Jordan Rimmer Sermons

Paradox: Lose Your Life To Save It

Here I being a new series on Paradoxes of the faith. The series is inspired by the book Paradoxes for Living by N. Graham Standish. In this first sermon I introduce paradoxes and look at Luke 9:23-25.

Getting Ready for a New Year

As we come into a New Year, I reflect on how we as Christians should approach our plans. Do we wait for God or do we set goals and plan our lives? I talk about 4 kinds of people in the world- driftwood, docked boats, motor boats, and sail boats. As Christians we should be sail boats--setting goals and following the wind of the Spirit.

A Theology of Church Music

In this sermon I look at the power and importance of church music including carols, hymns, and praise music. I begin with why God's presence in the Bible is accompanied with singing and then move into why singing and music is so important to our faith.

What are you Longing for?--WONDER

There are 2 things I have never noticed about the story of the shepherds. 

1.) The angel are not shiny. It is the glory of the Lord that shines. 

2.) The angel does not tell them to go to see the Bible. The angel just tells 

 them where to find the baby an they decide to go.

 in this sermon, I unpack these 2 insights and suggest that they point to 2 related thing that people long for--the glory of God and a sense of wonder.

What are you Longing for? COMFORT

Here I continue my sermon series on what we really long for. In this sermon I take a look at COMFORT. The sermon is left a little open ended because it set up an experience where church members decorated a tree with ornaments memorializing family and friends that are not with them for Christmas.

What are you Longing for? PEACE

For Advent I am preaching about what people are "longing" for. I don't mean what do we want. What do we long for in our gut that we may not even be aware of that influenced the decisions we make.

In this sermon I take a look at peace. But when the Bible talks about peace, it means way more than just simply peace. The lesson about peace is the same lesson that breaking bricks teaches to martial artists.  

Walking in Darkness

 

In this sermon I take a look at the image of darkness. Why do we fear the dark? What does the Bible say about darkness? What do we do when we face dark times in our lives or see the darkness of our world in events like the attacks in Paris?

This sermon was inspired by the book Learning to Walk in the Dark by Barbara Brown Taylor though it is not based on the book.

Stressing Faith, Hope, and Love

In this sermon I take a look at how stress works in our lives and how faith, hope, and love can help us deal with stress.

Death, Where is Your Sting?

 

 

In this sermon I take a hard look at death. We don't want to talk about it. We don't want to deal with it. But it is part of life. In fact, Christians have lots of reasons for it to not sting near as badly.

Biography of John Knox

 

This year for Reformation Sunday I did a biography of John Knox. He is one of the bravest men I have ever read out and is the father not only of the Scottish Reformation but also of Presbyterianism.

Parables: The Dishonest Magager

This sermon wraps up my series on the parables of Jesus. It comes from Luke 16 and is described in many commentaries as one of the most difficult parables to understand and apply.

Sorry about the beginning of the scripture. I jumped in only to realize that I forgot to push record.

The 10 Bridesmaids

 

Five of the 10 bridesmaids from Matthew 25 were considered foolish, but why were they not ready for the groom to come? What can we learn from these virgins?

Sheep, Goats, and World Communion Sunday

 

This sermon comes from Matthew 25. Jesus separates the sheep from the goats in the final judgment. But what gets you in? It may be as surprising for us as it would have been for those listening.

The Scariest Passage in the Bible

The passage is from Matthew 7. Not everyone who says "Lord, Lord" and does great things for God will get into heaven. This is a terrifying thought! But we have an opportunity to build our lives on the rock...

Table Manners- Parables from Luke 14

This sermon looks at the parables of Luke 14 that are about banquets and happen at a dinner. I preached it from a banquet table and then served communion at that table.

The Parables of Jesus: The Stewards of 10 Midas

This sermon is about the parable of 10 midas. This parable is often overlooked in favor of the more familiar parable of the talents, but this is a rich and interesting parable.

The Parables of Jesus: Workers for the Vineyard

This parable from Matthew 20 is one of the most frustrating parables that Jesus taught. It is just so unfair that all the workers get paid the same. It is outrageous. But perhaps that is the point... And maybe there are some practical implications for this parable instead of just the spiritual insights that are often taught...

The Parables of Jesus: The Widow and the Judge

This sermon is on the parable of the unjust judge and the tenacious widow of Luke 18. This is a difficult parable because Luke gives and intro about the meaning of the parable and Jesus teaches after he parable and these two "hints" don't exactly line up. This is a simple story with riches of meaning that many people have never heard and many pastors have never preached. Bring it.

The Parables of Jesus: The Kingdom

In this sermon I look at how Jesus talks about his kingdom using parables in Matthew 13. These have real world applications for us, because we are part of this kingdom, even though it does not always feel like we are or we don't always live like we are.

The Parables of Jesus: The Prodigal Father

   

This is one of my favorite passages of scriptures. It is so overly familiar to most people that they miss the depth of the parable. I even think that calling this the parable of the prodigal son is a misleading but you will have to listen to understand why.

The Parables of Jesus: Introduction and The Good Samaritan

  

In this sermon I launch a series about the Parables of Jesus. I begin with some introductory comments on what parables are and how we need to interpret them. I then tackle the parable of the Good Samaritan as an example.

The History of Communion

 

This sermon is a history of communion from the Passover meal to our practices today. I pay special attention to the beliefs about communion, the names for communion, and the way it is practiced. I made major use of a powerpoint presentation that you do not have on the audio. 

The Cloud of Witnesses

In this sermon I reflect on Hebrews 12 and the Great Cloud of Witnesses. I have had the text on my mind since I spent time in England where people are actually buried and memorialized in the church. While this is not always a good idea, I think we Protestants may have missed something here. At the end of my sermon I invited people from my church to come forward and write names of important people to their faith who have gone on to glory.

Leading with Story

God is constantly living a big story and inviting people to play a part in His story. What if the way God leads us is also a model for how we should lead others?

Embody the Story

 

In this sermon I look at the body imagery of the Apostle Paul and think it through in terms of story. We as people embody our stories- we physically move into the stories that we see ourselves in. Marketers know this and invite us into a story with their products as part of the embodiment of our story. How does story give insight into how Paul talks about the faith? How do we learn to embody God's story about us instead of the world's story about us?

 

Living the Story

 

Here I use the story of Nathan and David to look at how our lives our like stories and story can help us grow in our faith. I apologize for the abrupt start to the recording but I did not hit record for the first 2 minutes.

Sabbath as Resistance

 

God said above all the commandments to remember the Sabbath and that the person who does not keep the Sabbath should be removed from the community or even put to death (Ex 31:12-17). Why is Sabbath so important to God? Why don't we practice Sabbath? How do we start a Sabbath habit in our world today? Many of the thoughts of this sermon came from or were inspired by Sabbath as Resistance by Walter Brueggemann.

 

Rethinking Social Justice--Me and We

                  

In this sermon I look at two aspects of our Christian Faith--The Me Gospel or personal salvation and The We Gospel of the kingdom or social justice. These are like two sides of the same coin. When we get too out of balance and emphasize one over the other, then the faith becomes warped to a point that it is no longer Christianity. I am indebted to the book Me and We by my teacher Leonard Sweet which helped me think deeply about this topic.

James : Pray, Praise, Confess (the last James sermon)

This is the conclusion to my series on the book of James. James is giving advice for staying a doer of the word throughout all of life's circumstances. We should lean into God through prayer and praise and into one another through confession and prayer. I also take some time to talk about anointing with oil because after the sermon I anointed those who wanted to with oil and prayer while they came forward for communion.

Of Members and Baptized Babies

 

On April 26 Westminster Church accepted 5 new members and we did an infant baptism.  I took a few minutes to explain membership and baptism and what we believe about them.