Welcome to the sermon podcast of St. George-in-the-Pines Anglican Church in Banff, Alberta. Each week we share messages that explore Scripture with depth, honesty, and hope that are rooted in the Anglican tradition and engaging the questions of today’s world. Join us as we learn, worship, and grow together in the love of Jesus Christ.
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Knowing about Jesus isn't enough, we're called to know him personally and tell others what we've found. - Who do you actually think Jesus was, and how would you know if you were wrong? In his final sermon with us before heading to Wycliffe College, intern Hollis Kwan looks at the moment Peter had to answer that question for himself, and makes the case that Jesus can't stay a secondhand idea forever.
When God has spoken, live out of what he said, not out of the fear that he didn't mean it. - How long are you supposed to wait for something that isn't happening? Most of us have something we want that life keeps deferring, and at some point the waiting becomes a question about whether anyone is listening. In this sermon, Rev. Seth opens a story from Genesis that almost never gets preached: a slave girl nobody cared about, and what found her in the wilderness. First in our new series, Hidden Gems: Overlooked Stories from the Bible.
Love God first and you'll finally be free to love your family well. - Why is family so complicated? Almost all of us carry a difficult history here. Homes that broke apart, or homes that held together but never quite worked. In this sermon Rev. Seth looks at one of the most alarming things Jesus ever said about family, and why it might be the most hopeful thing you hear all year.
Real friendship requires being fully known, and the reason we avoid it reveals something deeper about how we relate to God. - Why is genuine friendship so rare? Most of us have plenty of people around us but very few who actually know us. Rev. Seth takes an honest look at what true friendship costs and why we keep settling for less.
We miss most of what God is doing because we are not paying attention. - How much of your life do you actually notice, and how much just happens to you? Guest preacher Archbishop Greg Kerr-Wilson works through an old parable about seeds and soil, and an even older story about two brothers and a bowl of stew. Not religious performance, just what it looks like to pay attention, to your life, and to whatever might be behind it.
Lust is pride in disguise, and the cure is not willpower but worship. - What if the reason you keep struggling isn't a lack of willpower? Most of us have been told that lust is a sexual problem. But in this sermon, Rev. Seth makes a case that the real issue runs much deeper, and that the answer is not what most of us have tried.
True self-control is ont found in mastering ourselves, but in entrusting ourselves to Christ. - Why is it so hard to change? We all know what it's liekt o repeat the same patters despite our best intentions. Our cutlure says try harder. Provers points somewhere else entirely. In this message Rev. Seth explores where true self-control actually comes from, and why lasting change begins somewhere most of us aren't looking.
We give up on people when we forget our own need for mercy. - What do you do when someone hurts you? Our culture has plenty of advice: move on, cut them off, keep your distance. But conflict has a way of following us, and some wounds refuse to stay buried. In this sermon Rev Seth explores Jesus challenging words on forgiveness and reconciliation. Why is it so difficult? What keeps us from it? And what happens when we refuse?
Anger becomes sin when our hurt becomes our righteousness. - Why is it so hard to let things go? This week Rev. Seth explores Jesus' surprising teaching on anger, forgiveness, and reconciliation, and why the stories we tell ourselves shape far more than we realize.
Pride blinds us to our need for mercy. Humility opens the door. - What if the biggest obstacle to wisdom isn't ignorance, but pride? Most of us think pride is easy to spot. But what if it's far more subtle than we imagine? What if it quietly shapes the way we see ourselves, our neighbours, and even God? This week Rev. Seth continues the Wisdom Lived in the Spirit series by exploring why pride blinds us and how humility opens the door to truth, mercy, and life.
Who can correct you reveals what your life is built on - Who can call you out? Most of us assume we're teachable. But what if one of the greatest obstacles to wisdom isn't ignorance, but the quiet conviction that we've already figured it out? This week Rev. Seth begins Part 2 of the Wisdom series by asking what happens when we slowly stop listening, stop growing, and stop letting ourselves be challenged.
God has already come down to us. We can stop trying to climb. - Why do we spend so much of life trying to hold everything together, prove ourselves, or stay in control? This Pentecost Sunday we reach a turning point in our Eastertide series on wisdom. As we reflect on Pentecost and celebrate a baptism in our church family, we sit with an ancient human struggle and a surprising answer that still changes lives today.
When trust is tested, wisdom means letting Jesus, not our hurt, teach us who God is. - What do you do when life unfolds differently than you hoped? This week Seth reflects on what happens inside us during difficult seasons, and why that might matter more than we think.
Wisdom isn't refusing to make plans. It's learning to trust God with the outcomes we can't control. - What would it feel like to stop trying to control how everything turns out? Most of us grip the future tightly because we're afraid of what happens if we don't. But carrying that weight eventually crushes us. This Sunday Rev. Seth looks at the difference between making plans and trying to control outcomes, and why trust might be the piece we've been missing in how we live, decide, and face what's ahead.
Wisdom begins when we stop trying to carry the burden of self-rule and learn to trust God as the source of truth, peace, and life. - Most of us are carrying more than we were ever meant to. In this sermon, Rev. Seth sits with the tension between self-reliance and surrender, and asks what it actually looks like to stop holding everything together on your own. What does it mean to see reality truthfully? And what changes when we stop outsourcing God to the edges of our lives and start trusting him as the source of truth, peace, and life?
You become what you love, so guard your heart. - Have you ever stopped to ask what is shaping your heart? Most of us notice obvious mistakes, but the deeper danger is often the quiet voices we trust without question. This week, Rev. Seth explores how wisdom begins when we learn to hear the Shepherds voice above every competing narrative and let Christ shape what we call good.
Learning Through Trust and Humility - What do you do when you dont know what to do? When the answers arent obvious, and the path forward feels unclear. In this message, Rev. Seth invites us into a different way of approaching those moments, one that may challenge how weve been taught to think about struggle, growth, and wisdom.
Not Advice, but a Person - What do you do when the answers arent obvious? In this sermon, Rev. Seth begins our Eastertide series on wisdom by exploring why the kind of guidance we often look for may not be what Scripture is actually offering. This message invites you to reconsider what it means to live wisely and where true wisdom is found in the midst of real life.
The resurrection of Jesus shatters the death we live and opens us to a life that never runs out. - What if the thing you try not to think about is already shaping how you live? In this Easter sermon, Rev. Seth explores why we dont actually live by what we claim to believe, how the certainty of death quietly forms our fears, limits, and relationships, and how the resurrection of Jesus opens a different kind of life.
At the cross, God bears our sin himself so justice is upheld and mercy is given - What if God didnt ignore evil but dealt with it fully? On Good Friday, Rev Seth invites us to face the cross without softening it. This message explores the tension between justice and mercy, and why what happens at the cross matters more than we think.
We can welcome Jesus and still resist him if we refuse to let him redefine what is true and good. - What if you could welcome Jesus and still miss who he really is? On Palm Sunday, Rev. Seth reflects on how easy it is to recognize Jesus on our terms while resisting him on his. This message explores how our assumptions about what is good, true, and right can quietly shape our faith, and what it means to be re-formed under the authority of the true King.
We cannot overcome death, but Jesus gives life we cannot create. - What do you do when you reach a point in life that cannot be fixed? In this message, Rev. Seth reflects on the reality we often avoid and the quiet ways we try to manage it, and points to a different way of living that does not depend on our own strength.
We may think we see clearly, but only Jesus can open our eyes - Have you ever been certain you were seeing things clearly, only to realize later that you had missed something important? In this Lenten message, Rev. Seth reflects on the healing of the man born blind and the deeper question the encounter raises: what does it mean to truly see? As the tension unfolds, the story challenges our assumptions about certainty, truth, and recognizing what God is doing right in front of us.
Being born again begins when our hearts stay open to Jesus and the truth he speaks into our lives. - Have you ever noticed how suffering can either close a person off or open them up? In this weeks message, Rev. Seth explores Jesus encounter with the Samaritan woman at the well and what it reveals about the posture of the human heart. As the Born Again series continues, this sermon looks at why openness to God matters, how suffering can shape us, and why the life Jesus offers cannot be manufactured by effort but must be received. Listen in as we continue asking what it truly means to be born a
Being good is not enough; we need the new life only Jesus can give. - What if being faithful still isnt the same as being truly alive in God? In this Second Sunday of Lent message, Reverend Seth reflects on Jesus conversation with Nicodemus and why the call to be born again is more essential and more hopeful than many of us assume.
