St Peters Orthodox Church

March 21, 2021 - Why do we fast for 40 days during Lent? Why is it that our Lord has had His people fast for periods of time both the Old Covenant and the New Covenant? In this sermon we look at our Lord modeling this 40-day fast. More importantly we see the results of His fast; the results every Christian can experience now in their own lives. Through fasting and prayer we are strengthened by the grace of God to walk in Christ's victory over every temptation Satan can bring our way. We also hear the words of God through the great Prophet Isaiah in Isaiah 58 regarding the true fast that God desires of us all and the blessings that come from that very fast.

Have you ever felt like God was distant from you in times of suffering; you pray and ask for help, but nothing happens? Where is God in those times and why does He not seem to hear you and come to you and relieve you of your suffering? Today from St. Matthew 15, we look at our Lord's encounter with the Canaanite woman. The way our Lord brings her soul to the place where she can finally receive Him and the healing for both her and her daughter helps us understand that God is infinitely with us even in His profound silence.

March 17, 2021 - Every Ash Wednesday we hear the calling of God to His people through the Prophet Joel, resounding as an alarm, to "return to the Lord your God." The alarm sounded to God's people every Ash Wednesday is the blessedness of our mortality. Many question, "How is our mortality blessed?" Tonight we look at two of the teachings of the Church for over 2000 years regarding the great gift our mortality is to those in Christ. For if we make use of this great gift daily, it will drive us into the arms of our merciful healer daily. And from that experience, we will know the joy, peace, and contentment of our salvation.

March 14, 2021 - On the last day of our three-week preparation for Lent, our Lord in His wisdom desires to reveal the love that He is to us. Why? Because at the revelation of Who God is to us, we clearly see Him. And, in seeing Him, we see the ways we are not yet like Him. Our Lord brings these things to the surface not to bring us to shame and despair, but to move us toward Him so that we can experience His merciful healing and be made whole. Today we look at the love of God; a love that we have been given grace to offer back to Him and become for one another.

March 7, 2021 - Today is our second day of preparation for Great & Holy Lent. We are given the "Parable of the Sower" from the Gospel of St. Luke chapter 8. Our Lord is encouraging us to tend to the soil of our soul that the seed of life He has planted blossoms. Jesus is also showing us the need to be sober and vigilant against anything that would stand to choke out the life-bearing seed of grace He has given us. Today we look at an issue we all deal with from time to time; the issue of unforgiveness. When we struggle to forgive, it is like the thorns that choke out the life that God has given us. Today we look at why this is the truth. We also look at Christ and His Nature seeking to find the path of forgiveness so that our souls may mend and be set free.

February 28, 2021 - St. Paul, in 1 Corinthians 9, describes the Christian life in Christ as a runner who is temperate in all things in order to gain the desired prize. An athlete, in order to compete for the prize, has to walk in great self-control as they train for the competition. They must abstain from many things and will themselves to do many things. Why would they subject themselves to this? Because their heart is fixed on the prize and they value the prize far more than they value their personal freedom. The prize for the Christian is both now and not yet. When we live a spiritual life with the dedication of an athlete, the experience of the greatness of the Kingdom of God grows in our lives. And in the end if we could only have a glimpse of what Christ has prepared for us for all eternity, surely we would abandon everything and follow Him all or our days.

February 8, 2021 - In our world today, we are very focused on the pandemic of the COVID virus. Today we turn our attention to a pandemic that has been creating great suffering in all of humanity since the fall of man to present day. It is the pandemic of the soul; an illness that has been in the core of mankind that creates a lesser existence, just as a virus creates a lack in the experience of the fullness of health. The focus of today's message is on bringing the pandemic of our soul to the Great Physician that He may heal and mend.

January 31, 2021 - In the Gospel of St. Matthew chapter 8, we are given the testimonies of Christ our God healing the leper and the servant of the centurion. We are told that the leper came and worshipped Christ, which means he fell in prostration before the Lord. We look at the centurion and see a great faith adorned in humility. As we look at the worship of the leper and the humility of the centurion, we see very clearly the path of salvation and healing for every soul who comes before Christ.

January 24, 2021 - Jesus' first miracles was turning water into wine at the wedding feast in Cana. The nature of the water was transformed by the presence of the Word of God, Jesus Christ. Colorless, tasteless, odorless water contained in earthen vessels became filled with color, taste, and fragrance. This miracle prefigured Pentecost and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. We are the earthen vessels containing the treasure, Christ our God. By His presence in us our nature is changed and we have become the fragrance of Christ to the world.

January 10, 2021 -St. Paul writes to us what is the core of understanding Christian worship in Romans 12 as he states, "I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable worship." What does it mean to offer our whole self to God? And what does it mean that this act is the true worship of the Christian? Today we attempt to look at the truths revealed to the Church regarding the answers to these questions.

December 27, 2020 -St. John the Apostle, at the end of his Gospel, describes the physicality of the Incarnation; God comes to dwell with us in the flesh. Today we remember that when we celebrate the wonder of the Incarnation, we do not celebrate something that happened between Christ's conception and Ascension. Rather, we celebrate the Incarnation that continues in and through His Holy Church until the end of the age both for our salvation and the salvation of those that walk in darkness. He continues to give us so many ways to experience Him with all of our senses.

December 24, 2020 - What a blessed and holy night is the Nativity of our Lord Jesus Christ. Tonight we remember that by the Incarnation Christ bowed heaven to earth in Himself that He might come to us with healing in His wings. Tonight we look in wonder at the glorious manifestations that were given to direct the hearts of all to come to this child, Christ our God; for He has come to exchange our brokenness for wholeness, our mourning for joy and gladness, and exchange our spirit of heaviness with a garment of praise.

December 20, 2020 - In the Gospel of St. Luke 2, Christ our God is called the consolation of Israel. In the Collect prayer for the Mass of the Fourth Sunday of Advent we pray, "Lord, raise up Thy power and come among us and succor us." In this sermon we explore Christ's ministry of succoring His people and how this leads to the consolation of the soul; something every soul craves. Those who experience the consolation of Christ are far less shaken by the realities in which we live in this fallen world.

December 13, 2020 - On the Third Sunday of Advent we are given a Mass entitled "Rejoice!" In the middle of the blessed Season of Advent, God reminds His people that their very lives, as well as their prayers, are to be seasoned with praise and thanksgiving. In this sermon, we look at the wellspring within us from which we can encounter Christ and draw great praise to Him for all that He has done, is doing, and will do on our behalf.

December 6, 2020 - Holy Scripture plays such a profound role in the salvation journey of every Christian. It is a means of fellowship with God. It is a means by which we learn to hear His voice. And it is one of the many means in the Church by which Christ illumines us with Who He is and shines light on both who we are and who we are to become. In the blessed and Divine readings of Holy Scripture, we have a means to become our true self; that is, the image and likeness of Christ for all to experience.

November 29, 2020 - The Incarnation of God in the person of Jesus Christ grants us all the experience of the Living God in our lives which brings us salvation. In Advent, we engage more time in prayer and fasting. We also take time to prayerfully study how God has revealed Himself to His people through Christ since His birth. God desires that we know Him more and more over time by the experience of Him. By the grace of God in this blessed Season of Advent, we are recentered in our lives granting us the ability to truly fellowship with our Lord and be drawn further into Him.

November 22, 2020 - Today is the Sunday Next Before Lent. It is the week given by the Church to prepare for the blessed Season of Advent. In this liturgy we pray, "Stir up the wills of thy faithful people; that they, plenteously bringing forth the fruit of good works, may by thee be plenteously rewarded." In that prayer, we have the language of a harvest. And, no harvest just appears automatically. There is some work to be done in order for a harvest to be plentiful. In Advent, by the leading of the Holy Spirit, we are given the tools that when used produce the harvest of the good works in Christ; the very fruit of the Holy Spirit. This sermon examines the tools of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving. These three, by the grace of God, transform the soul which results in this harvest of these good works.

November 15, 2020 -St. Peter comes to Jesus and asks, "How many times must I forgive those who sin against me?" Jesus' answer to St. Peter is that he must forgive in the same way he has been forgiven; in the limitless inexhaustible mercy and forgiveness of God. He then tells the parable of the Unforgiving Servant to strongly exhort us to become such mercy to others and show the very real destruction to our own soul when we fail to become like Christ in His forgiveness and mercy. In this sermon, we examine both the need by grace to become mercy and forgiveness as well as the grace-filled path that will pave the way for us to be transformed and become the mercy of God to others. In doings so, our souls are truly set free.

November 8, 2020 - Throughout the election season this year and even now we see how divided, anxious, fearful, worried, and opinionated we are as a people in this nation. Today we attempt to recenter ourselves based upon the most comforting and stabling truth. Jesus Christ is enthroned over the Kingdom of God; the Kingdom of our true and most important citizenship. St. Paul writes to us in Ephesians 6 that our fight is not against flesh and blood (against Republicans, Democrats, Libertarians, and Independents). Our fight is against the principalities and powers of darkness and our battle is to put on the Lord Jesus Christ as our armor. And having put Him on, we intercede asking Him to extend His hand of perfect justice, mercy, judgment, and love. Our role is not political. Our role is intercession that hearts would be changed so that the politics of our entire nation are founded in the virtues of Christ.

Nov. 2, 2020 - Today is the Feast of All Souls. In this Liturgy we are given the grace of God to take up our mantle as the royal and holy priesthood of all believers lifting up to Christ the souls we loved here on earth who have fallen asleep in Christ. We are also given the grace to let our mortality be the gift God intends it to be in our lives. That we recenter ourselves to live as though this is the only day we have to grwo in love for God and love for one another.