All Saints Anglican Church

We conclude our series on the Book of Esther with a focus on the power of the written Word — God’s Word — and its continuing force always in the life of His people.

Laughter at the slaughter of 75,000 souls? How are we to look at this part of the Book of Esther? Hint: it might have something to do with Jesus … and 1 Samuel 15 and the whole Saul and Agag thing … and maybe Genesis 3, while we’re at it. What if this is a picture — in miniature — of God reversing the tide of history since the Fall: the wiping away of all tears?

Unable to take back his first genocidal edict, the Persian king grants Esther and Mordecai permission to issue a second edict into the realm. On the surface, it merely grants God’s people the right to fight back. However, the effect is more on the order of triumph and exultation. Why? And how is the picture of a world with edicts—one of judgment and one of hope—ultimately a picture of our own Chri...

It all comes crashing down for Haman this week in a big bad way, as Esther uses the favor she has in the eyes of the king on behalf of her people. How is she like Moses in this moment, and how does the whole story paint a picture of Christ’s death as that which brings peace to God’s people?

Things begin to turn for our heroes, as we continue our sermon series on the Book of Esther, looking at chapter 6, where the greatest of all reversals — in a book full of reversals — takes place. Haman’s world is turned upside down by a series of coincidences and miscalculations that suggest the hidden hand of God at work for His people in the world.

We continue our sermon series on the Book of Esther, looking at chapter 5. So much is going on here, but we focus on our villain, Haman and the particular shape of human sinfulness that he represents. How is he a kind of figure for fallen humanity, the prototypical picture of which is the humanity of Genesis 3-11?

We continue in our sermon series on the Book of Esther, looking at chapter 4. Having introduced the key players and the threat to the heroes from the villain, chapter 4 shows our heroes responding by … crying and weeping and making bad fashion choices? How is Mordecai’s (and the rest of God’s people’s) response not only right and proper but a picture of how Israel should have responded in the Land...

We continue in our sermon series on the Book of Esther, looking at chapter 3. If last week, we considered Esther as a figure for the beauty of God’s beloved, Israel, God’s people, even in her orphaned, exiled, humiliated state, this week we’ll approach Esther 3 as an inner-biblical reflection on the hatred of the world for God’s people. We’ll consider Mordecai and Haman as figures, respectively, o...

We continue in our sermon series on the Book of Esther, looking at chapter 2: we’re introduced to our story’s hero and heroine admidst the Persian court’s “auditioning” potential new queens for the king. It’s both an absurd and disturbing story, but one wherein Esther emerges as a figure for Israel: orphaned, exiled, but beautiful in the eyes of the “King,” with everything that means figurally for...

We kick off a new Trinity season sermon series on the Book of Esther, a literarily brilliant, funny, and incredibly relevant book for our times. In this first sermon of the series, we look at the first chapter: King Ahaseurus’s 187-day party, the firing of his queen for refusal to come, and the absurdly opulent, sadly vapid world that God’s people will have to overcome as the story unfolds.

Sermon for the Trinity Sunday by the Rev. Dr. Len Finn. We look at what Jesus is really getting at in his chat with Nicodemus, why Nicodemus doesn’t understand, and how Nicodemus can sometimes be a picture of us.

Sermon for the Feast of Pentecost by the Rev. Dr. Len Finn. With a baptism coming after the sermon, we look at the meaning and significance of baptism through the meaning and significance of Pentecost.

Sermon for the Feast of Ascension (translated to Sunday) by the Rev. Dr. Len Finn. We look at both the end of Luke’s Gospel and the beginning of his sequel, the Book of Acts, exploring the larger picture of the meaning of the Ascension that these two different accounts provide.

Sermon for the Sixth Sunday of Easter by the Rev. Dr. Len Finn. We look at Isaiah 45. How does the Lord’s working through a Persian king’s conquest of the Babylonian Empire give us a picture of Christ’s drawing all people to Himself, as well as an assurance of the promises of God in His Word?

Sermon for the Fifth Sunday of Easter by the Rev. Dr. Len Finn. We look at the second half of 1 John 3 through the lens of the story of Cain, who John introduces as the very opposite of Christ. Why exactly does Cain kill his brother and what does that mean for the Christian, as John works through the nature of Christian love? 

Sermon for the Fourth Sunday of Easter (Good Shepherd Sunday) by the Rev. Dr. Len Finn. We look at chapter 34 in Ezekiel, the moment the book makes its Gospel turn towards hope in a Good Shepherd.

Sermon for the Third Sunday of Easter by the Rev. Dr. Len Finn. We look at the opening of the first epistle of St. John and explore how growth in the Christian walk isn’t necessarily about getting better and better, but rather seeing more and more clearly how sinful we are and how desperately we need a Savior in Jesus.

Sermon for the Second Sunday of Easter by the Rev. Dr. Don Collett. We look at St. John’s account of Jesus’s resurrection appearances to the disciples.

Sermon for Easter Sunday by the Rev. Dr. Len Finn. We look at St. Mark’s account of the discovery of the Empty Tomb. Why is fear the first reaction to the Resurrection? How does the Resurrection declare a new reality over our lives that turns upside-down everything we thought we knew about everything? 

The homily for Good Friday. We look at the household of God formed at the foot of the Cross bought with the blood of our Lord.

The homily for Maundy Thursday. We look at the figure of bread in the Lord’s Supper: its transformation in what Jesus says and does from a figure of our death to a figure of our life, all because of Christ’s death for us.

Sermon for the Fifth Sunday in Lent, Passion Sunday, by the Rev. Dr. Len Finn. We look at Jeremiah 31:31-34, the promise of a new covenant, wherein the Torah of the Lord will be written on our hearts. Is this about knowing rules? How is this better than its being written on stone or in a book? And how will God achieve this in our cold and stony hearts? 

Sermon for the Third Sunday in Lent by the Rev. Dr. Len Finn. We look at Psalm 19’s juxtaposition of glory of God in the Creation and in Torah (the Law)—what they share in common and how they reveal God in different ways, ultimately pointing to Him as our Rock and our Redeemer.

Sermon for the second Sunday in Lent by the Rev. Dr. Len Finn. We look at one of the most encouraging and assuring passages in all of the New Testament: “For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lor...

Sermon for the First Sunday in Lent by the Rev. Dr. Len Finn. We look at Peter’s contribution to our understanding of our baptism in the context of Christian suffering.