A Famine Not of Bread

Click here to listen to this sermon. Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ! Everyone knows what it is like to become overwhelmed: the phone call that changes everything, the diagnosis we did not expect, the grief that will not lift, the responsibility that feels heavier than we can carry. In such moments, we do not need advice about trying harder, working smarter, or changing our attitude. We need someone strong enough to take hold of us. The author of the hymn we just sang, Thomas Andrew Dorsey (1899–1993), knew what it was like to be overwhelmed. Born in Georgia to a revivalist preacher and a church organist, he moved to Chicago at seventeen and found success as a blues pianist, arranger, bandleader, and recording artist. He also suffered a nervous breakdown and struggled for years between the secular and sacred worlds of music. Eventually, he brought them together in a new form of sacred song and became known as the “father of gospel music.” In August ...

"Peter and John Healing the Crippled Man Click here to listen to this sermon. “Repent therefore, and turn back, that your sins may be blotted out, that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, and that He may send the Christ appointed for you, Jesus, whom heaven must receive until the time for restoring all the things about which God spoke by the mouth of His holy prophets long ago” (Acts 3:19-21). Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ! We need to set the stage a bit before discussing our text. Shortly after Pentecost, Peter and John are heading up to the temple for afternoon prayer. A man who has been lame from birth is being carried to the Beautiful Gate of the temple court, a prime location for begging alms. Seeing Peter and John, he asks them for alms. “Look at us,” Peter directs. So the man fixes his attention on them, expecting to receive something from them. And so, he does—just not what he was expecting. But somethi...

"A Seraph Purifies the Lips of Isaiah with Coal" by Marc Chagall Click here to listen to this sermon. 

  "The Protestations of St. Peter" by James Tissot Click here to listen to this sermon. [Jesus said:] And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My Church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it” (Matthew 16:18). Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ! It may be the case, that as Jesus meets with His disciples near Caesarea Philippi, He is geographically farther away from Jerusalem than at any other time in His earthly ministry. The town was about twenty-five miles north of the Sea of Galilee, at the base of Mount Hermon. That’s around 100 miles from Jerusalem, a long trip in the day when just about every land journey was completed on foot. Whether or not Matthew intends the geographical perspective of distance and separation to highlight how far apart the religious establishment in Jerusalem is from Jesus, the comparison is certainly applicable. It is also true that the religious leaders of Jerusalem would hav...

"Saint Peter Walks on the Sea" by James Tissot Click here to listen to this sermon.     Jesus immediately reached out His hand and took hold of him, saying to him, “O you of little faith, why did you doubt?” (Matthew 14:31). Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ! Have you ever had a nickname? Did you like it? Hate it? Still answer to it? I suppose it depends upon the nickname. Sweetie or Dolly or Mama Bear are good. Stinky or Lumpy or Terry the Toad, not so much. Did you know that Jesus had nicknames for His disciples? James and John were Boanerges , “The Sons of Thunder.” Thomas was Didumos , “Twin.” In this week’s Gospel, Jesus has a less-than-flattering nickname for Peter (already a nickname for Simon, meaning “Rock”). Jesus calls him Holigopiste , “Little-Faith.” This Greek word occurs only in Matthew (6:30; 8:26; 14:31; 16:8). Where it does occur, it always applied by Jesus to His disciples in rebuke. However, the result never is that...

"St. Peter Preaching at Pentecost" by Benjamin West Click here to listen to this sermon. Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ! If you read the bulletin carefully, you may have noted the title of this sermon: The King Was Dead; Long Live the King! It is a slight variation on the traditional proclamation made following the accession of a new monarch to the throne: “The king is dead; long live the king!” This seemingly contradictory phrase is used to simultaneously announce the death of the previous monarch and assure the public of continuity and governmental stability by saluting the new monarch who has immediately assumed the throne at the moment of the predecessor’s death. In this case, I’m using the past tense on the first phrase to emphasize an important point that Peter makes in his Pentecost sermon: “This Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless...