Sermons from Southpoint Church

For the Creation waits in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed.  Romans 8:19. This calling does not require us to be heroes, but it does ask us to show up, sometimes in mundane ways and sometimes in heroic ways, and be present to what is happening around us. We are called to listen to the groaning of Creation, including our own. We wrestle with the complexities and search out w...

“Hope is the virtue that asks us to take responsibility for the future, to act joyfully and with perseverance, despite the obstacles.” (Lyanda Lynn Haupt, Rooted: Life at the Crossroads of Science, Nature, and Spirit )  This Sunday marks the beginning of the Season of Creation, a global Christian commitment to care for creation, our common home. The theme this year is “To Hope and Act with Creatio...

Carolyn's tender story of an unexpected friendship across generations weaves into this blessing from our liturgy this summer: May the God who befriends us and tenderly invites us to join in a divine dance of friendship, bless each and every one of us. May we daily grow in friendship with God and all that God has created as we journey through our days. May we trust that “Divine Presence” is at work...

We often make friends with those who are similar to us. So often, cultural, historical, racial, and economic differences divide us, but sometimes, the richest gifts are found in friendships with those who are different from us.   On Sunday, Janice Young shared an unusual and personal story of unexpected friendships with the Nuxalk First Nation in Bella Coola.   Her story began 140 years ago when h...

Having a summer series on friendship was Madison's brainchild, and what a beautiful theme it has proven to be. He suggested one subtheme be the emotional scripts of "white, self-sufficient masculinity" that get in the way of deep friendship. One of those scripts is: “Don’t be vulnerable. Be self-sufficient and independent.” Markku Kostamo was our chosen storyteller for this theme, an...

In today's meditation Brent Unrau encourages us to think about all the things we value about friendship. What if we get to develop a relationship with the Bible's narrative passages—especially the gospel stories—that's a kind of a friendship? Is there a way to make peace and find friendship with those stories and find yourself included? What if we get to explore the heart of God throug...

Words from Amy Rogness Ris, who gave us an eloquent and beautiful way of engaging with the content of her meditation: through song.  "As I've been reflecting on, and been given the opportunity to practice self-compassion, I find that the context in which I have most felt this is in my friendships with others. When I can be vulnerable enough to share with another person  all  of what it me...

As we discern where greater depths of connection and friendship might be chosen and entered into in our lives, there is the deepest reality always present with us: the reality that all our pursuits of friendship and connection and flourishing take place within the abiding flow of loving connection that is God: God as Creator and Ground of Being; God as Incarnate Son; God as Life-Giving Spirit.

We are a people who have experienced the wide warm welcome of God’s table. We are a people who have experienced the Spirit moving in us, guiding us into understanding the inclusive nature of God’s heart. Having tasted the refreshing water from the well of Jesus’ love we feel compelled to share this love with others who need it. We want to participate in the divine flow, sharing with others what we...

Paul had impressive credentials as a leader. However, the real power of Paul’s life wasn’t how well recognized his preaching was, or how many important people he knew, or how many credentials he had. It was the way he so profoundly and intimately entered through his own suffering and renewal into the cruciform pattern of Christ, returning in love to be a servant witness of what he had experienced....

Rev. Dr. Rusty Edwards, pastor of First Baptist Church, Halifax, managed to brilliantly weave together the more idealized story of the early church in the book of Acts, the messier, behind-the-scenes church context in Corinth, the story of First Baptist Halifax,  the history of Massachusetts, the perplexing historical social realities around us, astronomy, and the story of Southpoint (in a mere 22...

Something is emerging! The Holy Spirit will not eradicate our uniqueness, nor flatten our diversity. We'll find our way together as we listen and learn with patience and compassion and curiosity. Our emotional labour as a community is to be open, to allow ourselves as a community to be broken open to receive this new gift: celebrating and making room for each other.

What is the commonality between Mother's Day and the time of *waiting* before the gift of the Holy Spirit?

God's desire to reconcile all people to God's self means taking down barrier walls and transgressing boundaries. But this community created through reconciliation is not made by erasing differences between groups. It's created through shared relationship with God. In this community of reconciliation we find that our diversity is not destroyed as we build a shared life together.

Have you noticed that in regular times we lull ourselves into believing we know what the future holds? One of the gifts of liminal space is our becoming more aware of the question mark that is always hanging over the future. Listen in as Rev Scott Swanson takes us further into Peter's speech after he and John healed the man outside the temple.

May we place the resurrected life of Jesus at the centre of our attention. May we become a fresh expression of the resurrected life force of the welcoming Christ.

Frederick Buechner said: "Resurrection means that the worst thing is never the last thing." Losses shape us and humble us, and may break us, but they don't define us. We are more than the sum of our successes and failures to be who we want to be! Each day we plant ourselves in the flow of divine Love —which is what really defines us—and be part of that giving and receiving. What did...

What it would be like to wonder what might be waiting — beyond the sorrows we witness, beyond the sadnesses you carry in your heart? Even if you don’t want to run to the tomb yet, maybe you can make some space for wonder, a tiny green sprig growing amidst the stones and sorrow of your heart.

This Lent we've been on a long journey with Peter — observing his journey of faith, and our own — we've been wandering, we've been wondering, but not today! Today, we are walking with purpose. Today, we are waving branches in the air, we are singing and we are celebrating the way God was on the move through Jesus, and the way God is on the move in our midst, now. When the crowds saw Je...

Peter seems to be someone who lives under the groaning weight of high standards.  Being right , doing what is right , and naming what is right seems to matter a great deal to him. In this passage, he approaches Jesus, asking for how to do forgiveness right. Curious about how the conversation unfolding with Jesus? Come have a listen.

Like Peter, we feel angry and scared when what we expect doesn’t come to pass. When certainty gives way to disappointment, we feel disoriented. Jesus invites us to loosen our grip and open ourselves to his love, which is with us in the mystery, complexity, and pain. Jesus’s love, assuring us that after our long sorrow, there will be liberation.

Jesus says to the disciples, "Who do you say that I am?" Peter responds, “You are the Messiah.” These words aren’t an intellectual assertion, but a clear articulation of Peter’s deeply personal, deeply experiential knowing of Christ: This is what I know to be true about you, because I have experienced you to be this—you are the Messiah.”

This post launches Southpoint's Lenten series "Not All Who Wander Are Lost", incorporating material from A Sanctified Art. The theme, at its heart, is that at the deepest level of our life, our journeys—no matter how they twist or turn—are held safely within the labyrinth of God’s love. Be open, keep walking, surrender your feet to the next step, trusting the path will lead you home....

The partnership between Elijah and Elisha reminds us of the power and the importance of companionship, and of the way God longs for us to companion each other. We can do hard things, together. Our theme for Epiphany is that God Calls Us, and we’ll wrap up here with "God Doesn’t Call Us to Go it Alone".

Diving into words of hope and comfort — God’s promise of restoration from Isaiah 40:21-31, written for those exiled to Babylon—Anne unpacks the prophet’s call to hope in God.  This God, who spread the heavens like a big tent, providing a home for all, is vast, creative, and caring; a God of incomparably great agency who comes intimately close and with profound commitment to those who are weary. Th...