Sunday, January 19 2020Speaker: Ian CampbellJohn 16.8-10John Bunyan introduces the graphic term “slough of despond” as one of the first places and experiences of Pilgrim. What is your life’s version of this place of need or desperation on your spiritual journey? Did you have a sense of guilt, need or conviction? What do our friends go through that intensifies their …
The Pilgrim’s Progress – The Journey Begins….
January 12, 2019Speaker: Ian CampbellGenesis 12.1-3The Pilgrim’s Progress is very reminiscent of the story of Abraham and also prompts us to think of the Christian life as a kind of a journey. It involves leaving and travelling and finally arriving. This is a better way to think of ourselves than being and staying somewhere in a static sense. Did you …
Ring The Changes
Sunday, January 5, 2020Speaker: Ian CampbellPhilippians 3.13-14Ringing the Changes is a lovely but perhaps passing expression that describes the pattern of chiming church bells. Then comes the encouragement to “ring out the old” and “ring in the new” at the change of year and, indeed, decade. This rhymes well with St. Paul’s exhortation to forget what is behind and to …
Shepherds?
Sunday December 29, 2019Speaker: Ian CampbellLuke 2.8-20Shepherds have been brought into the limelight in nativity pageants worldwide. But notoriety would have been very surprising to the group referred to in Luke’s nativity account – the ones who were living out in the fields. Why were they the first to hear this news? Who were they anyway? What’s important about them …
The Graces of Sorrow – Comfort
Sunday December 22, 2019Speaker: Ian CampbellPsalm 41 As we walk through the journey of sorrow in our lives we face intense loneliness as a result of our losses and disappointment. Comfort is the severe mercy that we grasp perhaps tentatively. God is called the God of all comfort. We are comforted so that we can comfort others. As we emerge …
The Graces of Sorrow – Joy (Gaudete)
December 15, 2019Speaker – Ian CampbellPsalm 40The pink candle in the midst of the purple/blue advent wreath is called “Gaudete,” a Latin word that means “rejoice” and specifically refers to a 16th Century carol with the exact exhortation in song. It is placed well into the season that has a growing sense of desperation amidst our sorrow as we long …
The Graces of Sorrow – Lament
December 8, 2019Speaker: Ian CampbellPsalm 22Lament is an uncommon term for today. It implies a mixture of sadness, complaint and helplessness. It speaks out of the depth of our sorrow with only the faintest hint of hope that we glimpse and need the power of Advent to manage.
The Graces of Sorrow – Hope
December 1, 2019Speaker: Ian CampbellPsalm 39Hope’s presence in the midst of sorrow has a subtle persistence to it. It has the character of resilience which allows us to take a “deep dive” into our sorrow. It is empowered by the strength of Advent’s promise.
I’m Just Asking… Is Hell Real?
November 24, 2019Speaker: Ian CampbellRev 20.11-15“Abandon hope, all ye who enter here.” So we find in Dante’s Inferno from the 14th Century where he describes an inscription at the entrance to Hell. Is Hell a real place? Who is destined for Hell? Is it about conscious, eternal punishment as many doctrinal statements of evangelicalism state?
I’m Just Asking…. Is Jesus The Only Way?
November 17, 2019Speaker: Ian CampbellJohn 14.6Jesus was very plain about His claim to be the only way to the Father. So is it just that plain and simple, come to Jesus and you’re given a ticket to heaven and the Father? Or is it more complicated somehow? Do you find yourself with some “but..” questions that don’t seem easily resolved? …