Until then, made...

Send us Fan Mail In Mark 5 we look at 3 healing stories: Jesus heals a possessed man, a young girl (12 years old) who was dying & a woman who had been hemorrhaging for 12 years. To the possessed man Jesus says, "Go tell of your healing by God throughout the diaspora" (10 cities). To the young girl's family Jesus says not to tell anyone. We examine these stories, look at what the...

Send us Fan Mail Fresh off 3 healing stories, Jesus heads to his hometown of Nazareth. We find him teaching in the synagogue on the Sabbath. At first the listeners are astounded at the wisdom of this great teaching. But it isn't long before they question the source - the teacher. It's just Jesus who grew up here. His family are here. How can he be so special? So Jesus moves on, gathers t...

Send us Fan Mail Grab some grape juice and a piece of bread (or cracker) and join us for Communion/Eucharist. Co-presided over by Lauren Kirkey, Minister of South Arm United Church & Rev. Bruce McAndless-Davis, Minister of Gilmore Park United Church in joint worship. 

Send us Fan Mail In this famous Gospel story, Jesus is in a boat with the disciples when a huge storm comes along. There are gale force winds. The waves are so turbulent they toss the boat around and water starts to flood into the boat. The disciples are genuinely worried for their lives, even though 4 of them were fisherman and know the seas intimately. And Jesus? He's asleep. How can he sle...

Send us Fan Mail God's people are set apart. A more formal word we use sometimes is 'sanctified'. In loving and following God, our thoughts, words and actions are meant to be more aligned with what God desires, than what the rest of the world seems to think, believe and do. We are meant to stand out as salt and light to the earth. But there are times when the ways of the word are ve...

Send us Fan Mail Disappointed in King Saul's lack of faithfulness, God sends a Prophet Samuel to anoint the next King of Israel whom God has chosen. Though worried at first the reigning King Saul will kill him for this, God hatches a plan for him to get safely to Bethlehem and specifically, to the family of Jesse. 7 sons are brought in order from oldest to youngest before Samuel but none of t...

Send us Fan Mail In today's message Rev. Maggie Watts-Hammond shares with us about Pentecost. The Holy Spirit indeed came as Jesus had said and people started speaking in many languages, proclaiming the goodness of God. A bizarre event to be sure, but also a powerful movement of God in the world that would become the start of the church we continue today.  Music between the scripture and serm...

Send us Fan Mail In today's passage we learn about what a Eunuch is and how God goes to extraordinary lengths to meet, minister to and baptize this person on a road in the middle of the desert at the peak of day. If God goes to such lengths for one society would otherwise consider an outcast, how could we imagine anyone excluded from God's love and reach?  Music between the scripture and...

Send us Fan Mail What does it mean to be a friend of God? And why is there the word "If" in the sentence ("If you follow my command...")? Hear how God (the One whom Jesus called Father) loved Jesus. Jesus has in turn loved us and we are to keep that Love of God and others going. In this, we follow in the way of God and join the periochoresis, the Divine dance of unity, Love and...

Send us Fan Mail Peter and John go to the temple to pray and come across a man lame from birth.  He asks for handouts which they do not have but what they do have they proclaim over him, the name of Jesus. And with that, they direct him to get up and walk. And he does! The authorities are threatened by this power and bring the disciples in to be questioned in an unfair trial, just as they did to J...

Send us Fan Mail When Jesus appears in resurrected body before the disciples, they are sure they are seeing a ghost. Jesus response? (1) Peace be with you, (2) Do you have some fish I can eat (so we share fellowship and you know I am not a ghost) & (3) Jesus takes time to lay out how all their sacred texts point to One who would suffer, die and rise again in glory. All of this came to pass as...

Send us Fan Mail In today's sermon we learn how our faith is Embodied - meaning we experience and live our faith within and 'through' our body. The passage begins with a very sensory approach wherein the disciples testify to having seen, heard and touched Jesus. They then go on to implore us to walk in the light of Christ. This is involves 'walking the talk' so that our fa...

Send us Fan Mail Today we mark the entry into Holy Week as Jesus rode into Jerusalem on a donkey. We look at what that signalled within the context of the Roman Empire and what it may have revealed to those around him. We also quite ambitiously, weave in a conclusion to The Theological Banquet series.  Music between the scripture and sermon covered under copyright: One License A-607425 & CCLI...

Send us Fan Mail Good Friday. Today we acknowledge that the powers of this world were so threatened by Jesus' teachings, compassion and acts of non-violence that they responded in the strongest manner they knew how - by eliminating the threat by any means necessary. Hear the ordeal Jesus goes through and how unimaginable as it is to us, Jesus was indeed an all knowing and willing participant...