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allsaintsjonesboro Sermons

Rightly-Ordered Love

A sermon for the Eighteenth Sunday after Trinity, by Fr. Josh Leigeber.

In this past Sunday’s Gospel, a lawyer asks Jesus which commandment in the Law is the greatest. Our Lord answers that the first and great commandment is to love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, and mind, and the second is to love your neighbor as yourself. Yet to begin with this question is already to have things backwards—to ask the second question first.

For, as Jesus indicates, apart from reconciliation with God, we cannot love Him or keep His commandments at all. Sin has turned mankind inward and separated us from the very source of love. Therefore, before we can love God or neighbor rightly, we must first be restored to God through Christ, who is Himself the love of God made flesh—the self-giving of the Father for our salvation.

Only in Christ, who fulfills the Law perfectly and gives Himself for us on the cross, is love rightly ordered and made possible again. Having received His love, we are restored as God’s children and enabled to love Him and one another in return.

“Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called the children of God.”

Listen to the entire sermon below.

allsaintsjonesboro Sermons

Enter Into the Rest of Your Lord

A sermon for the Seventeenth Sunday after Trinity, by Fr. Dan Suelzle.

In this Sunday’s Gospel reading, Jesus’ healing on the Sabbath and His teaching about places of honor at a feast both confront the same issue—human self-righteousness. As the Pharisees watch Him, hoping to accuse Him of breaking Sabbath law, Jesus exposes their misunderstanding: the Sabbath is not about rule-keeping but about God’s mercy and rest in Christ, the Lord of the Sabbath. Their silence reveals hearts unwilling to confess their need or recognize the Messiah who heals and restores. Likewise, their eagerness for seats of honor shows the same pride—seeking to exalt themselves rather than receiving righteousness as a gift. Jesus teaches that true rest and righteousness come only through him. As His people, we acknowledge our unworthiness and trust Him who took the lowest place, even death on a cross, to exalt us with His righteousness. Now in His Church, Christ continually gathers His people into that perpetual Sabbath rest, feeding them with His body and blood and nourishing them on the journey towards His eternal feast in the new creation. Listen to the entire sermon below.

allsaintsjonesboro Sermons

The God Who Raises the Dead

A sermon for the Sixteenth Sunday after Trinity, by Fr. Jerome Leckband.

In Sunday’s Gospel, Jesus meets a funeral procession in the town of Nain and restores life to the dead son of a widowed mother. This account reveals the very heart of our Lord: He is the God of power, who can raise the dead; the God of compassion, who sees our grief and acts in mercy; and the God of grace, who comes to help us before we even ask.

Just as Jesus spoke life into the young man—“Young man, I say to you, arise”—so He speaks life into us. By nature we are spiritually dead in sin, but through His Word and Holy Baptism Christ raises us to new life with Him. We are united to His death and resurrection, forgiven, and made alive to live by faith in the Son of God.

This new life transforms how we face suffering and death. Even in trials, we trust that God’s love is at work, shaping our faith and fixing our eyes on the greater promise: eternal life with Christ. The miracle at Nain points us forward to the final resurrection, when Jesus will again speak the life-giving word and raise all the dead to be with Him forever. Until that day, we live in the comfort of His compassion, His victory over death, and His abiding presence with us. Listen to the whole sermon below.