Cathedral Church of St Luke - Homilies

God hears the cry of our hearts. In times of uncertainty we often lack the words to pray. The Psalms give us a helpful pattern to pray in times of conflict. They give us words to pray our emotions, raw and unprocessed. They transform us and our situations. We learn to pray even for our enemies.

We need a time to remember that from dust we come to dust we return. There are propitious times to consider our frailty and our falleness. Psalm 27 encourages us to lift them back up to the Lord and use them to express our need. Come Lord Jesus, abide among your people.

Often we think of temptation in unhelpful ways. Sin and temptation can be misunderstood if we reject our humanity. We attribute too much power to Satan, without acknowledging that Christ is more powerful and has conquered our sin. The final way we misunderstand sin and temptation if we think God is playing mind games with us.

As we gaze at Jesus we are transformed. We are not able to stare at God's amazing beauty. But indirectly, God veils his divinity cloaked in his humanity. On the mount of transfiguration, God reveals who we are, he reveals who we pretend to be, and finally he reveals who we can be would we only let seek God's face or presence. It is in his presence that we are transformed.

Joseph knows God has loved him all along and has been alongside him all the way through and put him in a position where he could benefit the world. God cares about you down to the very hairs on your head or the hairs that used to be on your head, down to the specific trials that come your way.

You may be safe in body, but still not know healing. You're not free if you're still held captive by four things: 1) your possessions; 2) you appetites; 3) your emotions; 4) your need to be liked by others. How can we be truly freed from the bondage of these things that hold us down?

Today's constellation of readings remind us: 1) We can have an attitude of gratitude because the One who died and rose again brings new perspective to the worst of situations; 2) We inherit a tradition from Nehemiah, through the early Church, to us today, of the championing of Scripture and its story; 3) A vision for Christian life, where we must each play our part in the collective earthly embodi...

What does God's light look like when it shines in the darkness? The past few years have left much of society cynical, even willing to embrace the absurd. But, Jesus is God's sign of life in a world that has all but given up. Jesus invites us to worship, and absorb His light so that we too will shine in a darkened world. Jesus is, and we are, God's signs that something is still right, and God is st...

What is the most precious thing in your life? The Magi, who represent the nations of the world being drawn to the King of Kings, bring precious gifts to the Christ child. These precious gifts represent their acknowledgment of His royalty, His divinity, and the anticipation of His sacrificial death. The Magi recognized the appearance of God's glory, and responded by bringing their most precious gif...

Have you said "yes" to the invitation to play your part in God's story? As we prepare for Christ's return, this week's readings invite us to reflect on whether we have our proverbial "house in order". Do we live ruled by the tenderness of Christ? Have we allowed the atoning sacrifice of Christ to quiet and bring peace to our conscience? Are we filled with joy that comes from knowing our purpose in...

Have you said "yes" to the invitation to play your part in God's story? As we prepare for Christ's return, this week's readings invite us to reflect on whether we have our proverbial "house in order". Do we live ruled by the tenderness of Christ? Have we allowed the atoning sacrifice of Christ to quiet and bring peace to our conscience? Are we filled with joy that comes from knowing our purpose in...

Paul encourages us to rejoice as we look to the Second Advent of Christ with three reminders: 1) We can have joy now as though it is finished. 2) We can also live in the gentleness of Christ, so that his life becomes attractive to those who have known only bitterness and anger. 3) We can have peace, knowing that our God holds us with strong and mighty arms.

Advent is a time where we prepare for Jesus to be born anew into the "nitty gritty" details of our lived experience. Luke grounds the advent narrative in a particular historical context- a real time and a real place- because Jesus is coming in reality.

The once and future King declares what no other king can declare: "Innocent." Heaven and earth will pass away but his verdicts will not.

"Nobody can tell me what to do!" This sentiment may be the greatest challenge facing First World Believers today. All the benefits of our social and political liberties often lead us to forget that the freedom we have in Christ is the freedom to serve. We need the constant reminder that Christ is King, and we are not. Yet, we are also called to live as free people, children of the King.

What if we don't have to live in fear of tomorrow? When it feels like the world is falling apart, it really matters who you are following. Jesus invites us to follow Him through the chaos of this world as He brings us to New Life.

We need crash helmets for worship on All Saints Day: 1) because of mind-blowing truths (Jesus weeps, he ascends as King of glory, and he will set a table for us at the end of time when he makes all things new); and 2) because the saints who have gone before us are still a part of us, and are cheering us on!

Humans have historically tried to connect with the divine by offering sacrificial gifts. These offerings ultimately cannot perfect the conscience of the worshipper. Jesus, however, was designed to do what human sacrificial systems cannot. Christ offers a better sacrifice, one both human and divine.

Luke & Paul are a powerful duo: one expert in health of the body, the other health of the soul

God speaks to us, but are we listening? He speaks to us in creation, in our conscience, through other Christians, through the canon of Scripture, and pre-eminently in his Son, Jesus.

Life without God is a living hell. Life with God can feel like hell, but it's leading to heaven. Jesus sees all the way into our hearts and doesn't jump back in fear. He loves us, and gives us room for repentance. He invites us to bring our hearts confidently to receive mercy and grace.

God puts a hunger for love in us, and loves us with exactly that kind of love. We are invited to mirror that love here below.

We are equally susceptible to headache and heartache. God gives us resources to heal the body and the soul. We have access to a faith bigger than our own, a community of faith, the sacraments which mediate God's grace to us, and the freedom to confess and drop the weights that are dragging us down.

What does it mean to be wise? In his Epistle, James teaches us three components of true wisdom. True wisdom comes from God, and where something comes from matters. Second, wisdom is more ethical than abstract because it involves action. Third, true wisdom leads to maturity and wholeness.

Words are a matter of life and death. Speech is deceptive with regard to its directive power, destructive potential, and duplicitous productions. In a world where everyone has a proverbial microphone, how can we embody the living Word of Jesus?