Common Ground

Rev. Sarah Buteux Preached at Common Ground on March 7, 2019 Psalm 51   There is a song by Kelley McRae where she sings:  Break us by the power of your grace O Lord, won’t break us, by the power of your grace  Break us Remake us Don’t let the sorrow take us Oh Break us, by the power of your grace  I love this song, and in my own spiritual walk, there are times when I need to hear those words, when that is my prayer…break me God, break me down, break me open, break in and break up the lies and the patterns and the habits that are hurting me and the those around me.  Break me, O God and then re-make me into someone whose life is pleasing to you. Re-make me into someone who is living [...]

At Thursday Night's Common Ground we began with these words of welcome: Good evening everyone and welcome to Common Ground. Tonight, as we cook and eat and pray and sing together we hope to make some thing holy together. We hope to make church together, which connects beautifully to our theme for this evening, because the truth is that church has always been something we have made together. Christianity has always been a work in progress. Contrary to popular institutional opinion, there was no blueprint handed down to a chosen few the day Jesus ascended into heaven. There was no instruction booklet left behind with all the rules and creeds and rituals and traditions of our faith laid out for all time. What was given, what was handed down to us, were stories…stories of hope and healing, stories of peace [...]

      This sermon was preached at Common Ground on November 17,2016 by Sarah Buteux   We began with a poem. Mending Wall BY ROBERT FROST Something there is that doesn't love a wall, That sends the frozen-ground-swell under it, And spills the upper boulders in the sun; And makes gaps even two can pass abreast. The work of hunters is another thing: I have come after them and made repair Where they have left not one stone on a stone, But they would have the rabbit out of hiding, To please the yelping dogs. The gaps I mean, No one has seen them made or heard them made, But at spring mending-time we find them there. I let my neighbour know beyond the hill; And on a day we meet to walk the line And set the wall [...]