The NorthWord
NorthWord is a daily Christian podcast from St. John's Fort Smith in collaboration with the Anglican Family. Hosted by Father Aaron from Fort Smith, Northwest Territories.
Here's how it works: Every Sunday we release the full sermon preached that morning. Then Monday through Saturday, you get 3-5 minute daily reflections based on that sermon - one thought you can actually use each day. Every Wednesday we explore the rhythm of Jesus' life and how his followers have lived it out for 2,000 years.
Whether you're Pentecostal, Orthodox, Baptist, Catholic, or just curious about faith - this is for you. Ancient faith. Real life. No fluff.
The Word. The North. Your Week.
Follow @StJohnsFortSmith and @TheAnglicanFamily
Episodes
214 episodes
No Body to Bury
Thousands are still missing after the August glacier collapse and floods on the Nepal–Tibet border, and many families have no one to bury. On grieving without a grave, from Deuteronomy 34, where God buries Moses and no one knows the place.
Nobody Hired Us
"Because nobody hired us." The five o'clock workers weren't lazy. They were passed over all day. On merit, circumstance, Philippians 1:27, and the God who pays out of who he is.
On His Word Alone
The dawn workers had a contract. The five o'clock workers had only the master's word. Only one group went home bitter. On ledgers, wages, and why love stops being love the minute you start counting.
Mercy for Me
Jonah didn't doubt God's mercy. He just didn't want it reaching his enemies. How Jonah 4 opens up Jesus' parable of the vineyard workers, and the oldest sin there is: mercy for me, justice for everybody else.
Friend
In the parable of the vineyard workers, the master calls an angry worker "friend." Matthew uses that word three times, and it's never warm. On the evil eye, what we look through, and a God more generous than we can stand to watch.
Grace Isn't Fair
Jesus tells a story that is deliberately unfair. Workers hired at five in the afternoon get the same pay as the ones who started at dawn, and the dawn crew is furious. Father Aaron's sermon from St. John's Fort Smith on Matthew 20:1–16: the evi...
The Inner Battle: Purge and Pursue
Having the right spiritual weapons isn't enough without a battle plan. Father Aaron closes the week with Paul's strategy in two words — purge and pursue — and a daily test for telling validation from transformation.
The Inner Battle: A Transformed Heart Changes the World
The Salvation Army began with one Methodist minister's transformed heart on the streets of England. Father Aaron traces faith, love, steadfastness, and gentleness — what an inward change looks like once it reaches other people.
The Inner Battle: The Ground You Stand On
Righteousness and godliness are the first pair Paul names in 1 Timothy 6:11 — the foundation everything else in the Christian life gets built on. Father Aaron asks what's actually holding up your life when nobody's watching.
The Inner Battle: Flee Like a Fugitive, Pursue Like a Predator
Paul's commands to "flee" and "pursue" carry more weight in the Greek than they do in English — pheugo means to run for your life, dioko means to hunt without stopping. Father Aaron breaks down both words and asks what you're actually fleein...
The Inner Battle: Gold or God
Every generation has woken up at 2 AM asking the same question: why am I missing something? Father Aaron opens 1 Timothy 6 to name the daily choice underneath that question — the Gold, or God — and why the true pursuit of life has to be inwa...
Sunday Sermon: On Forgiveness
In a sermon drawing on Tim Keller's teaching on the topic, Deacon Luke explains to us what it means to forgive, not just seven times, but seventy-seven times. And even more importantly, at the beginning of the sermon, we get a grea...
Rule 1483
In a club, you get read out at the annual general meeting. In a family, somebody knocks on your door. Father Aaron on Matthew 18:15, on why Jesus sends you alone and without an audience, and on the parable that sits immediately before it.
The Harder Half
Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep. Chrysostom said sharing a man's tears halves his grief, but sharing his joy heals you. Father Aaron on why celebrating somebody else's good news is the harder half of Romans 12:15, an...
Love Gone Cold
Fervent in spirit means boiling. Father Aaron on Romans 12:11, on sin as a temperature that dropped rather than a rule that broke, and on the one person you'd rather not warm up to.
Married to Goodness
Abhor what is evil. Cling to what is good. Both commands land harder in the Greek than in English, and the word for clinging is the same one Genesis uses for a husband cleaving to his wife. Father Aaron on why a rule book won't hold a church...
Un-play-acted
The word Paul uses in Romans 12:9 is anupokritos. Un-play-acted. The root is the word for an actor in a mask. Father Aaron on why a club performs love and a church gets transformed by it, and what to do the next time you're asked to put the ...
Beloved, Even Then
You are your own harshest critic, and you cannot argue yourself out of it. The verdict has to come from outside you. On shame, identity, the voice from the cloud, and defining yourself radically as one beloved by God.
The Life You Are Trying to Save
Life in verse 25 and soul in verse 26 are the same word in the Greek. On the self you show people, the facade you are working so hard to save, and why the self you keep hidden is the one that never gets healed.
Your Loss, Their Gain
The Romans crucified people beside the main road on purpose. A cross was never private. On what a cross is actually for, how to tell one apart from ordinary suffering, and why duty will never be enough to lift it.
Your Cross, Not His
Jesus does not say take up my cross. He says take up yours, which means you already have one. On the weight already sitting in your life, why the order of the sentence matters, and the Greek verb that ties self denial to Peter in the courtyard....
Come After Me
Jesus calls Peter the rock he will build his church on. Five verses later he calls him Satan. One verse after that he says, come after me. The same phrase both times. On the invitation that never shrinks, and why you cannot carry anything until...
Lightning Isn't Going to Strike You
“I better not step foot in a church — lightning might strike me.” No. It isn’t going to strike you. But something else will happen in there, and honestly it’s scarier.For anyone who has decided they’re disqualified from the work of God: ...