Saint Paul’s Sermons

The Gospels record many miracles of Jesus. Today's was about the incredible catch of fish Peter and his fellow fishermen caught in response to Jesus' telling them to go back out to fish after a long and unsuccessful night. Peter's response is to fall at Jesus' feet and leave everything behind to follow him. Miracles are events or effects brought about by direct action of God to intervene and change the normal operations of natural causes. God uses this to reveal himself and his character, to verify his word, and to verify the authority of his messengers and what they declare.

Where is God in calamitous times and events?

Jesus teaches us acceptance of those who may not look right or seem to be like us.

When Jesus told the parable of the lost sheep in Luke chapter 15 he refuted the proud scorn of the scribes and Pharisees, who failed to realize how God welcomes repentant sinners.

Christians have long wrestled with the proper balance between Christian compassion and the righteous use of force to oppose injustice and protect others. God himself has decreed the warlike destruction of immoral people, such as in the wars led by Joshua in the book under his name, cleansing the promised land of child sacrificing pagan teachings. In the early church great thinkers sought to reconcile justice and mercy, pacifism and just use of force.

1. Ambrose of Milan: Ambrose bridged the gap between pacifism and political responsibility, arguing that rulers must protect the innocent and uphold justice, even if it requires force.

2. St. Augustine: Augustine believed war could be morally permissible if waged to restore peace and justice, emphasizing that intention matters.

3. St. Thomas Aquinas: Aquinas outlined three key conditions for a just war: legitimate authority, just cause, and right intention.

4. Contemporary Christian Ethicists: They expanded the just war theory into two main categories: Jus ad bellum (justice in going to war) and Jus in bello (justice in conduct during war).

5. Reinhold Niebuhr: Niebuhr emphasized the tragic necessity of force in a fallen world, arguing for a tragic realism where force is sometimes necessary to restrain evil.

This is Trinity Sunday. The Trinity is plainly taught in scripture, as the existence and activities of God the Father, Jesus the Son, and The Holy Spirit are recounted throughout the Bible, even as we affirm the oneness of God. It's in the Nicene Creed we recite, and appears throughout the prayers of faithful Christians everywhere, particularly in our Book of Common Prayer. "[Almighty God], who with thine only-begotten son, and the Holy Ghost, art one God, one Lord, in Trinity of Persons and Unity of Substance. For that which we believe of thy glory, O Father, the same we believe of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, without any difference of inequality." BCP 1928 at page 79 Yet this also remains an inscrutable mystery we celebrate, affirm, and draw upon for strength in our faith.

On Pentecost we celebrate the birth of the church on the day when the promised helper, the Holy Spirit, descends mightily on the apostles. He continues to bless the church and empower the church today!

John's Gospel records the teachings and admonitions of Jesus during the last supper with his disciples, and he says, among other things, the world will hate us, will hate Christians, just as it hated him. Why is that? Why do people outside the family of faith often react to Christians with hostility while turning away from God, running from him? Part of the answer of course is that as fallen human beings we don't want God in our natural state; we want to deny him and live our own way as Paul says in Romans chapter one.

"But I myself know that my Redeemer is alive, and at the last he will stand up upon the earth." Job 19:25 Who is your Redeemer, and do you know he is alive? If you are a Christian your Redeemer is the one and only redeemer of fallen mankind, Jesus Christ, and you can know he lives and will return.

The collect for the Third Sunday after Easter this morning is one attributed to Pope Leo I, "Leo the Great." It asks God to show those in error the light of truth, "that they may return to the way of righteousness." It goes on to say, "Grant unto all those who are admitted into the fellowship of Christ's religion, that they may avoid all those things that are contrary to their profession and follow all such things as are agreeable to the same." Father Andrew speaks to how this applies to our lives.