Saint Paul’s Sermons

Saint Paul cautions us about "being the right way" and "doing the right things" without doing them from the right motives, motives of agape love for one another.

Today's Gospel lesson speaks to the requirement that we love our neighbor as ourselves. Many passages of scripture talk about the love of God, and our duty to love one another. In modern culture it's not so much God is love, as "love is God, a distortion of the biblical picture of love.

The Gospel account of Jesus' miraculous healing of the man who was deaf and of impaired speech inspires us with the calling to reach out to others.

As Christians we are called to see those around us who need to hear about Jesus.

"God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble." Ps 46 The Psalms are a great source of comfort and assurance, a place of peace and quiet. Pray the Psalms and find peace.

In a few short verses in his Gospel, Luke describes Jesus' weeping over Jerusalem, cleansing the temple, and teaching in the temple daily (Luke 19:41-48). We learn much about the man Jesus from this passage, his human grief over the city of Jerusalem, his bold attack on the moneychangers and merchants defiling the temple, and his heart for the people as he teaches.

Jesus told the familiar parable about the "prodigal" or wastrel son, Lk 15:11-32, was aimed at the value of lost sinners to God and God's willingness to show them mercy, so it relates to us, too. Both the younger son, who squandered his inheritance, and the elder son, who was unloving, unforgiving, and rude to his father, failed to honor their loving and generous father. Just as we sinners fail to honor our Father in Heaven, though if we repent, like the younger son, he is quick to forgive us.

The parables of the Lost Sheep and the Lost Coin Jesus taught show us the God does not give up on us, that God is eager to seek the lost, and that God is the God of second chances.