Sermon, Sunday Next Before Advent, 2025
“Stir up the wills of thy faithful people.” So we pray in today’s collect. But to what purpose are we to be stirred-up? We see in today’s lessons that we are to turn our focus outward. We are to see the shepherdless people all around us and be stirred to compassion and then go out into the wilderness of our communities and gather in the outcasts. Let us not dwell upon what we lack, but rather let us simply obey our Lord Jesus Christ. All things are His. He will provide bread for His people in the wilderness. Propers Manuscript Sermon Archive
Sermon, Sunday Next Before Advent, 2024
The Sunday Next Before Advent is coloquially called, “Stir Up Sunday,” from the first words of this day’s collect. “Stir up, we beseech thee, O Lord, the wills of thy faithful people.” In reading the lessons, we note the theme of “in-gathering” for the Kingdom of God is a harvest of those who have previously been dispersed throughout the whole world. Yet in the Kingdom, we are not only the object of the verb “to gather in”, but we are the subject as well. We have been gathered in, and we are called to gather in others as well. This, therefore, is the reason that we are to be stirred…
Sermon, Sunday Next Before Advent, 2023
God is always doing a new thing. He is the same yesterday, today, and forever, but His creative power in redemption is always fresh; it is always new. Will we join Him in the work of redemption? Will we allow ourselves to be broken so that we may be given to others? May we answer yes. May our wills be stirred-up to obedience for God’s glory. Propers Manuscript