Giving thanks is more than a religious compulsion marking our service to God. Our offerings of thanks and praise recognize the Compassion prior to our existence itself and everything we know and hold dear. From God’s gift to Israel, we see both God’s first and final gift to us in Jesus: creation and, finally, resurrection and new creation. Let us give thanks. 

Jesus’ parable tells about loving God and neighbor. Two of the three men loved God and their neighbor by using the riches of their gospel faith given to them to influence people around them, while the third simply lived as though his faith really didn’t matter. The parable’s ultimate concern, however, is about salvation, an abundance of joyful salvation, of all kinds of people, everywhere in Houston and around the world.

The teachings of the Nicene Creed are so prevalent within our prayers and worship that studying them opens up our Episcopal faith and tradition. In this sermon, Bishop Doyle preaches on the faith statement that we believe "Christ ascended into heaven and sits at the right hand of the Father."

We must remember not to separate our identity by living a spiritual life at church and a secular like at work or school. We should, instead, strive to be consistent, bold, and intentional as we live for Jesus at all times.

Through his promise to be with his disciples always, and by the power of the Holy Spirit, Jesus is already coming and coming and coming… to meet us now as we go forth into the world, back into the various realms of city life, to look, to point, and to radiate his light.

The main audience for the Sermon on the Mount was the disciples of Jesus, though the crowd also had the privilege to listen. The lesson from the passage is simple: whoever desires to be happy and content must accept Jesus Christ as Lord. "I have come that you may have life and have it more abundantly".

The Beatitudes of Christ's Sermon on the Mount describe Jesus and those whom Jesus blesses. We should expect to see these blessed amongst the Church, but what does it mean to be a people where the poor, the merciful, and the meek are not only welcomed but loved? This work is the people called Church, that strange solidarity made of Christ's own desire. 

Christ is the fulfillment of the law and the prophets, therefore, the love we’re called to points to Jesus himself. And, because God is love, if you want to learn how to love you must look where God is, you have to look at the cross.

You are loved,

you are love,

you love.

If you only love those who are worthy of your love, is that really love? We call that conditional love. How do you set the standards for loving others? It seems to me that as followers of Jesus, we have to look to him and to him only for setting the standards: Love your neighbor as yourself. How do you set the standard for loving God? Jesus says, give to God what is God’s. How does our giving show our love for God?