Spiritual Journeys: Weekly Messages from St. Peter's Episcopal Church

Ever had a moment when you wondered, Is God actually here? Not as a theological question. A real-life question. When the headlines are overwhelming. When people disappoint you. When your prayers seem to go nowhere. When you’re trying to do the right thing—and you’re still wondering whether any of it matters. The ancient Israelites asked the same question: “Is the Lord among us or not?” And their q...

What if the person who showed up at the very last minute received exactly the same grace as the person who had been there all day? That’s the uncomfortable question Jesus puts in front of us in this week’s Gospel. And honestly? We don’t like it. We live in a world that keeps score. We believe people should get what they earn. Work longer, get more. Show up first, get rewarded first. Do more, deser...

You are not stuck. You are not forgotten. And you are not alone in the water. That's the energy Rev. Madeline brings to this week's sermon, and here's why it matters to you, right now, today. Rev. Madeline takes you back to one of the most famous stories ever told — the Israelites, trapped between Pharaoh's army and the Red Sea, terrified, exhausted, and out of options. And then th...

What if the moment you’ve been waiting for isn’t coming? What if it’s already here? In this sermon, we explore what the Bible means when it talks about “the right time” —and why following Jesus may have less to do with waiting for the perfect moment and more to do with recognizing that this moment matters. Drawing from Romans 13 and Matthew 18, we’ll look at the difference between chronos —the ord...

What if God is already trying to get your attention? Moses wasn’t looking for a life-changing encounter. He was simply doing his job, tending sheep in the wilderness, when something strange caught his eye: a bush on fire that wasn’t burning up. Moses could have kept walking. Instead, he turned aside. He paid attention. And that moment changed everything. In this sermon, we explore the story of Mos...

What if the parts of yourself you’re tempted to hide are the very parts God can use? This week, we find an unexpected connection between the women who saved Moses, Paul’s call to “be transformed,” Peter’s imperfect faith—and yes, KPop Demon Hunters. At the heart of all these stories is one powerful idea: transformation begins when we allow ourselves to truly know God and be known by God. Not the p...

What if the biggest obstacle to seeing God at work isn’t a lack of faith—but the lines we’ve drawn around who belongs? In this sermon, we encounter one of the more uncomfortable moments in Matthew’s Gospel. Jesus challenges the Pharisees’ obsession with religious rules and reminds us that holiness isn’t about looking right on the outside. It’s about what comes from the heart. Then a Canaanite woma...

What do you do when the storm is bigger than you are? In this sermon, Mother Paige explores the unforgettable story of Jesus walking on water—and Peter doing the unthinkable: stepping out of the boat to meet him. At first, Peter walks on the water. Then he notices the wind. Fear takes over. He begins to sink. And suddenly, his whole prayer comes down to three words: “Lord, save me.” Jesus immediat...

Rev. Madeline reflects on the feeding of the 5,000, the only miracle recounted by all four Gospel writers, urging listeners not to gloss over its familiar details. She invites the congregation to imagine the scene: Jesus, grieving John the Baptist’s murder, retreats to the wilderness but is followed by thousands who arrive hungry and unprepared. When the disciples worry there is “nothing” but five...

Mother Paige reflects on empathy as a divine superpower, pointing to the incarnation as God’s ultimate act of empathy and focusing on Romans’ promise that nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ—hardship, distress, death, powers, or anything in creation. She rejects messages that claim people can be separated from God’s love as lies, emphasizing God’s relentless, indelible love and...

Rev. Madeline reflects on Romans’ claim that present sufferings cannot compare to coming glory, highlighting Paul’s vivid imagery of creation in bondage and “groaning in labor pains” within an apocalyptic hope for God’s transforming redemption. She connects this to Matthew’s Parable of the Weeds, cautioning that parables carry an “irreducible surplus of meaning” and using Tom Long’s reading—“in ga...

Rev. Martha reflects on preaching the same lectionary readings first on July 12, 2020 during pandemic Zoom worship and now in person, using the parable of the sower to argue that no seed is truly wasted. Drawing on her tradition of planting sweet peas and on birds’ “caching,” she suggests seeds on the path still nourish birds and may be replanted elsewhere; seeds on rocky ground still offer real m...

Father Frank Munoz opens with a prayer and a parable about a man who waits his whole life to enter a gate meant only for him, warning that many people spend a lifetime waiting for others to act. He contrasts reactions to John the Baptist and Jesus—criticized as too ascetic or too worldly—and notes that even cities that witnessed Jesus’ deeds rejected him. He cautions against a consumerist, market...

Deacon Pete reflects on a difficult Father’s Day sermon prompted by Jesus’ harsh words about setting family members against each other, concluding that Jesus is not condemning fatherhood but redefining it under the kingdom of God, where even the sacred institution of family is subordinate. He explains that in Jesus’ time family meant economic survival, inheritance, and religious community, so foll...

Mother Paige focuses on compassion in the lectionary readings, highlighting the Greek word “splagchnizomai,” Jesus’ gut-wrenching compassion for people “harassed and helpless like sheep without a shepherd,” an indictment of failed leadership. She describes Jesus commissioning the twelve to proclaim that the kingdom (or empire) of heaven has come near, contrasting this “good news” with Rome’s imper...

Rev. Madeline opens with prayer and situates the sermon in the season after Pentecost and the lectionary’s journey through Matthew, where Jesus teaches the Kingdom of God through stories and metaphors. She imagines the Kingdom as a banquet or rowdy party already underway: after the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus welcomes the poor, mournful, hungry, persecuted, and others through healings that restore...

Graduating senior Tegan Inns reflects on growing up at St. Peter’s from infancy, first experiencing faith through church community and activities like Easter egg hunts, Advent candle-making, children’s sermons, and praying nightly with her sister. As an acolyte, she began paying closer attention to services and saw Mother Paige’s teachings as life lessons, while youth group discussions with Madeli...

Deacon Pete delivers a Memorial Day homily that contrasts the holiday’s cultural start-of-summer tone with the church’s solemn remembrance of those who made the ultimate sacrifice, honoring veterans present and especially fallen service members and their families. Centering on John 15—“No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends”—he explains that Jesus speaks on the...

Deacon Pete reflects on Pentecost as the celebration of God’s divine indwelling through the Holy Spirit, recalling an childhood conversation with Father Boyd about connecting with God in ourselves and others. He contrasts this with the disciples’ fear behind locked doors, noting that fear can be physical, emotional, or communal, and that resurrection does not deny suffering but enters and transfor...

Bishop Susan preaches at St. Peter’s on the Ascension, describing the disciples’ in-between moment after 40 days of the risen Jesus teaching about new creation before ascending from the Mount of Olives. Drawing on trips to Israel, she portrays Jerusalem as holy yet conflicted, both today and in Jesus’ time, and imagines Jesus ascending with a clear view of the Temple, Golgotha, Roman power, and or...

Mother Paige reflects on Paul in Athens using the Temple of the Unknown God to meet people where they are and proclaim that God is not far from us: “in Him we live and move and have our being.” She asks the congregation and those worshiping at home why they came—praise, community, peace, guidance, love, even donuts—and says that whatever we seek, the answer is love. Turning to Jesus’ farewell addr...

Rev. Madeline reflects on discipleship and faith by lingering in Psalm 31, describing the Psalms as ancient prayers spanning the full range of human experience. She notes Psalm 31’s distinctive intertwining of lament and hope—pleas for rescue, fear under persecution, and tentative trust in God existing at once—and connects this pattern to Acts’ account of Stephen’s stoning and Luke’s crucifixion n...

Mother Paige leads an instructed Eucharist on the Fourth Sunday of Easter (Good Shepherd Sunday), offering three brief teaching addresses instead of a single sermon to help confirmation/reception candidates and the congregation understand the service’s history and theology. She explains liturgy as “the work of the people,” with God as the audience, then walks through the entrance rite (Easter accl...

Mother Paige opens with her sermon prayer—asking that God’s word be spoken and heard—and reflects on preaching with humility and trust in the Holy Spirit. On Good Shepherd Sunday she connects John 10 to the healing of the man born blind in John 9, describing how the expelled man is offered belonging as Jesus speaks of being the gate into beloved community where the shepherd calls sheep by name. Sh...

Guest speaker Rick Ochocki reflects on Luke 24:36 and the disciples’ struggle to recognize the risen Jesus, noting that it was Jesus’ actions—taking, blessing, breaking, and giving bread—that opened their eyes, and emphasizing Christians’ call to receive and practice peace. He shares personal grief after learning that FDNY Lt. Kevin Pfeiffer, a paramedic mentor, was killed on September 11, 2001, a...