Sun. Dec. 11, 2011 (Karl Brown)

On the Third Sunday of Advent, Karl Brown gave the second in his series of talks on faith. For Christians, faith concerns our belief in God and in salvation from sin. This is so important that in order to join most congregations, one must both profess having faith and have been living a life in which faith has somehow been in evidence. With December being the season for aggressive marketing, Karl asked us to reflect on whether marketing has ever been applied by Christians to promoting something as important, and yet as elusive as faith (e.g., tent revival campaigns, televangelism). Marketing seeks to send a message, often by telling/showing a story or scenario which is in tune with the targeted audience's s world view. In today's gospel lectionary (John 1.6-), John the Baptist was successful at promoting/marketing his faith views because what he had to say so perfectly fit the world view of many of his Jewish listeners, and because they sensed that he was trying to live according to his professed faith. His was the kind of faith they found possibly attractive for their daily living and present political dilemma. Does our society know about our faith enough to consider whether that kind of faith might be applicable to daily living and to society's pressing concerns? [JEK]

Listen to the sermon audio MP3 recording from Sunday, December 11th, 2011 using your browser's preferred media player.

Sun. Dec. 4, 2011 (Santosh Ninan)

On December 4th, Santosh Ninan (Regent graduate, former pastor, active speaker and writer, and presently a stay-at-home-Dad) spoke on "Love which surpasses all knowledge". During his years in prison, Paul had ample time to reflect, pray and write. During those times of confinement, he became particularly concerned that the new Christians in Ephesis be somehow corporately grounded in love, even as they faced brokenness in their personal and corporate lives. Every modern family, of course, carries it secrets, hurts and concerns, and too often individuals then construct protective barriers which distance them even from people they ostensibly love. At times, Santosh suggested, these mental barriers can unthinkingly be carried over into our relationship with God. Knowing this, Paul prayed that the Ephesians could both grasp and somehow know the love of God, a love that 'surpasses knowledge'. Santosh dramatically contrasted believers having a theoretical knowledge about God as opposed to them actually experiencing God's love: Think of the contrasts between meeting someone online via eHarmony and meeting them in person--two entirely different things. Santosh then made three suggestions: (1) Take an honest emotional audit on how well you receive love and accept forgiveness, (2) Spend time with God in quiet prayer and fasting, and (3) Dare to seek to create close 'soul friends'. A recent survey conducted by the Vancouver Foundation identified "isolation" as the number one concern for Vancouverites. Paul directly addressed this concern in his letter to the Ephesians. [JEK]

Listen to the sermon audio MP3 recording from Sunday, December 4th, 2011 using your browser's preferred media player.