Sermons

Our lives are littered with difficulties and differences which seem irreconcilable. The will of the nations are brought to naught, and so the nations go to war. Our own plans for life and ministry are thwarted, and we go to war with ourselves to find the answers. Looking to the Apostles Peter and Paul, let us remember that God’s plan for our lives is dramatically different from what we want in our sin – and that is a good thing.

Who is Jesus? The answer to this question is central to our Christian faith. Listen as the Rector discusses how we understand Jesus’ identity, as laid out by the early Church Fathers at the Council of Chalcedon.

After Christ’s death, the disciples took refuge in the Upper Room. Without warning, the risen Christ appeared to them. Listen as the Rev. Galloway discusses Christ’s miraculous appearance and explains what it means for our lives. “Shalom,” Christ said, “Peace be with you.”

Our innermost desire is to be fully known and yet fully loved, and that can only be satisfied by the eternal love of God. No one can know you more fully, and love you more perfectly, than God can. You are not a creature of your own self-definition; rather, you are a being made in the perfect image of God, and therefore deserving of dignity from conception to final breath. Watch as the Rector celebrates the glory of Christ’s Resurrection.

We are quick to justify ourselves by our own works and self-righteousness. As Christians, we easily fall into the trap of looking not to the cross but to our own virtue-signaling for assurance of salvation. As the Rev. Galloway explores Christ’s final hour on the cross this Good Friday, we are asked the question: Is the cross not enough for us?

Paul explains to the Philippians how Christ is the ultimate example of counting others as more significant than yourself. Christ’s entire life, in fact, was singularly oriented toward His willing humiliation and death on the Cross, a perfect sacrifice for our sins, to the Glory of God the Father. Jesus, of all people to ever live, had every excuse and every means to exalt himself and save his life, and yet He laid His life down without grumbling or complaining. Let us examine ourselves, therefore, against Christ’s perfect standard of humility.

We only recite the Long Exhortation as a congregation a couple of times over the course of the year, typically only during the season of Lent. Long though it may be (as the name implies), this beautiful prayer is packed with theology and teaches us much about how we should approach worship.

The LORD says through the prophet Isaiah, “I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert… for I give water in the wilderness, rivers in the desert, to give drink to my chosen people, the people whom I formed for myself that they might declare my praise” (Isaiah 43:19, 21). We all have wilderness experiences in our lives, but God will never leave us or forsake us, and it is the mark of the Christian to praise God even when everything life appears to be going wrong.

While it may seem counterintuitive, there is great joy to be found in the disciplines of Lent. Listen as the Bishop-retired explains the meaning of Lenten joy.