allsaintsjonesboro Sermons

Free to Live in Peace

In Sunday’s homily, Fr. Jerome Leckband reminded us that the Ten Commandments were not given to enslave us, but to guide those already set free. Just as God rescued Israel from Egypt before giving them the law, so He sets us free from sin through Holy Baptism before calling us to live holy lives. The commandments describe the life of the redeemed—they don’t earn us righteousness, but show how the righteous, made so by faith in Christ, are to live.

Jesus challenges the shallow righteousness of the Pharisees, showing that sin begins not just in outward actions, but deep in the heart. Anger, left unchecked, leads to bitterness, pride, and even hatred. Rather than justify our anger, we are called to examine it, confess it, and seek reconciliation. Jesus says that if we approach the altar but harbor resentment against a brother, we must first seek peace before offering our gift.

God has made peace with us in Christ, forgiving our sins and reconciling us to Himself. As free people, we now live out that peace by confessing our own wrongs, forgiving those who wrong us, and treating our anger not as a right but as a sin to be laid before God. Love for God and love for neighbor are indivisible. In Christ, we are freed not to hate, but to live in peace with one another. “When God gives this peace to us, He also fills us with his Spirit so that we may learn to love as we have been loved.” Listen to the entire homily here.

allsaintsjonesboro Sermons

Repentance is God’s Work

Repentance is God’s gracious work—His seeking, finding, and restoring of the lost—and yet it is a resistible work of God. Like the lost sheep or coin (Luke 15:1-10), we cannot find ourselves; God must bring us to repentance and faith through His appointed means: Word, Sacrament, and the ministry of the Church. Just as we cannot become Christians on our own, neither can we remain Christians apart from God’s continual work through the Means of Grace. This is important for us to remember, both for ourselves and for those we love. For those resisting God’s work to bring them home to the Church where He desires to feed them and care for them, we must not only pray, but also work to actively invite and encourage them to return to Christ, who still receives sinners and eats with them. Listen to Father Leigeber’s homily from yesterday to learn more.

allsaintsjonesboro Sermons

Feast of Sts. Peter & Paul

Today (June 29) is the Feast of Saints Peter and Paul, the holy apostles “through whom we have received the beginning of our religion,” as we prayed during Mass in the ancient Collect of the Day. In Ephesians 2:20, we hear that as those who have been made members of the household of God, we are built upon the “foundation of the apostles.” What does all of this mean? How do the apostles–and these two men in particular–fit into a biblical, Christ-centered faith? Is the foundation upon which the Church (and we as members of it) are built the apostles as men (as important as they are) or is that foundation perhaps something, rather, which comes to us from the apostles but is more bound up with their doctrine and Scriptural writings? These two men teach us an important lesson today, a lesson which helps us remain on the via media and avoid the extremes of either papism or modern evangelical biblicism. Listen to the sermon below for more.