St Peters Orthodox Church

So many Scriptures speak about the damage idolatry does in our lives and to our souls. The reality is that, while we face temptations and distractions, we are the ones that set up and attend to our idols. Idolatry is anything we attend to or love more than the Lord our God. Our idolatry divides our hearts and lessens our experience in this life with the God who desires to pour the great blessings of Himself and His Kingdom into our lives.

Why do we do all that we do in the Church? Do we fast, give alms, pray, offer ourselves to God in the Liturgy because we are told to do so? Is it a checking off of a task list or is it something more? St. Paul tells us that we are children of God, not slaves to Him. Everything we do is a response to an invitation by God to come to Him and let Him heal our lives. We do all that we do as a response of love to the love that He has offered. And, as we do these things, we cooperate with Him in the healing of our souls.

Jesus, out of His great love for us, invites us to cooperate with Him in His wondrous works of salvation. We offer Him only that which we have, no more and no less. He takes anything lacking in our offering and fills it with Himself accomplishing His great works. We see this in the testimony of Christ feeding the 4,000 men plus women and children. Here Jesus invites His disciples to cooperate with Him in the miraculous by offering the little they had. What might He do through each of us if daily we decide to participate in the great work of our Lord in the salvation of our souls and the souls of many?

Our Gospel reading today is the miraculous catch of fish in St. Luke 5. Today we look at all that transpired to see the true framework for the fulfilling of the Great Commission by Christian evangelism. Evangelism, and every good work, begins with our encounter and experience with Christ our God. There faith is born enabling us to follow Christ beyond our human reason. At the catch of fish, Christ invited Simon Peter to cooperate with Him in this wondrous miracle. Simon Peter, when asked to go into the deep waters and cast the net, said to the Lord, "At your word, I will." Christ did the rest and the miraculous catch of fish took place. Our Lord is the beginning and the end of all Christian evangelism. And we are changed as we cooperate with Him.

It can be said that the Christian life is broken down into three phases. First, the joy and excitement of conversion. Second, there is a season of struggle where God can feel very distant or absent in our lives. The third phase is the blessedness of a grown and matured faith that grants us such a deeper experience of God in our lives. Today we focus on how to best live and weather the storm of the season of our journey with Christ through the sufferings of this life. Allowing Christ to be a part of our great sufferings helps us to know Him in ways we never could before.

In 1 Peter 5 St. Peter teaches the entire Church, both Clergy and Laity, how they are to live in relationship to God and to one another. The Apostle implores all to live from Christ's Nature of Humility. Today we open our souls to see the value of this great virtue and how Christ desires to free us from the service of ourselves and the consuming thoughts we have about ourselves. May Christ set us free so that we may live in the joy of doing His will.

In the Parable of the Great Supper from St. Luke 14, our Lord reveals the heart of God and His framework for the salvation of mankind. It is God Who prepares the banquet inviting all to come in and partake of His goodness. But some who were invited make non-eternal excuses for why they cannot accept His invitation while many others come and receive the goodness of God. In this parable, our Lord wants us to see that our priorities are excellent indicators of that which our heart truly desires. May we all allow our Lord to turn our hearts to love Him above all things that we may enjoy the fullness of His banquet of salvation.

In Charles Dickens' "A Christmas Carol" Ebeneezer Scrooge is described as a self-absorbed old miser who lives only for himself. He is devoid of any community and, in this brief life, lives only for the gain and preservation of things non-eternal with blinders on to suffering humanity all around him. This is the same description Jesus gives of the rich man in the Parable of the Rich Man & Lazarus. Both Scrooge and the rich man were on a collision course with an eternal fate that no one would desire. Today we look at how Scrooge was brought to beautiful tears of repentance which freed him to become love and be enabled to receive love in one of the most beautiful descriptions of the transformation of a very broken person. There is a little of Scrooge and the rich man in each of us, how might we come to enjoy the fullness of life that is only found in becoming the love of God for those around us?

When the Blessed Virgin visits Elizabeth, who is far along in her pregnancy with St. John the Forerunner, St. John leaped in the womb of Elizabeth with joy at the presence of Christ. Elizabeth, filled with the Holy Spirit, proclaimed "Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb." The Blessed Virgin responds the Magnificat, a great praise to God alone for what He has done for her. In the Magnificat, our Lord's Mother says that God has regarding the humility of His handmaiden. God was attracted by this humility. He turned His gaze to her due to her humility. Tonight we consider the humility that God regards and what it means that He turns His gaze to the humble.

God has given us many revelations regarding God the Holy Trinity: Father, Son, & Holy Spirit. Yet, we will forever be growing in this mystery of Three Divine Persons yet one God. One of the revelations given to us is that the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit exist in an undivided unity. We were created in His image according to His likeness which means we were created to exist in undivided unity both with our God and with one another. Today we consider our dwelling in an undivided unity and how God reveals Himself through that oneness to all of creation.

Today is the Feast of Pentecost and on this day the promised Holy Spirit is gifted to God's people. This morning we remember the Old Covenant Feast Day of Pentecost and how Christ fulfills it on this day. All those who are Baptized into Christ are given the great gift of God the Holy Spirit for the healing of our souls. But we are also given this gift so that, by that healing, we become the fragrance of Christ to all souls. We have become recipients, carriers, and deliverers of Christ our God to this present world. The more we allow Christ to heal our souls, the more His Living Water flows through us for the salvation of others.

Today is the Sunday after the Ascension of our Lord. We are in that time between His Ascension and the sending of God the Holy Spirit to us. On this day we look at the eternal ministry our Lord has taken on for us. He has become our Great High Priest forever. What great joy we should have that He eternally stands before the Father pleading for God's mercy to fall upon us all. At the same time, we are now waiting for this Great High Priest's return to bring every soul before the Father. How then shall we be about our waiting? This sermon offers teaching on both of these important topics.

When our Lord Jesus Christ Ascended into Heaven, the Angelic hosts were amazed at what they witnessed. For the first time since the fall of man, in Christ the second Adam, humanity entered Paradise. There in Christ our humanity is kept before the Father that we might be able to follow His path and ascend; returning to the Father and to the Paradise we were all created to enjoy. Tonight we let the Early Church Fathers teach us the incredible benefits Christ afforded us by His glorius Ascension.

In the Gospel of St. John 16 our Lord Jesus Christ tells His disciples, "Whatever you ask the Father in My Name He will give it to you. Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full." But what does it mean to ask the Father in Jesus' Name? This is such an important aspect of our life in Christ and speaks greatly to the fulfillment of our vocation as His Kingdom of Priests. Today we learn from the Early Church Fathers what it means to ask, to intercede before the Father in Jesus' Name.

After the Resurrection, Christ's disciples were elated to continue in fellowship with Him as He continued His ministry. Imagine their sadness when Jesus told them He was returning to the Father. To ease their sadness, He tells them that it is to their advantage that He returns to the Father. There was a greater experience of God to be had beyond their journey with Him thus far and this greater experience is for us as well. Jesus returned to the Father so that He may be with us and we with Him forever.

In 1 Peter 2, the Apostle teaches that we are to live as sojourners and pilgrims abstaining from fleshly lusts and letting our good works in Christ be used to the salvation of all. Today we consider this life of a sojourner and pilgrim in this world; a life that began with our Baptism through which we were washed, cleansed, given mercy, and uprooted from the world of darkness into the Kingdom of light and life. It is of utmost importance that we live in this world from our new and true identity as well as our citizenship in the Kingdom of God.

Today is the Sunday of the Good Shepherd. In the Gospel of St. John 10, our Lord teaches, "I AM the Good Shepherd." Today we look at this teaching along with the 23rd Psalm to see what is revealed to us about the nature of Christ our Good Shepherd. We conclude with a few thoughts about how we are to live as the sheep who have been brought into His fold; living in this life as sheep to the Good Shepherd.

As is tradition each year in the Orthodox Church, on this day we hear the blessed Paschal homily once preached by St. John Chrysostom.

Today Fr. James Rooney teaches us the development of the Office of Matins. We look at Matins in the context of the entire prayer rhythm of the Church. We also look at the Matins service itself to learn why we pray what we pray as part of that rhythm.

How do we take our leave from such a profound week as Holy Week? How do we move on from here? Today we look at St. Thomas and the disciples' experience both after the crucifixion of their Master and after they experience the Resurrected Jesus Christ. These men had profound experiences of Christ for years as they journeyed with Him in His ministry. And yet, when Jesus was crucified they were still filled with doubt and confusion. They needed further experiences of fellowship with their Lord and Savior. I think we will find that we are very much the same. Faith is living, always growing, and forever tied to relationship, union, with Christ our God.