A Noble Theme

Hespeler, 18 October, 2015 © Scott McAndless – Baptism Psalm 25:1-13, Mark 10:13-16, 2 Kings 2:15-25 I f you swallow your chewing gum, what will happen to it? Everybody knows the answer to that! If you swallow your gum, it will sit in your stomach and it will take seven years to digest – seven years! How do I know that? Bobby, my very best friend in the second grade told me so. And it was confirmed by all my ther friends too. So it must be true.       Now, is it true in the strictest sense? If you were to actually do an MRI on a kid who made a habit of swallowing chewing gum, would you find any evidence of gum that had been in the digestive tract for several years? (Yes, there are pediatricians who have looked, at least while they there were searching for other things.) And the answer is no. In the strictest sense it isn’t exactly true and you wouldn’t find any gum that had been there for more than a week. But, all the same, you might ...

A couple of years ago, I wrote a Christmas pageant for my congregation and I wanted to make this pageant available to churches who are looking for a fresh and unique approach to the Christmas story. This pageant is based on the book I published in 2013 and I would refer you to that book for further information. Click here for more information on the book. I am releasing this pageant under a Creative Common "Share and Share Alike" license which means you are allowed to use it and to adapt it freely and the only stipulation is that the original author is to be acknowledged. You must also be open to sharing any adaptions of the pageant you make available freely. The script follows. If you would like to view, download and print a PDF file, please click  here . Caesar’s Census, God’s Jubilee. A Christmas Pageant by Scott McAndless Caesar’s Census, God’s Jubilee. A Christmas Pageant by  W. Scott McAndless ...

Hespeler, 11 October, 2015 © Scott McAndless Genesis 1:26-2:3, Mark 10:35-45, Psalm 24      There is so much that is so right about the Harvest Festival of Thanksgiving. It is a day to be thankful, but thankful in very particular ways. We especially focus on the good things that are provided to us by the earth itself – the fruits and vegetables, the bountiful harvest, the grain, the meat and the wonderful foods that we can create when we put them all together.       It is good to be thankful for these things because they are good things provided for our blessing. And, yes, one of the ways in which we connect to our thankfulness for these things can be by overindulging in them. I don’t know about you, but I fully intend to express my thankfulness specifically for turkey, mas hed potatoes and gravy in some very concrete ways when I gather with my family  at my sister’s place tomorrow. These things are not just given for our sustenanc...

Hespeler, 4 October, 2015 © Scott McAndless – World Communion Mark 9:42-49, Romans 16:17-20, 1 Corinthians 12:12-26 S ince the beginning of September, as most of you will know, I have been talking about what I call the Script Out â passages of the Bible – the verses that we love to hate for all kinds of reasons. What I haven’t told you is that I have done something like this before. I did a somewhat similar series of sermons at my last church where I chose to preach on the worst Bible passages I could find. I am a bit of a bear for punishment.       That time, however, I did make one mistake. We had a prominent sign in front of the church and I had one man who would put my various sermon titles on the sign each week. Well, during this series, this guy came to me and asked me what he should put on the sign. I, foolishly, just wrote out the actual texts of the Bible verses I was preaching on and nothing more. I mean, who could object if w...