Have you ever had someone telling you that if only you had enough faith, your prayers would be answered? When we’re struggling with something, and especially if we struggle for a long time, there is likely to be a good Christian to show up and give us this type of advice: You need to pray…
The feast of St Peter and St Paul – John 21: 15-19
Xavier and I went to Rome the first year of our marriage. I had never been to Italy, I guess it was the romantic thing to do but also I had an agenda: I wanted to see all the churches and the Vatican, the museums and the Sistine Chapel. So we got up early on…
Proper 4(B) – 1 Samuel 3: 1-20; Mark 2: 23 – 3: 6
I like it that, in our Gospel today, Jesus refers to King David to justify his own actions and his disciples’ behavior because once again, it shows us that it’s really hard to understand Jesus if we don’t understand the Old Testament. To understand Jesus, we actually need to understand the OT twice: As Jewish…
2nd Sunday after Pentecost (B) – Trinity Sunday – Isaiah 6:1-8
These past months we have come to get to know much more about the Hebrew Bible as we have been encountering many different characters of the Old testament through our weekly study. We enjoy discussing their stories, often uplifting, sometimes unsettling, always quite colorful, and we realize that in the process we also learn much…
Pentecost Day B: Notes for a sermon on John 15:26-27, 16: 4b-15
On the Day of Pentecost, we celebrate the gift of the Holy Spirit / the coming of the Holy Spirit, the well-known story we have just heard in the Book of Acts…Many details are probably familiar to you: the tongues of fire, the languages, the new wine, the young people seeing visions, the old people…
Easter 7B: Notes for a sermon on Psalm 1
I have been meaning to preach on the psalms for the longest time but I never knew where to start with. So when I realized that this Sunday we would read Psalm 1, I thought this was maybe the perfect opportunity!Let’s just start with the beginning….And indeed psalm 1 is the beginning, psalms aren’t randomly…
Easter 4B: A sermon on 1 John 3: 16-24; John 10: 11-18
– You may remember we mentioned a few weeks ago that on the Sundays after Easter, we have a cycle of readings that can be a bit repetitive (think: “Doubting Thomas Sunday”). Well, this Sunday again, we don’t have much of a surprise with our lessons. If you’re a frequent flyer in the Episcopal Church,…
Easter 3B: Notes on Acts 3:1-26; 1 John 3:1-7; Luke 24: 36b-48
I often have to remind myself to refrain from going down the social medias rabbit hole, but this week I found myself spending much more time than I needed to reading everything everyone had to say about the death of a certain celebrity who had famously been on trial for the murder of his wife…
Easter 2B: A sermon on John 20: 19-31
This week, we’re again in John’s Gospel, and this should come as no surprise. The Sundays after Easter are those Sundays were, if you will, “the lectionary does not apply”: Each year, we have the same readings. The second Sunday after Easter is the Sunday of “Doubting Thomas”, and the story of Thomas is only…
Easter Sunday: A sermon on John 20: 1-18
So here we are, finally…It’s Easter. It’s funny how this week, almost every day, I had at least one or two people asking me: “So your big day is coming uh?“, and I guess they’re right: Easter is a big day and it is a big deal for all of us Christians. Actually, all what…