Saint Paul’s Sermons

The Bible records the stories of two infamous sinners, both of whom repented of their sins. One was King David, the man after God's own heart, who nonetheless stumbled severely and became an adulterer and a murder. Scripture tells us the things he did greatly displeased God, and God brought him to repentance. His sins had consequences to his family and to himself, yet God never abandoned him. The second was Saul, who as a young man persecuted the church and presided over the unjust stoning of Saint Stephen, who so courageously spoke to the mob before his death. But Saul, too, was brought to repentance and restoration through direct intervention of Jesus, and he became the one appointed by God to preach the Gospel far and wide.

Jesus regularly used parables to teach his followers and hearers lessons about the Kingdom of God. Luke chapter 14 recounts Jesus's experiences at a dinner hosted by a ruler of the Pharisees. First everyone watches him and hope to trip him up, especially when he heals a sick man on the Sabbath. Then he tries in a parable to teach them humility. They don't get it and in fact rest in self assurance as children of Abraham that they will be in the banquet at the final coming of God's kingdom (Isaiah chapter 25). So Jesus tries another story of invited guests to a banquet who say they will come but then all make lame excuses, putting other concerns ahead of their commitment to the host. Likewise, we are all prone to put other things first, ahead of God. God requires us to put him first, even ahead of other good things, and to "seek first the Kingdom of God."

We should not only read the Bible, but internalize it. It should work in our lives. Lord, give us ears to hear!

"Let not your hearts be troubled," Jesus says to the disciples in John chapter 14. How can he say that to them (and to us) as he is about to suffer and die, shattering their hopes and understanding of what he came to accomplish. He says it because he leaves his peace with us, a peace surpassing all understanding and that never fails. He joins with the Father in sending us the Holy Spirit, "another comforter," to guide us into all truth and to walk by our side until Jesus returns for us.

Everything we do in worship and church ceremony is trinitarian. We baptize in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. We pray in the name of the trinity, confirm in the name of the trinity, marry in the name of the trinity, bury in the name of the trinity. As Saint Augustine taught, all the actions of the Godhead involve all three persons of the trinity. Yet the trinity is unfathomable to our mortal understanding. The third person of the trinity, the Holy Spirit, is active in our lives now, our Comforter, our advocate, the one who gives understanding of the scriptures. The Holy Spirit is personal. He works with the word of God to convict us of sin and our need for Jesus as savior. Jesus taught that it was "better" for us that he return to the Father so that the Holy Spirit would come to comfort us and guide us into all truth. We don't want to neglect the Holy Spirit! We also don't want to be deceived into thinking the Holy Spirit could ever teach anything contrary to the word of God. All claims that "the spirit" had revealed something, or someone has "discerned" something "in the spirit," which is often a cover for attempts to rewrite scripture, must be tested against what the scriptures actually say. "The text cannot mean what it never meant." Gordon D. Fee and Douglas Stewart, How to Read the Bible for All It's Worth: A Guide to Understanding the Bible (Grand Rapids: Academie, 1982), 27.

The Coronation of King Charles reminds us there is but one true faith offering salvation and a path to right standing before God. That path is through the God Man, our savior, Jesus the Christ.

In chapter 16 of John's Gospel we have an eyewitness account of Jesus's words to his close disciples on the night before he died. He told them "in a little while" they would not see him, but that "in a little while" they would see him again. "Your hearts will rejoice. No one will take your joy from you," he assures them. And later he assures them that, although "the world" will rejoice and gloat when he is executed, he has overcome the world!! Jn 16:33, 1 Jn 5:5.

Pharisees are never satisfied; today's Gospel speaks to Jesus' return to the disciples in the upper room.

The disaster of Holy Week turns to glory when Jesus rises from the dead!

There was a popular song in the 1990s called, "One of Us," by Joan Osborne. It asks, "What if God was one of us?" It's a good question but misses the mark, because God was indeed one of us in the Incarnation (John 1:1-5, 11-15). The Word became flesh and dwelt among us. We have in Jesus a savior who knows firsthand what it is like to be one of us. Moreover, God himself took action in the Incarnation by becoming man and living a perfectly just and righteous life so that, by His atoning death, God became both the just and the justifier (Romans 3:26) for the benefit of all who place their trust in Christ.

In the Gospel of Matthew for today we hear John the Baptist's question to Jesus as John suffers in prison: are you really the one we were to expect? We can feel the weight of John's distress, as perhaps Jesus was not exactly the Messiah John had expected. But Jesus reminds him of what the scriptures said about him. After perhaps a gentle rebuke, Jesus teaches the people that of all men and women ever born, none was greater that John, because of John's mission in fulfilling the promises of God.