Christ Church Sermons

Fr. Jonathan speaks to our desire for connection, as expressed in Psalm 139. When we discover our vulnerability before God and recognize His faithful love, we find an answer to our fears and divisions.

Christ Church exists to invite ordinary people to know Jesus Christ and to become like Him for the sake of the world. Our Rector, Fr. Paul, examines how God has already done the work to make each of us evangelists. Here is hope for timid evangelists. Here is how each of us will invite our neighbors into the life of Christ’s Church.

Matthew 3:13-17. "What do you believe about who you are?" The Very Rev. Paul Donison reminds us how our identity is not found in how we carry ourselves through turbulence, but in how Christ carried us through baptism.

The Very Rev. Paul Donison declares how, even as the world changes decade by decade, Jesus continues to draw the world to Himself. Christ reaches us and renovates us today as He has through all of history.

"Will you embrace the name that God has given you?" Fr. Paul explains how often we forget who we are. As baptized Christians, we bear the name of Jesus, and our name tells us whose we are—and why.

Luke 2:41-51. The Very Rev. Paul Donison examines the astonishing boyhood of Jesus. The content, claims, and cross of the Son of God will surprise and unsettle us—stirring us, saving us.

Luke 2:1-20. The Very Rev. Paul Donison invites us all to celebrate the birth of a King unlike any other.

Matthew 11:2-19. The Most Rev. Dr. Foley Beach, Archbishop and Primate of the ACNA, explores how John the Baptist wrestled with knowing God's will and doubting God's purpose. Dr. Beach invites us to find hope in Christ.

Fr. Paul calls us to hear Mary's story as our own, an invitation for a nobody to become somebody for the sake of everybody. We are inconsequential—dust to dust—but God gives us a mighty purpose, to bear His light into the world.

Our culture skips Advent, refusing to acknowledge its brokenness and pain. Fr. Paul invites us to avoid the sentimentality of December and instead meet God in the burning bush. His fire consumes all about us that is unholy, but will not consume us.

Thanksgiving Eve by Christ Church Plano

Luke 23:32-43. "What does it mean for us to follow the crucified king Jesus?" Fr. Paul explains how deeply we misunderstand the purpose of power and authority. The cross redefines our picture of kingship and the part we are to play in God's Kingdom.

Matthew 25:14-30. Where do we find the courage to fearlessly use the gifts that God has given us? Fr. Paul examines the renowned parable of the talents, revealing how the Lord has entrusted to us unique gifts which He expects us to faithfully employ. But God has given us His promise: work without fear, for even our failures find refuge at the cross of Christ.

Matthew 18:15-20. The world is desperate for peace. Fr. Paul explores Jesus' vital teaching on sin and reconciliation, the movement from wounding to love. Christ commands that His Church show forth the mission, method, and mending power of the Gospel through our forgiveness.

Hebrews 11:32-12:2. Fr. Paul invites us to know our identity as saints of God's Kingdom, believers in communion with those heroes who went before us. Christ offers us His life that we might also live like Him.

In a world full of lies and deceit, God always sends heralds to speak His truth. Just as John the Baptist confronted King Herod, so too God calls us to speak with courage, charity, and costly truth.

Daniel 4. Fr. Paul examines the good news in Daniel's confrontation of King Nebuchadnezzar: God humbles prideful people to make them useful again for His Kingdom.

1 Kings 21:17-22, 27-29. In the awful story of Ahab's wickedness, we see our own sin and tendency to pass the blame. God sees us and passes sentence on our evil; even so, He makes a way for the Gospel. Our souls are sought by God.

Matthew 8:14-18. "Where do we find courage to pray for healing in the face of sickness and death?" Fr. Paul examines the account of Christ's healing of Peter's mother-in-law. When we trust in the knowledge of God and His Kingdom, we find His kindness changes everything.

2 Samuel 12. There is good news in the difficult story of Nathan confronting King David: God rescues those who sin. The Lord sends us His prophets, creates in us a penitential heart, and gives to us a costly pardon.

Genesis 14:17-24. "Where does generous giving come from?" Fr. Paul examines the story of Abram's radical tithe. Abram found gratitude in all that the Lord had given him: possessions and power and, above all, a great high priest.

"I am the vine, you are the branches." Jesus is the sole source of the true life that we all long for, and He invites us to belong to Him. When we link ourselves to Christ, we bear the fruit of a believing life.

Jesus comforts His disciples saying He is the way to true life. Fr. Paul directs us to find faith in Christ, for He alone leads to the life we were made for. He alone is steadfast in love.

Jesus knows our greatest fear is that of death. By declaring that He is the resurrection, Christ denounces death with righteous anger. Christ took on our weakness not only to defeat death, but also to give us a courageous faith that lives without fear.

Fr. Paul describes how we all long to be shepherded. Jesus offers us His shepherding care to lead us when we are lost and rescue us when we fall. Christ's intent is to make us shepherds like Him, for the sake of the world.