All sermons by the Rev. Wes Denyer
unless otherwise stated
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June 18, 2017
Reasons for Joy
In the Book of Genesis, we read a story about Abraham's wife Sarah laughing at the prospect of becoming pregnant in her old age. This story reminds us that the world is full of funny things, giving us many opportunities for joy and laughter. But is it possible we have trouble laughing at ourselves -- we feel insecure and we're afraid of what other people will think of us? Maybe God has made us for laughter, designing our life and our world to be joyous, cheerful and life giving. It could be that life will be a lot more fun if we simply learn to relax and enjoy the ride!
June 4, 2017
Rooted in the Family Tree
The day of Pentecost is considered by many to be the birthday of the church. On this day, in the life of the early church, the Holy Spirit descends upon the disciples of Jesus. The Apostle Peter preaches a deep and profound sermon about the life, death and resurrection of Jesus, and thousands of people come to believe that the risen Christ is the Son of God. What was that early church like? What activities and beliefs did they hold to be of central importance? In this sermon, we consider how churches of today may be similar to that first century church.
May 28, 2017
On Beyond
More than 60 years ago, Theodore Seuss Geisel wrote a children’s book called “On Beyond Zebra.” In this book, one of the characters proclaims, “It’s high time you were shown, that you really don’t know all there is to be known!” In this week’s Old Testament reading, Abraham and Sarah discover God is calling them on beyond, to learn and explore new places and new ways of living. Perhaps for those of us who are followers of Jesus Christ, we will discover that God is forever and always calling us on beyond!
May 21, 2017
Keeping our Faith Simple
Throughout its history, there have been church leaders who have tried to use coercive tactics in order to manipulate people into compliance with their views. Sane and reasonable discussion of diversity within the Christian faith has sometimes been hijacked by those who completely and exclusively identify their own cause with the mind and will of God. Instead, let’s think about how we can maintain the unity of the church, while still respecting the different opinions and points of view which exist within our faith communities.
May 14, 2017
Chasing a Fake Rabbit
As we welcome eight of our young people as they join the church by Profession of Faith, we are all reminded that God invites us to know life in the spirit and wants us to experience a newness of life that challenges the way of the world. In this sermon, we remember how God desires that we live in freedom, letting our definition of success be born out of the imagination of God..
APRIL 30, 2017
A Covenant at the Crossroads
This Sunday marks the beginning of our Legacy Giving Programme at Rosedale Presbyterian Church. Four thousand years ago, Abraham trusted in the promise of God for the future. As we stand at the beginning of this new millennium, the question to us is this: “Do we trust in the promise of God for the future of our church?” Our congregation has been in existence for over one hundred years as a beacon of faith, hope and love in the community of Rosedale. What can we do to ensure that it will continue to be here for future generations? That’s what we consider in this sermon, and that’s what we plan for as we introduce our new Legacy Giving Programme.
APRIL 16, 2017
The Best Joke in all the Universe
The classical definition of comedy refers to a drama, whose central motif is the triumph over adversity, leading to a successful conclusion. So given that literary sense of the word … Easter is a comedy! However, since the earliest days of the Church, Easter has been understood as more than a comedy ... Easter has also been regarded as a joke … a supreme joke. The best joke in all the universe. For us, two thousand years later, it's not as easy to get the joke because we know the ending. There's no surprise. So this Sunday, in an effort to recover the surprise of Easter, we will travel two thousand years back in time to try and understand its impact for today.
APRIL 9, 2017
What did Jesus Know?
This sermon explores an issue that has been on the minds of many Christians for more than two thousand years.
APRIL 2, 2017
Rolling Away the Stone
In the 11th chapter of the Gospel of John, we read the story of Jesus resurrecting Lazarus, his good friend, from the dead. It’s a powerful story, reassuring us that God has power over both life and death. But could this story have a meaning that is more than literal? In our world today, many people seem to have lost their way in life. They’ve been hurt or disappointed. They’re tired, lonely or afraid. The courage and optimism of youth, and promise of life in the spirit, have been abandoned. Perhaps they have crawled broken and beaten into the grave of their hopes and dreams, the stone rolled over top of them – cut off from the land of the living. Maybe this Sunday’s Gospel story of resurrection has a message for them too.
MARCH 26, 2017
Now I See
This sermon which looks at the long continuous story about a man born blind that we find in the 9th chapter of the Gospel of John. On a superficial level, the story is about a blind man to whom Jesus gives back his sight. On a deeper theological level, it’s about people who can see what’s really going on in our world, as opposed to those who are blind to injustice, oppression and a moral order that makes victims out of those who are already suffering and on the bottom rungs of society. The question at the heart of this Sunday’s Gospel reading is this, “What happens to us when God opens our eyes and we begin to really see?”
MARCH 19, 2017
Corridors of the Mind
As we proceed on our journey through Lent, we begin to glimpse, at the end of the road, the crucifixion of Christ. As we draw closer to Good Friday, we are forced to come face to face with the suffering of Jesus. How do we come into the presence of suffering? How do we react? What may give us strength in the face of our own suffering and the suffering of others? How do we make sense of it? These are the questions we explore and consider in this sermon.
MARCH 12, 2017
Are You Where You Want to Be?
Is there something in your past you’d like to change – a better decision you could have made? And if you had, in what way would things be different now? This week’s Scripture reading is the story of Nicodemus who asks Jesus, “How can a person be born anew?” Is it possible to rise above our past circumstances into the light of new possibilities where the fullness of our human and spiritual potential may be reached? This is the question we consider in this sermon.
MARCH 5, 2017
The Gift Nobody Wants
Fresh from the waters of baptism, Jesus moves out into the wilderness where he is tempted by Satan. Although there were three separate temptations, they all represent an opportunity for Jesus to obtain worldly power over humanity – by bribery, by force and by magic. Jesus turns down all three of these ways in which he might control people, leaving us with a choice – to freely worship God or to turn our backs on the spiritual dimension of life. Is this freedom to choose a welcome opportunity or is it the gift nobody wants?
FEBRUARY 12, 2017
God’s Masterpiece
In this sermon, we consider how we are valued as human beings by God and how we may honour and recognize the unique humanity in each other. How do we decide what value to place on the life of another person? The teachings of Christ remind us that the value of a person’s life is rarely based on the qualifications or characteristics so often prized in our culture. God has created each one of us in the image of God’s divine likeness … we are God’s masterpiece!
FEBRUARY 5, 2017
An Extreme Makeover
The second of two sermons exploring issues pertaining to the role of the church in today's world. The first sermon, Reintroducing Jesus, was given on January 29.
JANUARY 29, 2017
The world and the church have become extremely polarized, with the two ends of the spectrum utterly opposed to the understanding and agenda of the other side. The church is often represented on television and radio as fundamentalist, judgemental and opposed to reason and science. Because of this, many people see the church as irrelevant, or worse yet, they see religion as the problem. Is there a middle ground for us to take, and what does that middle ground look like? This Sunday, and continuing on Sunday, February 5th, we will begin exploring some of these issues.
JANUARY 22, 2017
Full-Formed People
By the Reverend Neil Young
In a Pulpit Exchange with St. Andrew’s United Church on Bloor Street celebrating the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, we welcomed the Reverend Neil Young to lead in worship here at Rosedale. His sermon explores what it means to be a disciple.
JANUARY 15, 2017
How the Bible Came to Be
This is the first of a mini-series in which the Reverend Wes Denyer explores our relationship to scripture. The Bible is not a book written by a single author, but a collection of narratives, hymn lyrics, poetry, prophecies and letters written down over a period of several hundred years. People often find the Bible challenging and confusing to read, sometimes with different passages seemingly contradicting one another. In this series we will consider some of the ways in which the Bible comes to us in its present form, how we understand it, and, perhaps most significantly, how we might make it a living part of our faith today.
JANUARY 8, 2017
Between Fear and Joy
When the Magi went in search of the baby Jesus, they discovered that they needed help along the way. They sought that help through an audience with King Herod the Great – what might he be able to tell them about the birth of a newborn king? Although Herod pretended a sincere interest, he harboured a murderous intent. This left the Magi caught between the fear of Herod and the joy of the birth of the Christ child. However, being caught between fear and joy is not just a 2000 year old experience, but one which many of us have encountered in modern life as well.
DECEMBER 18, 2016
Christmas Feelings
How do we capture the feelings of Christmas in a Worship Service on the Sunday before Christmas? What kind of feelings should we be experiencing? Is feeling "warm and sentimental" good enough, or do we let in other feelings - the kind that are tainted with the world's difficulties and tragedies? Do we come into the sanctuary hoping Christmas will allow us to escape the trouble in the world ... or do we come into the sanctuary hoping the message of Christmas is the key to resolving the troubles in the world? We'll consider some of those big questions in this sermon.
DECEMBER 4, 2016
Naming a Child
In the Gospel of Matthew, Joseph is surprised to discover that Mary is expecting a child ... and he's not the father! However, in a dream, Joseph is reassured by God and told that Mary will give birth to a boy and that he should name the child Jesus. And so, Jesus grew up as the son of Joseph, a carpenter in Nazareth, but also in the lineage of King David - an important detail describing the Messiah in Old Testament prophecy. Jesus grew up as part of a family, with a loving father and mother, and with brothers and sisters. And it is from those rather ordinary roots that Jesus grew up to be "the light of the world."
NOVEMBER 27, 2016
The Advent Conspiracy
The traditional topic of conversation for the first Sunday in Advent is not shepherds, wise men and the baby Jesus, but a focus on the future, and the hope for the return of Christ. Sometimes this topic is used to scare and threaten people - stories of earthquakes, violence and war dominate the discussion, complete with speculation about the soon to arrive "end times." A better way to approach this discussion may be to consider how we prepare ourselves for the return of Christ, whenever that day may come. In other words, how do we live today, in ways that will prepare us for God's coming Kingdom of joy, love and peace?
NOVEMBER 20, 2016
All Things
Does the universe make any sense? Does it have any purpose? Do we matter? Is there any way to know who we are and why we're here? These are questions we ask ourselves in the 21st century, but they are also questions that were asked by Christians in the first century city of Colossae in Asia Minor ... and the Apostle Paul gives them an answer.
NOVEMBER 13, 2016
When God Does You a Favour
When the angel Gabriel visited Mary to announce that she was to bear the Son of God, the angel called her "the favoured one." The favour of God does not mean you are God's favourite, it means God is doing you a favour in ways that change human life in unexpected and mysterious ways. Although we may prefer to live in the world of the "ordinary," God is still breaking through that thin veneer to intervene in our lives today.
NOVEMBER 6, 2016
Can I Help You?
The prophet Isaiah looks forward to a day when "we shall beat our swords into ploughshares, and our spears into pruning-hooks." This Sunday, we consider a story from the biography of Field Marshall Montgomery, and a story from the life of the Reverend Major David Rowlands, formerly minister of York Memorial Presbyterian Church in the west end of Toronto, and how these two stories shed some light on the hope spoken of in scripture - a day when "nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore."
OCTOBER 30, 2016
A Wee Little Man and a Weeping Man
In this sermon, the Rev. Wes Denyer ties together two stories in the Gospel of Luke and contrasts the different responses of two men who encounter Jesus: The Rich Ruler (18:18-30) and Zacchaeus the Tax Collector (19:1-10.) The stories serve as a reminder that ... what is impossible for people, is possible with God. Moreover, they might very well prompt us to ask, "Have we have allowed something in our life to stand between us and God?"
OCTOBER 23, 2016
The Problem of Righteousness
In the Gospel of Luke 18:9-14, we find the Parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector praying in the Temple. This parable introduces us to the problem of righteousness, and then gives us two people, each of which presents a solution to the problem. One of those solutions works ... and the other one doesn't. In this sermon, we find out why.
OCTOBER 9, 2016
Just to Say Thank You
All too often the practice of prayer is seen as an opportunity to bring to God's attention our personal shopping list of requests, wishes and needs. What if we were able to see prayer in a new light - not as a way to manipulate the divine will or to make God do something for us, but simply as the opportunity to say thank you for the divine abundance we already enjoy? Is it possible that our society is so fixated on "having more," that we have lost the ability to live joyfully in the present moment? Are we all too often imagining some future time and place when life will be better, and missing out on the simple abundance of God provided for us each day? This Thanksgiving Sunday, let's consider how we may experience every moment of our lives as meaningful, simply because God is in it!
SEPTEMBER 25, 2016
An Early Morning Encounter
This Sunday's Gospel reading tells us that when some infants and children wanted to come close to Jesus, the disciples tried to make them go away. Their idea of the Kingdom of God involved serious work and planning, and these children were simply in the way. However, Jesus saw these children as valuable and treasured members of God's Kingdom. This is more of Jesus' "topsy-turvy" version of the Kingdom - where the first shall be last and the last shall be first, and anyone who thinks they're on the top of the heap is in for a big surprise! As Wes shares the story of an early morning encounter with a one year old baby and his mother, we may learn something more about what makes us valuable in the eyes of God.
SEPTEMBER 11, 2016
The Hidden Hand of God
This Sunday is the 15th anniversary of 9/11, and we remember the shock and grief experienced by so many people that day. However, the experience of grief is not confined to horrific terrorist attacks. We have all experienced grief in the loss of a loved one, and we may even find ourselves wondering,"Where is God?" in the midst of our sadness and loss. The writer of the 77th Psalm, in the midst of sorrow, wrote poetry expressing pain and anger, despair and hope. He wrote of the need for the presence of God in the midst of grief. This sermon explores how the words of Psalm 77 may still have much to teach us today.
AUGUST 31, 2016
Learning to See Again
A night out for dinner in Lyon, France, a delayed airline flight, the story of an Old Testament prophet protected by an army of angels, and Jesus healing two blind men in the city of Jericho - what does all that have to do with living the Christian life in 2016? Actually, quite a lot!
AUGUST 14, 2016
To Accomplish the Impossible
The Old Testament story of David going up against the Philistine giant Goliath seems like the story of a contest which is surely moving towards an unhappy ending...yet David is the one who wins the conflict! He wins by thinking creatively "outside the box." In doing so, he accomplishes that which seems impossible. Let's think about what can we learn from this story which will help us realize, in our own lives, the promise of the words of Jesus: "With God, all things are possible."
AUGUST 7, 2016
Into the Hand of God
In discussing John 11: 1-44 in which Jesus raises Lazarus from the dead, Rev. Wes Denyer discusses the difference between belief and trust and how, when it comes to the matter of commitment to Christianity, many of us are inclined to have more faith in one than the other.
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