Sermon, Palm Sunday (6th in Lent), 2025
As we begin Holy Week this year, we are reminded that The Church requires us to participate in all worship services this week, especially those of the Triduum: Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and the Holy Saturday Vigil. Your participation is for your spiritual benefit. Let us, as the Body of Christ, walk with Jesus to the cross. Of course, from an earthly, political perspective, Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem looks like a failure. Even from a Christian perspective, we often think that the Triumphal Entry was a misstep – the people were premature in hailing Christ as the King. We think that, “Blessed is He who cometh in the Name of…
Homily and Video, Passion Sunday (5th Sun. in Lent), 2025
What are the implications of Christ’s sacrifice for us? Christ presents Himself to God the Father as our Great High Priest, as our Perfect Sacrifice, and as the True Temple. For those of us who have been baptized into Christ, His death becomes our death so that we are fundamentally changed through the renewal of our Spirits. For us, this makes all the difference for now we are empowered by the Holy Spirit to become what we have been made. We are not only grafted into the Body of Christ, but daily we are conformed into the holiness of Christ. Propers Manuscript Sermon Archive The Homily in the video below…
Sermon, 4th Sunday in Lent, 2025
Just about every person will admit that something is fundamentally off in the world. As Christians, we recognize this as the result of the Fall, the sin of Adam in disobeying to God when he was still in the Garden of Eden. When we consider who God is and also consider that we have no basis for our rebellion against Him, we realize an appropriate fear of God. He has the power to condemn us or to restore us back to life. The question then becomes, “How exactly do we repent and regain our good standing with God?” Many believe that fellowship with God is obtained by obeying God’s laws…
Sermon, 3rd Sunday in Lent, 2025
Jesus Christ does not allow us to remain non-committed. There is no satisfactory middle ground where individuals can indefinitely delay answering the call of the Messiah. Christ said, “He that is not with me is against me: and he that gathereth not with me scattereth.” In other words, attempting to remain neutral toward Jesus, or delaying to actively obey Christ, is to oppose Him. Worse yet is to deny the miracles of life that we daily experience because of Christ, for in doing so, we end up more hardened against the grace of God that where we began. Wait no longer. Leave indecision behind. Answer the call now and join…
Sermon, 2nd Sunday in Lent, 2025
According to the Bible, are demons real? How do they attack us? How can we be defended against them, especially considering that the collect for today states, “we have no power of ourselves to help ourselves,”? Let us take some lessons from the Caananite woman in today’s gospel from St. Matthew 15, who fell on her knees and worshiped the Son of David. Let us too cry, “Lord, have mercy on me.” We are not outsiders. We are children of God. Therefore, let our lives be grounded in the family of God. Propers Manuscript Sermon Archive
Homily and Video, First Sunday in Lent, March 9, 2025
As Christ was led into the wilderness to be tempted by the Devil, we too should anticipate temptation. As Christ endured the temptations which He faced, in His power, we too should triumph over our temptations. What are some practical steps to overcoming temptation? Recognize the spiritual battle and commit to fighting against our temptations so that we do not give in to sin Determine to know God through His Word and through worship. We must have a strong relationship with God. Learn to rely on the grace found in His Body – both the sacrament of the Body and Blood of Christ, but also upon our fellow believers with…
Sermon, Sexagesima Sunday, 2025
Today we revisit the parable of the sower, though this is perhaps more accurately described as the parable of the soils. The accompanying readings focus upon the trials of the Christian life and the security that we have with God as He brings us through these trials. We are thus being led to interpret the various soils as the challenges and struggles which we are called upon to endure. God grant us that we should persevere in those times when the devil sows doubt in our hearts, in those times of spiritual dryness, and in those times in which we are distracted from our first love. May we grown in…
Sermon, Septuagesima Sunday, 2025
On Septuagesima Sunday, we are called to awaken from our slumber. We are called to Awake, Awake to Love and Work. We are called to dedicated service our Our Lord Jesus Christ. For most of us, however, this cry passes by us without evoking any change in our attitudes or in our actions. Why is this? Perhaps it is because we don’t really long as deeply for our heavenly reward as we ought to. We consider the rewards of our efforts to be too far off, to be too intangible, to be too little to inspire us. We need to repent of holding cheaply the salvation won for us by…
Sermon, 3rd Sunday in Advent, 2024
The story of Israel, and of Christ as the True Israel, and of each of our lives as well, is marked by the pattern of exile and return. This is especially seen in Psalm 107. The ordained ministry is crucial to preparing the people for return back to the land of promise and blessing. They are the heralds calling to the people to repent and return to the Lord. They who minister to God’s people are not judged by the people or even by their own consciences. But as St. Paul says, “he that judgeth me is the Lord.” Ministers will be held accountable by God, and thus they must…
Sermon, 2nd Sunday in Advent, 2024
Once per year during Advent, we are called upon to consider the gift of the Holy Scriptures, the Word of God. God has graciously revealed Himself to us in the pages of the Bible. Thus, the reading of Holy Scripture is a sacrament for in them Christ gives Himself to us. They are not easy to understand, but we, like the patriarch Joseph, are called upon to wrestle with scripture, to conform our precepts to the precept that we find there, and to study them so that we may apprehend God more fully. In doing so in the company of our fellow believers in the Church throughout time, we find…