St George's Sermon Blog

  Act 16:9-16, John 14:23-29 Our journey in Acts continues this week, and much like the book of Acts itself we have been alternating back and forth between stories about Peter and stories about Paul.   So this week we turn our attention back to Paul.   And he has come a very long way since we last encountered him on the road to Damascus.   Several years have passed and he has spent time and learned alongside the other disciples in Antioch and Jerusalem and had quite a bit of success traveling among the synagogues of Syria and Turkey and founding churches there. And then in today’s episode, Paul suddenly has a vision for spreading his mission into mainland Greece, so he and a couple of his friends head out and set sail to the city of Philippi.   Now this may seem pretty normal to us, but in reality, sailing off to Philippi was a pretty radical choice.   Philippi was nothing like the Greek cities in Syria and Turkey where Paul had recently been founding c...

  So the story I told you from 2 weeks ago about Peter baptizing the first gentile believers is back again in our readings this week.   And the I told you this story from Acts then as an example of how Peter had to keep learning and growing even after the resurrection.   We know that Peter was an imperfect leader, that he wasn’t always open to change.   And he wasn’t meant to be.   What is important is that Peter kept trying, kept learning, kept following Jesus.   And that Jesus kept working on and with Peter to further the Gospel even after his return to heaven. And now this week, we hear of what comes of all that work.   And the little passage we heard today in Acts 11 is actually a recap of Acts chapter 10.   And I am actually really thankful the lectionary authors gave us this version of the story.   First of all because the version in Acts 10 is 48 verses long, and if we had to read the whole thing, the poor lector might pass out. ...

  John 21:1-19 I know we like to spend a lot of time talking about women leaders in the church, but this week we are going to take some time instead to talk about the men who Jesus chooses to be leaders in his church.   Specifically, two very important men, Peter and Paul. The first great public leaders of the church.   Between them they really were the two most authoritative voices in the early church.   Peter with his work in Jerusalem and the surrounding regions and Paul with his groundbreaking ministry to the gentile peoples across the empire in Turkey, Greece and eventually as far as Rome.   They both converted thousands, founded dozens of churches, wrote letters so instructive and important we still read them today and laid the foundations that allowed he church of Jesus Christ to survive, grow and thrive into a community of faith that has sustained billions of people for more than 2000 years.   These were undeniably great leaders who accomplished a...